I picked up my Fujifilm Instax in the summer of 2017 and immediately knew what love felt like. There was this amazing quality to the images that my phone did not capture. Honestly, it reminded me of Kodak slides my parents kept in an old shoe box filled with film negatives and envelopes of prints. I was in charge of the light settings and how I adjusted them could drastically change the way the picture popped out. Best of all, there was a literal image in my hand. They say the message is in the medium, those of you who grew up in the digital age will never know how true that is until you hold a print in your hand that you did not get to see on a digital screen first.
I did not grow up in the digital age, not really. My high school offered Photography and then, as an upper division class, digital photography. My first camera was a film point and shoot that was fancy enough to rewind itself, letting me know when to take it to my dad and ask him to add more pictures. My parents got a digital camera when I was a freshmen in high school and both my brother and I purchased digital cameras to take to college. I never felt particularly attached to film or sad that it was going away, I just liked to point my camera at something and capture a memory (today's moments are tomorrow's memories). I am not a digital child... or a film child. Instead, I grew up watching a world that was changing. Born into a world where everything was on film but wrote this post while scrolling through my Instagram feed on my phone. What a time to be alive!
Here's the thing though, my photography was never good. All of this technological advancement so that I was guaranteed to never miss the shot but none of my shots were good. Most of my shots were also pointless. That is until I started using my instax regularly and only had 10 shots at a time. Wait, I have to actually think if this is a shot I want to spend a dollar on? When I had to think and wait for the shot I wanted there was an instant improvement in my photography.
So when I booked myself a trip to Machu Picchu and realized that I needed a better camera to capture the moments I was sure to want I made a drastic decision. I had my dad dig out his Olympus OM-1, courtesy of the 70s, and absconded with it. I wanted to travel with film and here is why.
1) Medium Matters
Your medium determines who your photo is for. Is this photo for you? Something for you to treasure and enjoy? Or is this photo for Instagram? Something to enjoy for a moment and let get buried in news feeds after a few days. I know I sounded a little harsh their but both a valid answers. Your medium is going to play a role in determining that. If you shoot your vacation on film and have to wait to even see your picture then you only shoot what matters to you. In an episode of Supergirl Jimmy says that a great photo shows you how the photographer feels about the subject. I like that. I like that changing the medium changes how I think about the picture and why I am taking it.
2) Less likely to be stolen.
Okay, my dad's OM-1, that was probably shiny and fancy in 1972 when it was new is pretty cool looking. It has that great hipster quality with the silver and black detailing that makes people roll their eyes and call my mean names when they see it, muttering something about hipsters. It also is old and kind of beaten up. There is a bid dent on the lens and you lave to attach a flash to it. No one, I mean no one, wants to steal a 40 year old metal box. Everyone wants to steal a professional or high end digital camera.
3) Capture the moment then don't worry about it.
Because you only have so many shots on each roll of film and a finite amount of space in your suitcase, I assume, you don't get to wander around glued to your camera and you don't get to check your picture the second you click the button. I don't know about the rest of you but I sit behind a computer for40 hours every week and I do not need more screen time while I'm on vacation from that. With a film camera I will not be snapping twenty shots from one angle and then checking each one. I get to take one shot and then I go back to enjoying my life.
I know some people will scoff at me for this attitude but I am so excited about the prospect of traveling with film that I'm not worried about it.
4) Delayed Gratification
You know how you get excited for Christmas morning? Now imagine you have just been on an amazing trip and you just can't wait to see your pictures so you send off your roll of film. A week or two pass and you get your prints back from the shop. That envelope feels like Christmas morning. You don't know what exactly is in it. Then you open it and get to experience your trip all over again.
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