Slowing It Down

About two months ago, I went to buy a roll of film as I wanted to try out film photography. Since my dad's Nikon FM2 was recently repaired, I decided to put my skills to the test. I've been shooting full manual on my DSLR ever since I got it to prepare me for this moment (so that I would know my exposure settings). Paired with the Nikkor 105mm f/2.5, I shot the 36 exposures roll of film over the course of two months with my dad.

It wasn't easy at first, of course, being unable to see the results instantly and needing to do guess work for most of the exposures. However, a few exposures in and I was hooked. There was some sort of relief that came with using film. I never had to worry about whether the photos looked good or not (since I couldn't check), so I just moved on after I clicked the shutter. But it has also taught me to contemplate before taking each shot, something that digital never taught me. Because I only had 36 exposures, I had to make sure I checked the framing properly in the viewfinder first. I also needed to be sure that the exposure was right. This certainly slowed down the entire process, but looking at the photos, it was worth it.

Like I said earlier I took two months to finish the roll of film, so when I sent it to be developed I had already forgotten most of the photos that were taken. I received it one day before Christmas and it felt like an early Christmas present to myself from myself! It was really an amazing feeling going through all the photos one by one and being constantly surprised, "Did I really take that?". And when I saw the photos that my dad had took, I also realized that I still have much to learn regarding portraiture.

Maybe it's because I'm using a crop sensor DSLR, but one worthy thing to note about the Nikon FM2 is the viewfinder. It's much larger and brighter, and there is a circle in the middle which only aligns when the focusing is done right. This makes manual focusing so much easier and better! But the best part is that I have hard copies of all the photos, allowing me to study each photo in detail and knowing where and how to improve. I've already got my next roll of film on standby, and I'm excited to go shoot some more after I've improved my portraiture!

Nikon FM2 with the Nikkor 105mm f/2.5 lens attached