Shooting film can be an emotional experience, especially when you’re trying to find your creative groove in a new place. When you’ve moved across the country, it’s easy to lose that spark, but it’s just as easy to find it again with the right approach and tools.
Coming to you from Christopher Sturm with The Photo Dept, this reflective video walks through his recent experiences shooting various film cameras after relocating from Milwaukee back to Los Angeles. Sturm candidly discusses the creative challenges he faced in Milwaukee, where the lack of inspiration led to fewer photos he was proud of. But now, in the vibrant light of California, he’s reigniting his passion by exploring different cameras and film stocks. This video isn’t just about the technical aspects of photography; it’s about rediscovering creativity in a familiar place.
One of the key highlights is Sturm’s use of medium format cameras, particularly his Rolleiflex, which he used for a deeply personal self-portrait series. The larger negatives of medium format film, combined with the slower, more deliberate process, allowed him to capture intimate moments during a challenging time. He also experimented with a Pentax 645n using expired Fuji NPS 160 film, which delivered portraits that he finds particularly satisfying. These moments show how the choice of camera and film can profoundly impact your work, especially when you’re trying to reconnect with your surroundings.
Sturm also touches on the importance of stepping out of your comfort zone. While he doesn’t consider himself a street photographer, a visit to the Santa Monica Pier led him to try his hand at capturing candid street scenes. The results surprised him, with several images turning out better than expected, proving that sometimes the best way to grow is by challenging yourself to try something new. Check out the video above for the full rundown from Sturm.
Thanks for the share and showing your great collection of film cameras. Kodak has had to go gang busters with a 24/7 3 shifts to get back in the grove of film cameras being used. The one thing film has that digital does not is info on the back of a print or if slides info on the slide paper. And just for info when you take your film to a good processor you will also get jpeg images on a digital disk and if brought into Lrc/PS you be able to save processing to a tiff file so noise etc. can be worked for a better image in the digital world and yes there are today in home scanners for old film strips and prints.
I know many photographers are going to film BUT there are some things needed to be known and do's for film. Number one is a log book of film roll info and when sending in for development the date and a self made serial number linked to the roll. Back in film days you had to send by mail the roll to Kodak or your favorite local processor, I was in the Navy and at sea so a month or two to get prints back and a note book times two one back up in a safe.
Two if your camera does not have a light meter then you need to get one and learn to use it and the readings. For me my first was was a Canon Ftb with a built in light meter making it a semi auto like. Where you have a needle for light strength and another aperture needle with a round hole where you put the needle in the center.
Three always carry a couple of rolls of day and night for if night comes you can switch out a roll and put in the required row, a must know how is first before the switch in your log book under film number put the last number image you took and with the lens cap on do a dark image but then roll it up like it was the end, so you can continue to use it when the day or night time comes again what ever the time comes but in addition to log book is the ISO speed setting on camera used for that section of film so you can continue to use at that speed, Just info on the upper dial under the shutter button is where you put the dial for the speed of film BUT some times you may want to up the speed say of a day speed (low) but if used at dusk you put in another day speed but up the speed so you need to put that speed used when sending to get processed if not you just wasted a roll.
Four always in your log book always put when, where and how but again always lens info and settings and if a filter was used and also if a prism filters was used this will help also in processing info with image number what filter was used this way the processor knows there is no fault with the processing. Five Fast Glass for hand holding captures but also the aperture setting helps with future settings and with this info you will do a normal 3 or 4 shot group of the same image almost like bracketing in the digital way but to get a good print.
It is a lot of info but need to know while capturing. In todays world of digital you can get a jpeg image and import but a handy thing to put all or most all info into into metadata on the digital image is to use LensTagger app or manager in Lrc where you can put lens name, aperture etc. as well as lens and camera name and serial # of each.
Also care of film NEVER put film in a refrigerator with food, I was lucky being the camera film loader for plane cameras also having to set the setting air recon photos. And just for grins if you ever get into rocket launching you can put a camera in the nose for up looking down images.
1. An image that was on film had scanned then had the jpeg for editing in Lrc but saved as a Tiff and DNG/jpeg, a lot of work in digital times but worth the memories of the 80's. Logbook info put on back of prints helps remembering. the popup is one of the best of the 1960's is all hard plastic Apache campers with a house window A/C in front, they still make parts for them.