End of Year Thoughts (2021)
- Adhika Pranawahadi
- Dec 31, 2021
- 4 min read
Updated: Mar 2, 2023
31st December 2021
The last couple of months have flown so quickly and here we are now in the final day of 2021. What a year.
As I'm contemplating the content for this post a train pass me by. Soon I will board a train to the city to catch up with a friend that's going to get his very first film camera from me, an Olympus OM-1 with the 35mm f/2.8 lens. I have with me a Leica CL paired with the Voigtlander 35mm f/2.5 with an expired roll of Ferrania Solaris 100.
The camera went with me to a Christmas holiday trip with some friends earlier this week up to Mount Kosciuszko and down to some caves which names I can't recall. I hope you all had a great time during Christmas surrounded with joy and people that you love too. I shot a total of 4 film rolls during the trip and while I won't be showing the photos I took on film as they're still waiting to be developed along with 10 other film rolls I shot in the past months I do have some photos taken with an old compact digital camera (Panasonic Lumix LX5, the same camera I used to shoot the "In-between" zine) that I will talk about here.
Between Film and Digital
This is a photo taken in the neighbourhood of where I stayed in Jindabyne. It's not perfect and in fact far from a good photo but will forever remind me of the very moment we star gazed. And although it's been said many times many ways...
The best camera is really the one that you have with you.
The Panasonic LX5 given all its limitation did fantastic in those moments where I don't feel like using a film camera. It's compact and stays in my pocket all the time. I'm very happy with the photos it captures during the trip. At the end of the day it is the memory you preserve that matters. Not a sharp high quality digital file.
Some of you know that I have been contemplating my personal reasons as to why I still shoot film when some digital cameras can comfortably fill my needs too. I won't go down to the detail of digital vs film here but I can confidently say that I need (or perhaps want is a better word to use here) both medium to enjoy my kind of photography. I don't shoot film for the result, nor for the commonly acclaimed "slowing down" effect. Indeed, it does force me to slow down but it is the overall process of shooting film that I enjoy. There is something magical about loading a roll of film. Knowing that the shots are limited and having to repeat the process without knowing what actual result I'm getting. Of course I have some ideas of what sort of image I'm crafting but the I am forced to wait and not think about it for a long time. For me who has a problem with anxiety, shooting film is a form of meditation or therapy.
Now that I can easily implement my film discipline when I use any digital camera how is film still relevant for me? The answer lies in how I personally operate. I like eating out. A lot. Not because I can't cook for myself rather I enjoy the small interactions I made in the process be it ordering a food or drink and the people I meet along the way. This is why I don't develop my own film (aside from the limited skill I have in doing so). I actually enjoy the routine of going to a film lab to drop the film roll off and later coming back to pick up the negatives. This doesn't happen in my digital photography workflow.
For now this will be good enough reason for me to keep shooting film. At least until I finish shooting all the film I have stored in the fridge. I haven't counted everything but I believe there's at least 100 rolls in there. Most of them are black and white.
2022
So, what to expect in 2022?
I don't think that I'll post photos on my instagram account as regular as I used to. The 3 favorites from the first 100 rolls series has ended and I quite enjoy not having to post anything online and just take photos for the sake of...photos? If that makes sense. But when I do there will definitely be more of black and whites than colour photos. I will occasionally use this platform to share some thoughts and that's about it really. Maybe I will try to be a bit more social and starts joining the local photo walks. Aside from photography there are so many other things that I'm hoping I can do in the new year. But I know 12 months is never quite long enough to do all those things so I'm just going to take them one at a time.
Whatever you are planning for in 2022 I hope it will be a new start for another stage of life filled with happiness and moments that will be cherished many years after.
Happy new year.
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