I bought myself a film camera

“Truth is, there are tens of thousands of visual artists just like me, all simultaneously enjoying the renaissance of film in recent years”

Yep. I did it.

That seemingly inevitable thing happened where I entered my late twenties and began to wonder what it would be like to shoot film. Then one of my best friends Ben (also in his late twenties at the time) began shooting film. On a trip to Nepal with him in 2022, I was seduced by the oh-so-cool old-school build of his Canon AE-1. The sound of that shutter. The mechanical feel of it. The beautiful, dreamy images that were developed soon after. “Yeah, I want a piece of that”, I thought.

So, as a Christmas present to myself, I took the plunge and crossed the Rubicon, purchasing a 35mm Canon A1 along with 50mm and 28mm lenses and a couple rolls of Kodak Gold 200 - all on eBay for a very fair (most definitely inflated) price.

Truth is, there are tens of thousands of visual artists just like me, all simultaneously enjoying the renaissance of film in recent years. It’s a bit like Vinyl, really. “Once you understand it, get to grips with it” they whisper in dark corners of backwater pubs…“there’s no turning back”. And unfortunately, thanks to unoriginal chumps like me diving in to this new world, the demand for film stock is soaring, driving up the price and making it a very, very expensive hobby. Great timing, Josh.

The idea of this new creative project is two-fold.

Getting back into photography

On one hand, I’ve always loved photography. Rather than take a cheese grater to my brain in the name of research for a dissertation I didn’t actually want to do, I spent a frighteningly large amount of my third year at university (2015) walking the (very cold) streets of Leeds, shooting photos on my iPhone 5 and sharing them on Instagram.

Ah, the good ol’ days…one of many old shots of Leeds, shared on my Instagram back in 2015

In Instagram, I’d found a platform where I could share my creative work and receive feedback from other people around the world - a novelty to me. I’d discovered a creative community where I could find other photographers and people with similar interests to me, all sharing incredible, inspirational work! Throughout my whole life nobody had ever told me I was a creative. Nobody had ever mused that this was perhaps something I could do for a career. It was all straight ‘n’ sharp suits - the path to success lying solely in law, business, management, or maybe engineering and architecture. At school, art class was usually one hour a week, awkwardly wedged in at the end of the day.

So at university, discovering photography and these blossoming creative communities on Instagram was an eye-opening period that changed my life, and I never really looked back. Things snowballed as I quickly went from a humble iPhone 5 to a Nikon D5200 and so on…8 years later, here I am - much more affiliated with cinematography and filmmaking, but still infatuated by photography.

Because of my filmmaking escapades, photography has tended to take a backseat over the years. That’s often impossible to avoid because when I’m in the zone with my films, I just don’t have any time - any creative juice - to allocate to photography. I’m a one-man band and I have to prioritise things.

I started to lament how few photos I was taking on my travels and in the past two years I have made a much more conscious effort to capture more. I’ve snapped a lot of really great photos with my phone, a Huawei P30 Pro. Despite being a few years old now, the camera on this thing remains exceptional and I’ve taken some really great photos that I’m quite proud of. As they say, the best camera is the one you have with you.

This shot in Lombok lined up beautifully. If I didn’t have my phone on me, I would’ve missed it

Holi celebrations in Kathmandu, 2023. My phone was the only camera I was willing to risk getting soaked and dyed…

So, what this new chapter represents, is the rekindling of an old romance. I want to engage in photography as a hobby once again. I want to make a much more conscious effort and as a creative I think it’s really important to have these personal projects that challenge us. I have absolutely 0 idea about what I’m doing (as you’ll no doubt gather over the next few months) but that’s the beauty of it. It’s fun to learn new things and get to grips with a new visual medium.

Figuring out YouTube

I mentioned this was two-fold and the truth is, it’s not all innocent and romantic. While I’m driven primarily by wanting to engage in a new visual format and have a nice little creative project ticking over, there’s the appeal of finding a new way of working that allows for more frequent YouTube uploads.

The travel series that I’m currently working on (two of them, simultaneously) is stuff I’m really, really proud of. But it does take time. And no matter what those Google and YouTube experts say, I cannot help but feel as if YouTube doesn’t really like people like me - people who take their time and upload incredibly inconsistently. While I’m driven to make these travel series because I love to make them (they are passion projects, at the end of the day), I’m not deluded enough to claim I don’t care about my YouTube Channel metrics.

