Since the beginning of digital photography, it has always been in my mind to continue shooting analogue! Until today, I missed putting a roll of film in the camera and the magic that starts as soon as you press the shutter release.
You don't just shoot blindly, but because of the limitation of the number of photos on a film, you give it much more thought, consider composition and image ideas more carefully and thus also decelerate. The images collected on the film also only come to life when the film is developed.
At my meet & greets, book signings and workshops, I also noticed a clear trend towards analogue photography, and in my second home Los Angeles, the demand for analogue cameras has also risen sharply. The other day at my book signing in Munich, I was talking to a young girl who was taking pictures with an old analogue Leica and remembered how, together with my muse & wife Nelly, I turned the bathroom into a darkroom, we sorted negatives and deliberately chose just one image from a series, as well as leaf copies, the look of different films and, above all, the limitation and uniqueness that a negative brings in the art world.
When I received an M4 from Leica Camera Classic from the year I was born - the Leica M4 1968 - it was like a sign! Film inserted, mounted, exposure meter inserted and off we went. The click of a completely different sound, the advancing of the film is quite an experience. No annoying "looking at the camera" to see if the picture turned out well, but working consciously and purposefully.
In photography, they say that you should capture the specific moment, but is this really the case in the fast-moving digital age? You often take digital pictures without thinking, and afterwards the pictures are pimped or even significantly changed by digital filters and numerous auxiliary programmes. In the meantime, I even find that many photos taken with digital SLR cameras or smartphones have become simply too perfect, clinical and boring. Even in digital photography, I concentrate on the essentials, choose the maximum photo look, remove dust particles and correct exposure, contrast or white balance if necessary. But that should be it.
The soul of the camera & and the role of the photographer should be clearly distributed!
see you soon, your Manfred
of course analogue still has its charms ☺ at the first lockdown i 'played' analogue with my D750 from nikon and photographed the empty old town without stress and with open eyes. i didn't press the shutter button 10 times but only once and thought about the detail beforehand. if there is time and the need, it's a lot of fun ...
You should take the time! It didn't work any other way in the past! 😜 Thanks for reading and stopping by
What should come from you that wouldn't be fantastic??? Especially with photos, you have to pay close attention to the subject. The eyes of the animals speak for themselves! Best wishes and continued success to Nelly!
Yours, Astrid (Preuß)
thank you so much for the kind words!!! And thanks for reading and stopping by!