Emma - Photojourney
As long as I can remember I have been obsessed with photos. I believe they can tell someone’s story or show what that person is about. As a child wherever I would go if there were photos on display I would spend some time just staring at them, as if I were reading words. At first I thought it was a little nosey or a little eccentric but as time went on I realised I was very interested in knowing the story behind the photographs. At that time of realisation it became a desire for me to capture moments that I had myself experienced and wanted to always remember.
My Grandad was a bit of a self-taught photographer. Growing up, he would share with me moments from his collection of photos in black and white, sepia and colour and from this my desire for photography grew stronger. My mum, also having the bug, was a part time photographer for corporate events. This led her to have a little obsession for taking for taking happy snaps, playing with different coloured films and objects. The day I went to her studio and was given a chance to learn more about taking photos became a day I would always remember.
Then my collection of cameras started. I had an old Pentax camera from the eighties which was my Grandad's, an iZone Polaroid camera and any camera I could get my hands on came to live in my collection box. I had albums filled with photos, my bedroom walls had turned into a massive collage of my brother, neighbours, pets, friends, flowers, bug’s anything I thought was beautiful I would photograph.
An Old iZone camera from the 90’s. I had one very similar.
image from weddingbee.com
So I followed my passion even further and studied photography at school. Everything we were taught was done manually. Canon cameras from eighties, old enlargers, using a developing tank to develop negatives, black white film and the darkroom. That feeling you get when you watch an image appear on a blank piece of paper is exciting, your work being created right in front of your eyes. Every photographer, at some time in their career should experience working in a darkroom.
It’s hard comparing digital and analogue photography and trying to figure out which is the better one. Each photographer has a different preference. It depends on your work and how much you want to experience and gain from being a photographer. What kind of photographer you want to be? Will you be more on the commercial side weddings, parties, family portraits…? Of course digital! You want that perfect photo. Probably for most digital is the more loved of the two, it has its perks of convenience, accessibility is now quick and easy, images can be modified to get that perfect picture with no red eyes, a brighter day if it is looking a little gloom, covering up that awful pimple. Go digital.
I just love everything thing about old school photography. The vintage cameras, the hands on labour of printing a photo. I cannot wait to learn everything I can about photography and gain so much more skills and experience, I want to learn everything I can. I want my hobby to one day be my career. Even so, I myself use digital technology for creating and processing my pictures (for one I don’t yet have my darkroom I dearly dream of). Who doesn’t love convenience?
I’m not one to edit a photo because I love the truth behind a photo, the story it tells. I won’t look at any imperfections. When I look at a photo I want to know the story the photographer is telling, I want to know why someone thought of capturing that exact moment and what it meant to them. I want my photographs to tell a story.
Going back to comparison of analogue and digital photography. Let’s talk about the camera and using film. Comparing the digital camera we use today to analogue camera that only some would cherish today. Future generations will have no understanding of film and having only twenty four pictures to play with. There was no happy snapping everything you saw twenty years ago, film was saved for the right moments. Maybe one selfie in a film of twenty four. If a selfie was even what we called it!
While browsing I came across this and it pretty much sums up the generation differences.
The torture you would feel waiting to get our film developed sometimes felt like forever. But the joy of getting those photos and having a laugh with friends and remembering that moment was priceless. Then placing them nicely into an album. Today a picture of a good time is a dime a dozen, they are no longer cherished the way they were before everything turned digital, they seem to be more of a burden these days clogging up storage space on phones and computers. A good old fashion photo album seems to be a thing of the past.
