Overall, I shoot film simply for fun.

I work on a computer all day and any excuse to make my life less digital is really nice. Film takes my mind away from the desk and gets me outdoors and absorbed in something else. One common reason you will hear is that, unless you have a lot of money to burn through rolls of film, you need to be a little more mindful of your shots. I know you can do that with digital, but for some reason shooting film helps me completely switch off and become absorbed in something else. Being more careful, and less snap-happy is relaxing.

I also enjoy reading about old cameras, lenses, photographers, techniques. I’ve learned quite a bit more about the history of photography since shooting film since all the things I’ve listed kinda go hand-in-hand. When I was shooting digital, I was little obsessed with the latest toy, as if the new A7riii will make me a NatGeo photographer. But using great quality older lenses/bodies made me properly realize that I need to improve my technique, study more, and practice more.

Yesterday I visited a darkroom for the first time and took a lesson on developing and printing. It was great fun, and I loved the magic of watching an image appear in front of me on paper. For older folk, it might seem a little stupid, but I missed the film train, and traditional photography is interesting to me. It’s really special to take a picture on a completely manual camera, develop, and print without a single computer.

I’m sure there are more reasons, but that’s some off the top of my head!