Kickin' It Old School

Tahera and I went home to visit the family a few weekends back (and make some fun announcements.) As we were getting ready to leave, the Old Man mentioned that he'd been following our blog (Hi Dad!) and was wondering if I'd like to take his old Minolta SLR film camera since I've been hobbying-up the photography lately. Well, of course I did, and thought I'd post some of the early results, and my impressions on the camera.

I took the Minolta out on the town shortly after we returned to Pittsburgh. Tahera and I decided to go into the Squirrel Hill district and get some italian ice at one of our favorite local places, Rita's. When we got there, it was about mid-sunset. The light was just teriffic. Everything had this great glow to it. Right after we parked the car, I looked around for something to photograph. Pretty quickly I noticed what seemed to be a nice view of the sunset. I turned on the camera and prepared to take a picture.

I leaned back and pressed my face to the viewfinder. It was already, instantly different; one eye closed, only being able to see what the lens saw. The lack of peripheral vision really forced me to focus on composition. A little to the left... less tilt... move it lady... Then, presto! The shot I wanted. I held my breath to keep the camera steady and braced against my car. There was a brief creak before the shutter release gave way and I was rewarded by the glorious snap-and-whir of old machinery exposing film and advancing for the next shot. real film. No crappy afterthought .wav file played out of a tinny camera speaker. No mega-anything. The real mechanics at work. That sound is my favorite part. You can feel it.

So let's see what it looks like. Oh wait..reality has it's price. Where before there was the flick of a switch to playback mode, I now had 6 exposures left, then winding, then removing and capping the film, then driving down to Rite-Aid and dusting off the octogenarian at the photo booth and then...dear god...Paying for DEVELOPING! Stir in an extra hour (gimme an hour-anna-half, dearie, justincase y'know?) and we've finally come to payday. Like a real payday. You know, days after the work was done.

But wow. I think I'm really starting to see what people get so on about when they're talking about using film cameras. Don't get me wrong, I still love our point-n-shoot Canon. The way I burn through digital shots, (yeah, why not forty two shots of our cat sleeping. We only have a thousand already saved on the computer. This shot might not ever come up again [this hour], ) we'd be living in a cardboard box if it were film. And I'd be on the evening news for going berzerk at a neighborhood drugstore's photo counter...dearie.

I'll still use the Minolta for special occasions. Hell, I'm still using it right now. The pictures I've been able to get out of it are too good not to. But even on those occasions, I'll still have the digital as back-up with me. The convenience is too much for me to give up, even with the crappy fake shutter sound.


The Pics: