How I got Here

I have been taking pictures for 25 years.  

In these 25 years, there isn't much I haven't seen. I was fortunate to pick up the camera at age 15, around 1989, when digital wasn't even thought about for the amateur market.  It would take another 10 years before the first consumer digital SLR would hit the market starting the trend that would be the eventual decline of film usage.  I learned more about photography because of film. I was in the industry as a professional photographer and professional photofinisher from 1993 until 2007.  I was there when digital capture, scanning and digital printing was in its infancy.  

I cannot imagine a world without film.  My first camera was a plastic 110 keychain camera.  I graduated to a Minolta 35mm dual lens automatic point and shoot.  I used that for a few months before I hit the big time, or at least the big time according to a 16 year old.  I had signed up to be on the high school newspaper staff as a photographer my senior year in high school.  The previous semester, I took photography as a science elective my junior year.  It was the only class other than Band, that I "aced." I was hooked.  As a congratulatory gift, I was given a Pentax K1000 kit by my parents.  I would use that camera for next three years.  I still have it, too!  

Over the years, I have shot with 110, 35mm, APS, Bronica's, Mamiya's, Yashica's and recently, a Crown Graphic.  It only took 25 years before I shot my first 4x5 sheet.  My specialty in the photo lab was color negative printing. I learned color from a few lab folks that worked with in the early days.

By the time I left the photofinishing industry in 2007, I had clocked about 17 years developing, printing and scanning film.  I have used just about every commercial color negative film manufactured since 1990.  

I switched to digital in 2003 with the purchase of a Canon 10D.  As digital SLR technology was starting to gain momentum, that technology also came with a huge learning curve.  I was determined to learn everything I could about digital and eventually pushed film to the back burner.  I was the local "expert" in digital capture, editing and printing during my tenure while working in photofinishing. New film emulsions were slow to emerge as the shooting public and especially professionals eliminated film to save money.  

About three years ago I put away the digital camera and went back to film exclusively. I no longer shoot for profit and photography does not provide income. I shoot for fun now, trying to ever improve and learn new skills.  Film today is as good as it has ever been.  It is a race against time to try out new and rare emulsions before film eventually disappears.  The demand is still high but I don't know how long that demand will sustain.  

In this blog I want share some of the nuggets about film that I have learned in the last 25 years. Everyday I still learn something new.  The topics will be random and may be more information than anyone cares to read.