Ridges seen from the Reintal on the way to summit Zugspitze, Germany, September '25.
Film Photography
(All photos taken on a 1982 Canon AE-1.)
Ages ago in high school, I took a half-year course in photography and it was my first exposure to analog film. I remember crafting pinhole cameras from oatmeal canisters and splashing cyanotype paper into chemical baths in a dark room. Loads of fun.
There's something that feels more "real" about analog mediums compared to digital. Digital files seem to come from some vague point space, just a series of electrons pushed through matrices to simulate what we see and hear with our own eyes and ears. I think this is most clear in music. A Spotify file transmitted through bluetooth headphones is a fully different listening experience compared to a vinyl record. There is no pulling music out of a sleeve, hearing the scratches built over time, or setting it on a carousel where you can see the disc spin with vibrations making music from a sharp needle in front of your eyes. It's the same reason I like analog film. A film roll holds onto the light captured at the moment you place your finger on a shutter. It's chemical. The same light bouncing from the Sun to the subject through your lens and onto a negative is kept there forever.
Anyway, that's part of the reason I like analog photography. At some point in my late teens, I found my dad's old Canon AE-1 in the basement and have used it with a stock lens ever since.
Achensee in Austria, captured from a mountain hike with friends in June '25.
Film photography comes out better; there's just not much else I can say. And it's not necessarily the visual quality so much as the feeling captured by a grainy photo. I love the ritual of loading film, hitting the shutter once, and not knowing what I've captured until I pick up the scans from a film lab weeks later.
For this reason (this ritual), I take my camera and rolls of film with me whenever I want to capture the important places and people in my life. Weddings, birthdays, trips with friends, snowy days, good meals, and journeys to the other side of the world have all been collected in my trusty 35mm camera.
Beneath the arch at Cathedral Cove in New Zealand, May '25. (Narnia fans will recognize this place.)
I love tinkering with clunky old cameras and playing around with double exposures / new film stocks. There's no greater feeling than heading to a friend's place and seeing one of my months-old photos hung by a magnet on their fridge. It's mostly a solitary hobby, but I like to learn about it & meet fellow hobbyists & share it with people. I'm always down to chat if you have questions or want tips on getting started! :)
Berliner Dom, on a visit with friends in September '25.
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