Why Every Traveller Should Try Film Photography

I’m one of those people who is addicted to technology; my iPhone, MacBook, and my iPad. I find myself constantly checking Facebook or scrolling through Instagram. When I shoot with my digital camera (or iPhone), I take far too many pictures. After all, I can just go back and take out the bad ones later, right? Of course, this leads to either spending days editing my photos, or in the case of my iPhone, doing absolutely nothing with them.

Shooting film has become a lot more popular again, so two years ago I decided to give film photography a try, and it totally changed my approach to photography. 

When my Grandfather passed away, I inherited his old analog SLR cameras. I had no idea if (or how) they worked but I thought it was worth a try. So I purchased some rolls of film and off I went.

Having a limited number of frames makes you really think about each individual frame. You need to take the time to compose the shot perfectly, and slowly adjust the manual focus. You spend so much more time looking at the intricate details of the places you visit, looking for that perfect frame to capture just how it felt. For me, I felt like I really stopped and experienced so much more than I would have done if I’d have had my digital camera instead.

For someone like me, who finds it so hard to slow down and take a breath, always rushing from here to there, shooting film is like meditation. You stop, focus everything on that single shot, slow down your breathing and enjoy the calmness and the beauty of your surroundings.

Ok, so not every shot always works out how you planned it. But that’s the beauty of film photography. You can never be 100% certain of what you are going to get. But unlike a digital sensor, film is so much more forgiving if you don’t quite get the exposure spot on. And the colors from film photos are just incredible. Every time I get new scans back from the lab, I just fall more and more in love with film photography.