Discovering Film
Gamcheon Cultural Village, Busan, South Korea
Most of us at some point or another have been given a disposable film camera to take photos on right?
As you should have guessed by now, I’ve been doing digital photography for a couple years now, and I never really saw any reason to get involved with film photography. It takes way longer, lower quality, costs money to keep buying film, and if you make a mistake you’re stuck with it. Not to mention you only get a certain amount of shots and it has almost no low light capability. Lots of hassle for very little upside when you compare it to DSLR cameras.
As you can see my first shoot with a disposable camera had its highs and lows. I had a problem putting my finger over the lens (there are worse photos not worth seeing), and other ones where I underestimated just how bad the camera was at picking up light.
I originally bought a disposable on impulse at Seoul Fashion week. I ran into one themed to the event and decided to get it for ₩25,000 (~$20). Ended up losing it to the film shop because I didn’t realize they toss the cameras after they’re done with the film. They are disposable after all, duh.
However, turns out shooting on film is actually really fun despite my original view on it. I’m way more picky about your photos, because I need to get everything right in one try. I don’t have to sort through hundreds of pictures later, or spend too much time editing because I like to leave these untouched. There’s a nice mysteriousness to the photos and you get excited to see how they’re going to turn out in the end. It’s like a big reveal.
On the 2nd disposable that I picked up I made sure to keep my fingers clear of the lens. I wasn’t used to the lens being in the camera instead of protruding out of it, especially when there’s no screen to show you what you’re shooting. Getting better with judging the light and how strong the flash is but still having a little trouble getting the low light details in there. Keep in mind that all of these are straight from the film roll, unedited. These ones are definitely some of my favorites.
After I got the second disposable developed I decided to go ahead and get a reusable one. It isn’t an actual film camera with interchangeable lens and setting adjustments though, its just like another disposable except I can switch the film out. I don’t want to commit to film photography to the point of having to lug another camera around, not right now at least. I’m already traveling southeast Asia with one DSLR and a GoPro, and I would like to keep my load light. However, I don’t want to be limited to only one roll of film as I go on longer trips like my upcoming 2 week journey to Vietnam. Snagged a camera and 2 rolls with a total of 72 exposures (with a better ISO too) for around ₩70,000 (~$55).