Film Photography (2006-2009)

John gave me an old Pentax Spotmatic camera, the meter didn't work but he included a handful of very cool old russian M43 lenses. After I shot my first roll and we developed pictures in his basement darkroom, I was totally hooked. Compared to my point-and-shoot digital cameras, the broken Spotmatic required a lot more thought, the russian lenses were very fun to focus, and the darkroom process required accuracy and consistency.

Lars mentioned he had an old Olympus OM-1 for sale with a few lenses, I believe it belonged to his dad in Denmark. I offered him some money and fell in love with this tiny SLR camera with a working meter. I liked it so much I bought a second one so I could take it on bicycle trips without worrying about damaging it. The viewfinder was huge, bright and operating it felt very rewarding. To this day, I wish my digital SLR would give me the same satisfaction of using it.

Sandi offered me her old darkroom equipment for a price I couldn't refuse. She travelled the United States with her camera and sold prints from her adventures. I commandeered a room in my parents' basement, sealed it from light and added tables and set up all of Sandi's equipment. The full-colour enlarger allowed me to experiment with adjusting contrast of my B&W prints and the could handle larger 6x6 negatives from a Richoflex TLR camera John lent me.

This was a time when I cared a lot about taking pictures, it took me to different places and I had a lot of help from some really cool and talented people. The darkroom was my favourite part of film photography and the process of making images appear onto paper still feels like magic.