365:308 JON DORSETT

I took this picture on Anglesey using an old Nikon film camera and some Ilford FP4.

I’ve been dabbling with film recently and I’ve enjoyed the process. I’m a naturally anxious person, so I’m prone to taking multiple shots of the same thing “just to make sure” and then I have literally hundreds of shots to wade through to select a keeper. I can post-produce and post-produce and post-produce each image to within an inch of its life, seeking that final look. I say final…I can change it weeks later because some other idea has popped into my head that might make it better.

Using film has removed a lot of that anxiousness. I took far fewer images when I shot with film. I spent more time observing and waiting for an image to come about. I really considered the composition rather than firing off a quick initial shot and “chimping”, before taking more snaps of the same thing.

It’s been helpful that I haven’t been able to rush home, load the images up and start processing them immediately. The wait for films to be developed, scanned, and returned has been exciting. It’s removed me from the moment of shooting by weeks, rather than having the instant access of digital imaging. I’ve found that this extended process has quietened my thoughts about the images. My overactive brain has had time to settle. The rushed immediacy I experience with digital images isn’t there. I like that it isn’t there. I’ve done significantly less post-production on the scans, and I’m happier with the results. No, not happier - I’m more comfortable with them. More satisfied that the resultant images are final images rather than ones I’ll keep going back to and tweaking. And my hit rate of keepers to images shot has improved exponentially.

The challenge for me now is to take that learned experience and apply it somehow when I’m using a digital camera. Hmmm…

See more of Jon’s work on his Instagram.