Greetings and salutations. It’s been a while since I’ve written anything about anything on any of my blogs. This has a lot to do with getting ready to move and whole lot to do with transitional all of my computers over to linux. The whyfors and whithertos of this decision are best left to another time, suffice to say, there is a dearth of useful blog writing software for linux, right now, and I am writing this in Microsoft’s Live Writer within a Windows7RC1 virtual machine running in VirtualBox on a Linux Mint (Ubuntu-based) system. A little convoluted, but I’ll live – and I can still do what I want/need…
So what’s all this about film, for now? Well, as you may or may not know, or care for that matter, my D70 died. While my son has been gracious enough to allow me to use his D40, it’s just not the same, and I find myself drawn back to the power and majesty of my Nikon F4s and, to a lesser degree, my Minolta Autcord. Both of these are film cameras, both are older than either of my children and both still work, flawlessly. Well, maybe not flawlessly – the prism in the F4 is smudgy in a couple of places. Other than that, they still work the same as the days I got them. I wish I could say the same for my D70, which I loved, but which also gave up the shutter-release ghost….
So, what does that mean, really? That means that in a time when I have no money for anything superfluous, and now being out of black and white film, my options are limited if I want to get the film developed, but, thankfully, I can develop the B&W myself. It also means chemicals, agitation times and film scanning. On the plus side, I found 2 rolls of Fuji Acros Neopan-100 film at Meijer for $2.49…not bad, considering it’s usually $3.95, mail order, and film is getting more and more scarce. So, that helps...I just wish there had been more than 2 rolls, but that’s still 72 total exposures to use – which is a boon.
So, now what? Well, I will keep shooting and keep trying to find time to develop the film. With the Windows virtual machines, I don’t have to worry about the scanner, so that’s nice. I’m enjoying being back in the land of film. There’s something so therapeutic about *developing* the film and not just having the pictures *appear* on the screen. It also makes me, as a photographer, take more time to compose a shot, meter properly and make a photograph rather than a snapshot.
So, I’m happy using film, but I’m also having some trepidation about embracing photo editing on linux – something I’ve not had great success with, previously. We’ll see. It’ll be fun.
