In these days of digital photography, cameras with auto focus, auto white balance, auto exposure and auto everything else for that matter, it does not matter how many shots you take. The reasoning being that if you don’t like the shot you simply delete it and take another which is all well and good if you have the time and aren’t under pressure. However; what happens you are under pressure and you have a single chance of getting that shot? Admittedly auto everything may help and then you always have Photoshop to fall back on, don’t you?
Now don’t get me wrong there is nothing wrong with “Auto Settings” I have used it myself and to be blunt with my eyesight the way it is auto focus is a must for me and frankly unless they invent bionic eyes that is not going to change, we all grow older. With limited opportunities to get out and about mainly due to a certain pandemic which we are all aware of, of course I started to look at other things to do, some of which I have already documented in this blog. One of those was to revisit the plethora of books I have on photography. I was amazed just how many books I have on photography some of which I have not even read, which says more about me than the books.
I was searching for one book in particular (still am) which I did partly read in a flight to Cyprus from Switzerland which stuck in my mind for some reason. Although I cannot remember name of the book or for that matter the name of author other than the fact that it was written by a New York photographer and lecturer. One thing that did stick in my mind was the fact in the opening chapter the author pointed out that if he was able he’d “Make every new student hand over there DSLR and replace it with a 35mm film camera complete with a 50mm prime lens with no auto focus or auto exposure for a year”. His reasoning being that this simple move would teach the student “shot discipline and enable them to see shots differently”.
An interesting idea and I thought well worth a try I thought and why not. Having cleaned all the none digital cameras and lenses I own already which took me some time I have to say, I chose a Yachica 109 I bought new in 1989 but had not used since 2000 and its f1.7 manual 50mm lens. The first thing that stuck me was how light it was 780g compared with 1070g for my Canon 5D mk4 both with 50mm lens fitted and also how compact it was and fitted into my hand.
I had to buy the C41 film online as no local shops stocked film be that for prints or slides and that was a bit of a shock for me as was the price, the words Robin Hood and masks sprang to mind. Once they arrived I took myself off on a walk with my long suffering dog to get back to nature or maybe back to my roots as it were. I had purchased four 36 exposure films and with a determination not to waste film. I was shocked at how easy it was to do just that waste film as after twenty years of digital cameras my “shot discipline” had vanished. Taking the shot was easy, thinking about the framing took a little more time than I remembered as did thinking about exposure and shutter speeds, even though the Yachica 109 was sold as a Multi Program camera and would take care of most things if set to do so. The main surprise was how long it took for me to reload after each roll and how I remembered to protect each of the four films, placing them back into the tub they came in. As the lens is manual focus and I do not have 20-20 vision anymore I set the camera lens to infinity and took landscape shots.
Waiting for the prints was a drudge as it always was and the results mixed as you’d expect but well worth the exercise and one I am willing to repeat. Did I find any “shot discipline” yes I did as I had no choice as each film only had 36 shots. Did it make me think about each shot? Yes it did for that precise reason with only 36 shots per film you have no choice.
None digital SLR’s are still available and you can buy a great quality Canon or Nikon for a descent price and a fraction of a full frame DSLR together with lenses to fit them. The things to remember is that a 35mm film camera is “full frame” and if you are going to print a large sized print for your wall or an exhibition if you choose the correct film this maybe a inexpensive way of doing just that.
One thing that sticks in my mind shooting those four films are the words of a hiker who saw me with the Yashica and told that, “More and more people are returning to “alternative photography” I am not sure if that is true but it is worth looking at.
The second time I took the Yashica for a walk with me I was greeted by a couple using an ancient Leica and struggling with it, as it had no built in meter and had a range finder focus. They had purchased at a flee market had it serviced. Spotting my camera they asked me for help telling me that we do alternative photography as well.