Recent Film Photography Articles

What It Felt Like to Use Your First 'Real' Camera

There's a lie we tell ourselves about photography equipment: that the camera doesn't matter. It's a comfortable fiction that lets us sleep at night, convinced that our artistic vision transcends mere machinery. But here's the uncomfortable truth that every photographer who lived through the transition from point-and-shoot to SLR knows deep in their bones: the moment you first wrapped your hands around a "real" camera, everything changed.

Why Modern Photographers Will Never Understand the Anxiety of Having Only 36 Shots

Picture this: You're standing in perfect golden hour light, watching a bride and groom share their first dance as married partners. Your light meter reads perfectly, your Nikon F4 is loaded with fresh Kodak Portra 400, and you've got exactly seven frames left on the roll. Seven. The pressure in your chest isn't just excitement—it's the very real anxiety that defined an entire generation of photographers who learned their craft when every single exposure had tangible, immediate value.

Is Film Photography Still Cool in 2025?

Film photography made a big comeback over the past decade, but where does it stand today, in 2025? The journey of film's revival and its current relevance is something worth understanding, especially if you're considering picking up an analog camera.

Is the Most Expensive Film Camera Worth It After Eight Years of Waiting?

The Hasselblad Xpan remains one of the most coveted and controversial cameras in film photography, commanding prices between $4,000 and $7,000 for a body and lens. This panoramic 35mm camera promises a cinematic shooting experience that fundamentally changes how you approach composition, but the question remains whether it lives up to the massive investment.

The Extinction of the Photo Album: When Pictures Had Physical Homes

Walk into any modern home and observe where family photographs live. They exist as ghostly presences scattered across hard drives, trapped in smartphones, or floating in cloud servers owned by distant corporations. The physical photo album—once the sacred repository of family memory—has virtually disappeared from domestic life, taking with it an entire ecosystem of memory-making rituals that shaped how families understood their own stories.

How Photographic Magic Can Be Found in the Ordinary, Everyday World Around You

In a culture of sensational media competing for our attention, an obvious path to dramatic images is to point your camera at dramatic stuff. But this photographer wants to show us the compelling beauty of the banal and the everyday that is, for most of us in this busy world, hidden in plain sight.

Master Street Photography on Film With These Essential Tips

Shooting street photography on film offers a unique way to engage more deeply with your environment. Film requires intentionality and mindfulness that digital doesn't always demand, making it especially rewarding when done thoughtfully.

Lessons From a Damaged Film Roll

Mistakes are an unavoidable part of film photography, often teaching lessons far more memorable than successes. You may be all too familiar with the frustration of putting effort into your photos, only to ruin the results later in the development stage through impatience or oversight.

Photograph With the End in Mind

Always photograph with the end in mind. Make life easier for the guy in the darkroom, or the person in Lightroom—usually you.

What It Was Like in 1995: The Lost World of Casual Photography

Imagine taking a photo and not seeing it for a week. Imagine every click of the shutter costing real money. Imagine gathering your family around the kitchen table to pass around actual printed photographs, holding them up to the light, flipping them over to read date stamps printed in orange numbers.

RolleiFlex Struggles: Vintage Camera Realities

The RolleiFlex 3.5F, with its classic Schneider lens, holds a special place in film photography—when it works. Reliability can be tough, but photographers keep coming back because when it's good, it’s outstanding.

Documenting Solitude: A Residency Amid Wyoming’s Wilderness

Several years ago, I got a call one morning from the head ranger at Bighorn National Forest in Wyoming. He was inquiring if I would be interested in participating in Bighorn National Forest’s initial Artist in Residence program. That was during the COVID shutdown, and my state was really locked down—we couldn't even go camping in a state park! So, yes, absolutely yes.

Essential Tips for Shooting Film While Traveling

Camping across Europe, camera in hand, can teach you a lot—not just about traveling, but about taking meaningful photos. Beyond gear choices or film types, it’s about developing a mindset that ensures your photos reflect genuine experiences instead of mere tourist snapshots.

When Does a Photograph Stop Being a Photograph?

Capturing reality was never photography's sole purpose—it always flirted with imagination. But in an age dominated by digital tools and AI, how far can we push photographic art before it stops being photography?

If in Doubt, Crop It Out

They say a picture is worth a thousand words, but sometimes, a few of those words need to be cut. Cropping isn’t just about trimming an image—it’s about sharpening the story you want to tell.

My Field Review of the KEKS KF01 Flash

Photography gear is constantly evolving, redefining what it means to be “professional.” Once, carrying massive DSLRs and powerful flashes was the mark of a serious photographer—now, smaller, more efficient setups are taking over.

The Challenges and Rewards of Large Format Photography

The way people shape the landscape reveals what they fear and value. In places like Southern California, where natural conditions are harsh, you can see clear signs of these priorities. Fireproof landscaping, seismic retrofits, and massive infrastructure projects that bring water and power to Los Angeles all tell a story of control, adaptation, and sometimes exclusion.

Unlimited Depth of Field at Any Aperture

What if you could control perspective distortion and focus with pinpoint accuracy at any aperture? Dive into the world of tilt/shift lenses and learn how pros use the Scheimpflug Principle to create stunning images.

The Wonderfully Atmospheric Urban Landscapes of Greg Girard

Canadian photographer Greg Girard left Vancouver in the 1970s to explore Southeast Asia with his camera. His colorful, atmospheric landscapes showed us a very different and unfamiliar part of the world that, for Westerners at that time, was much less traveled and even less well known.