Maybe I should say "Film at 11."How many of this "younger generation" have no idea what that saying means? Probably lots. Back in the day, TV stations shot 16mm film for all their news and sports coverage, and the breaking news footage could be brought back to the studio and processed, "on deadline," hopefully finished just in time to play during the 11 p.m. newscast.
Ahhh, the glory days of film photography! Those were the days. Though I never worked for a TV news outfit, I did my share of film photojournalism over the years in the 1970's and '80's, rushing back to the newspaper office, hell-bent to get those precious rolls of 36 exposure Tri-X into the "Soup," quick washed and slapped into the enlarger "wet" to get a print off to the news desk and the back shop for half-toning in time to make deadline before the paper went to "bed" and hit the presses for the morning edition. Come to think of it, no wonder I have gray hair today! But talk about an adrenalin rush!
(Above Image - Yashica Electra 35 Rangefinder)
Nowadays with digital cameras, laptops with wireless image sending capabilities, the days of beating a deadline have sure changed. Those minutes waiting as the film was being processed, wondering if my pictures turned out, if the exposures were correct - then pulling the full, uncut length of developed film to ones eye with the loupe pushed into the eye socket to see if "the shot" is sharp...those days have certainly slipped away. Don't get me wrong, I still LOVE my digital cameras.
(Above Image - Yashica Electra 35 Rangefinder)That's why the lure of film, for those of us that "grew-up" with film photography, is becoming so strong again. I'm not the only one who has experienced this yearning. From reading on-line photography site discussions, blogs and forums, many of us shooters, young and old alike, are making a pilgrimage back to film. And, with a large shoebox filled with rolls of black and white and color film sitting in a drawer, the call for me was too loud to ignore.
I recently purchased a used 35mm rangefinder camera off eBay to help me "get back to my roots" with photography. Not that I got rid of all my film cameras, mind you. I still have my old trusty Nikon F, Nikon N90s, an underwater Nikon and a vintage twins-lens (two and a quarter) reflex that shoots 120 film in the camera vault. It was the thought of a rangefinder camera around my neck doing "street photography" that made me want to get back to basics and "channel" one of the great masters of photojournalism like Cappa and Eisenstaedt!
I placed a roll of 24 exposure Fujifilm in the "new" old camera, wound it into the take-up spool and closed the back, watching the rewind knob rotate with each advance of the shutter. Without really knowing if the camera was "operational" I shot a mish-mash of images, trying to recall how to "read" the light and set the aperture ring to get a "ballpark" exposure on the emulsion. The biggest surprise came when I took the film in for processing at the local drugstore One-Hour photo lab. "Just do a process only" so I can check the negs and see if the camera's working and if there are any light leaks from the 40+ year-old camera I asked."We don't do any orders without prints," was the response! What? Why back in the day I could walk into any lab and say "process only, don't cut" and get the roll souped and negs hanging on the rack waiting for my inspection without question from the lab techs. I guess those days are a thing of the past...like my camera that shoots film. The minimum the drug store mini-lab would do is process the roll and burn a CD and index print...for $9! "Well, alright...I guess," I mumbled to the lady behind the counter who obviously was not even born yet when the camera I used to make the images on that roll was in its glory days!
She didn't know about checking the negs for light leaks or proper exposures to see if the film was even worth transferring to digital CD. And this was with a common roll of C-41 process color neg film. My worries now are in finding a lab that would even know what a roll of Plus-X is, let alone be able to process it without shipping it off to some back alley photo lab in the Bronx then maybe two weeks from now getting it back!
I guess my next purchases will be a set of metal reels, a couple tanks and some D-76, stop bath, fixer and photo-flow so I can develop my own film! Lord...does anyone still stock that stuff???? Needless to say, I did get images, my exposures were good, there were a few minor light leaks on the film that will be fixed with the replacement of the disintegrated light blocking foam around the camera's film door...so life is good and what it comes down to is this. I actually shot a roll of film!!!! How cool is that!
