September 13, 2007
Alligator Tail Revisited
A second look, at film, with film...
…continued from “Alligator Tail”
I probably look at hundreds of images daily, as a photographer and a photo enthusiast it’s a pleasurable job requirement. Some are found in printed materials, some are found on the net. Some via personal portfolios, some via photography communities like Flickr. Some amateur, some professional. Some good, some great, others deeply intriguing.
I get hung up on images that are difficult to comprehend. Compositions and subject matter are most often focus points, but also photos that challenge me with visual subtitles my work doesn’t have. Qualities that transcend exposure and clarity. Recently, I’ve found many of these images turn out to be made with film. Not even the digital conversion of these to be viewed on the web can take away their inherit distinctions of color, texture and grain. These photos proved to be really inspiring, so I went excavating.
I found my old N70 buried in my closet, with a half roll of film inside. An embarrassingly perfect illustration of my haste to discard the film media. Although outside of my digital comfort zone, using it again was refreshing. The viewfinder was inviting, bigger and brighter than I remembered. The shutter was loud and confident. I got to use my 50 prime at it's true focal length again.
Returning to film servers as inspiration to me and my photography. Reminding yourself what film can do helps motivate creativity when you jump back into your digital workflow. It helps you to reevaluate your digital colors, textures and grain. Like any craft, looking outside your normal set of tools will inspire using those tools in new, more innovative ways. That’s what I’ve found film does for me, and that’s why it’s no longer dead to me.
So here’s another look at “Alligator Tail”. This time, with a whole lot less megapixels…none.
Talk about it, 2 Comments so far
September 14, 2007 | 06:37AM, like 11 months ago
Thanks for the insights into your 'photographic mind'..! This is why blogs have such populist momentum: when they are good, they reveal something intriguing and worthwhile about the person posting, the particular topic, and by extension, the world.
I'm strongly ambivalent in my feelings toward film. I used to miss it, fresh out of school, but I fear I've become too spoiled by the digital alternatives. Innocence, technological or otherwise, cannot be regained. While I feel jaded at times about our headlong rush into a digitized world, I have no illusions about my own ability to turn back the clock (at least not in this realm; I still nurse my nostalgia along in plenty of others!).
Plus, my old photo instructor used to talk about 'crafting' a negative (black & white processing)--a process you describe well in all its pungent physicality--resulting in a 'fine' print. The more I see truly gifted folks wielding digital tools, I have to admit that they are creating images that are just as compelling, crafting pixels just as sensitively to create truly fine digital images.
(I appreciate the interplay between the two realms, too! Have you seen this 'tilt-shoot' stuff? There is something reassuring and precious about the idea of reducing the world to fit in the palm of one's hand...a bit of a digression, I suppose, but it popped into my head)
http://www.cheapshooter.com/2007/08/24/tilt-shift-photography-its-a-small-world-after-all/
Thanks again for the post; I have to admit, there is a richness to the film version of the A-Tail, a bit more of that saturated color I was missing in the first one...
Keep clicking!
– scottles
September 16, 2007 | 09:44PM, like 11 months ago
Thanks for the feedback, Scott! I enjoyed your description of digitally “crafting pixels”, well put.
And thanks for the “tilt-shoot” link, that stuff is amazingly convincing. Just one more reason to get a Lensbaby, they have always seemed like a lot of fun.
– michael