So I’m shooting film again.
If you follow me on instagram you’ll have seen my obsession this year, and it started like this…
Casper is my son, he’s almost 18 and he’s very keen to be a photographer. And that’s great.
We had a conversation early this year, and it went like this:
Casper: Shall we get a film camera?
Me: No, it’s just a cliche.
Casper: I think it’s cool.
Me: No.
Anyway, now we have 5 film cameras and I’ve set up a home darkroom for developing and scanning our own film.
That’s parenting, folks.
Also I used to think I had my own original thoughts and outlook, but it turns out I’m just another walking cliche, as this seems to be the year everyone is shooting film.
It’s nice and warm and cosy in the mainstream.
I’ve posted a lot of my obsession about film on instagram, and after some initial ‘that’s cool’ interest, engagement (as usual) faded so I’ve moved my nerdness into a new account. 40 followers later, turns out nobody cares.
Anyway.
I am LOVING shooting film. Like seriously loving it more than ever. And I adore developing it. Film is a process. A true creative process in a world where that’s a rarity now that AI is writing everything, everywhere.
Everything, everywhere is also a great song by Noah Kahan. Tangent.
Anyway yeah I’m seriously head over heels back in love with film. And I shot some at a wedding last week. I was so excited to see the results, I developed them and scanned them – all five rolls – the next morning, and I excitedly posted a couple on Instagram.
I had the grand total of zero positive responses. What I did receive was a handful of polite, but negative ones. Not mean, just along the lines of ‘I don’t get it’ and other variations on that theme. A couple of you who replied read this newsletter and don’t worry, it wasn’t mean, you just made me think.
It’s fine. Nobody needs to get it. I loved the process, I loved the result. I was proud to share it, and I’d be over the moon if couples who love film like I love film wanted to book me to do more of it. That’s the current dream.
But the negative reaction got to me, and I deleted the posts, and now I’m scared to post any more film work for fear, as usual, of industry judgement.
But I will. Because I trust my instinct. And film hasn’t been something I’ve chosen to do out of commercial need or wanting to make more money.
So the moral of the story today is just in case you’re holding stuff back in case the industry says “I don’t get it”, don’t. Especially if it’s coming from your soul.
And now for once please let me promote FedWed because I’ve just spent 3 months locked in my office building the biggest thing I’ve ever built and it’s a whole epic platform for FedWed and I’m super proud of it. Imagine a CRM but for networking, work sharing and some other super cool stuff I’ve made like two tools called Season Horizon and Season Mirror. Season Horizon helps you keep a very simple journal of how you’re feeling creatively and Season Mirror helps you visualise your deadlines in a really calm way. Plus there’s other stuff like a monthly mindset focus, monthly creative prompt and you get multiple SEO back-link from your highly optimised directory listing. It’s really very very good and I’d LOVE you to come and join. Until midnight tonight you can have £20 off your first year with the code FRIENDS20 and that makes it £79. No brainer. And if you join and you think wow Adam really over-hyped this, email me and I’ll refund your money. But you won’t, because it’s damn good and I’m only going to make it better from here. https://app.thefedwed.com/join
Anyway, if you need me I’ll be obsessing over the smell of darkroom chemicals, paterson graduates, amber glass bottles and my next project – building a drying cabinet for my developed negatives.
Thanks for reading!
Adam
