On Film

I was always “that friend”, the one with her camera asking for the group photo. They weren’t taken on a phone, instead memories were captured with my point and shoot 35 mm film camera encased in a blue translucent plastic. I can still smell the thrill of picking up the prints after waiting for the film to be processed. 

Eventually my love for photography blossomed into a wedding photography career. Photography was simply a storytelling medium. My love for film never waned, though it wasn’t quite practical for the fast-paced style of wedding work I did. So, I dabbled in vintage film cameras for the love of the craft, my last one breaking several years ago, and it seemed frivolous to invest in another.

The end of July we took the family on an off the grid camping trip into the wilds of Ontario, the place where my husband grew up on wild blueberries and fresh pike from the finger lakes. We purchased three disposable cameras for the cousins to document the canoe rides, fishing trips, cliff jumping, and campfire singalongs. When we returned, I found a local film lab who processed the images and my love affair with film reignited.  

I saved up for a Canon 35 mm EOS 7 and I can’t wait to begin capturing moment while living fully in the moment. Perhaps it’s that…or perhaps it’s so that I can relive the days of plastic camera anticipation.