My Analog Camera Collection
Analog camera photography is not just a way to take pictures as your grandfather with a 50-year-old camera. It’s a philosophy, it’s art.
Behind the mirror (of your analog camera)
Taking pictures is an easy thing. Look on the finder on your camera, try to put what you want into the frame and push the trigger. Take 10 picts of the same subject within the next 5 seconds. You don’t matter about the focus, the exposure and all the stuff your camera can do. You only have to set up your digital camera in a full automatic mode.
If you have a recent and branded smartphone, you don’t even take your DSLR camera with you. It’s too heavy. Why take it ? Your phone can take pictures with the same quality and easier, no need to look for the ‘full-auto’ mode button.
When you are coming home, you just open your Macbook and see the picture you have taken in a full resolution. You photo library is huge with all the pictures you have taken of the same thing, most of them are bad, but you don’t care, you will keep them.
Sometimes, there is a nice one, with a nice attitude that you could catch during the dinner. This one will have a special process, you will publish it on Facebook. Yes, it will take a while, because it’s a 18M pix file that needs to be downgraded before being uploaded on your wall. You will have many comments on it. All your friends and family will certainly appreciate it. They will say that you are an outstanding photographer. Yes, you are a Photographer !
Behind the door
And one day, you are going for a walk and, without attention, you pass in front a small shop, showing vintage camera behind the window. You stop, because you have noticed the same old camera your father was using. All these memories are coming from the past. Your birthday party, the Christmas Eves, holidays on the beach. You are young again.
You enter the shop and look at this analog camera. It costs nothing, a few box. You remember how your father was proud of it and how he paid so much for buying it. Now you can afford it for nothing. And you do !
At home, you open your bag and take the old camera off. Have a quick look on the internet to see how to load a film and the first steps to shoot a picture. You are in. Your life will never be the same. You will learn how to take the light and set speed and exposure. What film to choose, the grain, the iso, … You are going to take care of the framing. Trying to catch some light effect. Waiting for having the right smile before shooting, the right moment for getting the perfect picture. You will talk with others, you will share your work and you will be proud of it.
Now, you can take a picture without the Auto mode button, without autofocus and with just 12 frames in your analog camera. Now, you are a photographer !
If you are fond of analog photography, if you shoot on film, let me a comment and tell me what you do.
The collection
