It is a long time since I waited nearly a year to see a photograph I’d taken. But here’s one I shot last October and just saw for the first time this week.
In the more recent days of film I used to get through it quickly enough. Anything from a couple of rolls a day to one every two weeks max. But during the last film festival I loaded my trusty Nikon F4 with film and went into town on a Sunday morning to catch an early showing. This particular shot is pretty much only a Sunday morning thing, with the garage doors either open, or double parked every other day. I took the shot, went to my movie and that was that.
Time passed. I worked away using the new Digital SLRs and the F4 was stored carefully, just this shot and one of the brewery opposite on the roll. Waiting. “I must finish that roll someday”.
I never went back to shoot them in digital (though I thought about it). Why waste a Sunday morning if the shot was ‘in the can’?
Someday finally came last week. Having developed a taste for film after the star trails thing I remembered the F4 and its two shots. Not knowing whether the film was even still any good, I strapped on the 24mm and finished off the roll. Lovely camera, the Nikon F4s. And waited a little longer to see whether those garage doors survived.
At this point there is a cue for a long diatribe about the value of things that come slowly, that are earned. The thrill of anticipation that is typical of film photography. The need to trust ones skills, take one shot and move on to the next without stopping to chimp.
Oh and then on to “Kids these days have it too easy, everything is instant, they aren’t made to wait for anything anymore, they don’t value anything because nothing is hard earnt. Fast food. Cheap thrills’.
Baa, humbug.
But no-one would bother to read it, it would take too long, maybe if there was a podcast…