Just because some digital review site says that any scanner/camera/lens over a couple of years old is only fit for consignment to the rubbish heap - doesn't mean it's right. ever since then I've been super keen to show kids (and anyone else) that if you are determined you can find ways into photography even if you think you can't afford it. I made enough to buy a Praktica - then worked even harder to buy a second hand and battered Mamiya C33 - With that I did the outside of the pubs at night to sell to the landlords.Īnyway.
I then made 10x8 prints (I had acquired a Russian 'suitcase' enlarger) and got my dad (I was too young) to go into the pubs and flog my prints for me. As soon as I got it I determined I was going to get something better, and set about chasing about at all the local carnivals and regattas (I was raised on the Isle of Wight) and photographed all the pub tug of war teams in action. I remember clearly that my first SLR - a Zenith E cost £29.00 and it took me ruddy ages to save up for. They have less choice of materials, and the e bay driven bandwagon of over inflated prices for old equipment has made the bar seem awfully high (my granddaughter wants a career in photography so I have a vested interest).
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I think we need to face the fact that young people - who we really do need to encourage to join our ranks - often live in far less free homes than we did, and dabbling with chemicals is less easy for them. I used to buy Amateur Photographer when I could, and knew every photography book in our local library backwards. I was lucky in that my grandfather who had been a keen photographer in the 1920s allowed me to convert his old 'coalhole' into a darkroom (bloody hell was it cold in winter). From then I saved up and did summer jobs to buy a Zenith E and with that I was hooked. I don't imagine we are terribly far apart age wise (I'm 62) and my first intro to photography was my dad letting me take pictures on his old 6x9cm Agfa Billy Record - again a size where contact prints were perfectly viewable. People might even find that seeing an image appear on a blank sheet of paper is fascinating.Ĭlick to expand. The problem is most likely the "big print" expectation, added to the idea that film = 35mm. A sheet of glass (I used one borrowed from a picture frame each time when I started) instead of a contact printer, and cheap containers instead of dishes won't cost too much. Now that larger formats than 35mm are relatively affordable, surely it should be possible to return to contact printing for a small outlay. Contact prints died away as 35mm took over (my first camera took 35mm size photos, and I got those back from the chemist contact printed though). Easy enough to see and easy to pass round. This was possible because people were unused to enlargements (special photos only, and probably low quality from a box camera anyway) as contact prints were either two and a quarter square or two and a quarter by three and a quarter inches. So, I started my DIY processing with contact prints, using saucers for dishes and, in those days of gaslight papers, an existing nightlight as a safelight. But those were the days of box cameras and people getting contact prints. To get the most out of the expense of buying a magazine or book, I used to read every word, which is how I acquired knowledge on a lot of photographic topics that frankly bored me to tears. Economies were the order of the day, and making money stretch as far as possible was needed. When I started in photography I was about 8 years old, and we were poor. It's selfish -If we can get young people to start using more film then it's future will be secured - they will also have the pleasure we have had from it.Īt the risk of taking this way off topic. they were gobsmacked - then when she said her husband shot up to 5x7 they were fascinated. wound a couple of frames and handed the camera back. She - having been married to a photographer for 30 years simply popped a film in. one asked her if she had any idea about loading film cameras. My wife was babysitting a whole bunch of students at a drama school the other week - they pretty much all film SLRs (mostly Olympus OM10s) in their backpacks. I think if we want to see film continue not only for our own lifetimes, but into the future we have to attract as many young people as possible to 'analogue' photography (as they would call it). Click to expand.I agree the V850 is a great machine, but at around £800-900 it's cost is a huge bar to entry to large and medium format film photography for lots of young (and not so young) people.
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