At the end of the day, if I can gain more views and more subscribers, build a larger community on there, it no doubt helps me in the long run. The more people who see my work, the better. And who knows, perhaps it even leads to a viable way to support myself and my creativity in the long run? I certainly can’t bank on that because it’s improbable, but it’s still a dream.

So where do I perceive myself as faltering? YouTube makes money by serving up ads to an audience and it ranks your videos based on a very complicated, ever-changing algorithm. My arch nemesis. The algorithm is looking at all kinds of different metrics such as number of views, watch time, average view duration, click-through rate (how many people click the thumbnail of the video when it appears in their feed) and plenty more.

So in simple terms, the more consistently you can upload, the easier it is for the algorithm to determine what your channel is and who it’s for, thus serving my videos and showing my channel to more and more people. YouTube likes reliable, regular uploads and when I disappear for 6 months at a time, it kind of stalls the progress. It’s a beast that demands to be fed (which in my opinion is a terrible thing and something I really despise, but anyway).

I’ve been toying with ideas and ways to start uploading a little more regularly, in between these bigger, more in-depth travel series I like to make. Rather than go 6 months or more without uploading anything, I’d like to start sharing more of my work and keep the momentum going. And I think this new project is it. It’s basically just a much more laid back, relaxed vlog where I take photos and document what I’m up to.

mY FIRST ROLL

With all that being said, in early January I loaded in a roll of Kodak Gold 200 and set off for the French Alps. I figured a ski trip with my mates seemed like the perfect training grounds to get to grips with the camera and figure things out. There was just one problem…

I don’t know how this happened, to be honest. It seems almost inevitable that it did, though. My very first roll of film was not a success. Somehow, it wasn’t pulling through after each shot. I’d loaded it hastily a few weeks earlier while halfway through a rather strong pint, which in hindsight probably wasn’t the best idea. Frustrated and confused (with all the dexterity of a gorilla trying to knit), I somehow ended up ripping the film out of the camera. Bugger.

As the train trundled out of Liverpool towards Manchester Airport I sat staring out at the perma-grey sky cursing my reflection. How has this happened? My last dwindling bit of hop lay in the idea of being able to find some 35mm film in the airport shops - a slim chance, I thought. Sure enough, as I went around from shop to shop, bewildered staff would smirk and shake their heads in confusion “no sorry, we don’t sell film anymore…”

And then, in a miraculous turn of fortune, I found myself at the bottom of a neglected shelf in a Boots pharmacy, staring at the very last roll of 35mm film. The only roll in the whole airport, as far as I could make out. What are the chances?

I grabbed it and paid a silly price, especially considering it was black and white film (often much cheaper than colour then loaded it into the camera (very carefully this time), breathing a sigh of relief.

Fate had decided that Ilford HP5 Plus Black & White Film would be my first ever roll…

So, what was the verdict? As predicted, most of the photos from this roll were absolutely dogshit. However, that’s not necessarily a bad thing. Screwing up is an important part of the learning curve (and don’t I know it, after that Kodak Gold 200 debacle). I certainly felt more comfortable with the camera by the end of my 36 shots and on review, I now know what the limitations are when it comes to low-light situations…

Low light = low shutter speed = motion blur. Or maybe the boys were just hungry after a long day on the slopes?

And even amongst all the experimental, blurred crap, I did find a few golden nuggets. I didn’t take my camera out on the slopes with me during the day (which would’ve been preferable with the superior light) because I was absolutely terrified of crashing and breaking it - a very fair, sensible risk assessment. With a couple of snaps left over on my return to Liverpool, I captured a few scenes on the River Mersey, as well as an all-time favourite of my Uncle Chris and Cousin Francis sat on a bench, chowing down on noodles.

There’s something about this one. If it was in a Photobook I’d call it “solitude” or something

This one’s an absolute winner. The noodles were delicious, too!

This one from Val Thorens actually turned out quite nicely

Excited to shoot more

After some initial hiccups, I have to say I’m quite excited by this new project. There’s something about film. The first roll wasn’t a complete disaster, and with a fair bit of thought and developing the concept, I’ve figured that there’s really no downside to this.

I’m flexing and stimulating creative muscles while finding a way to capture more of the day-to-day of my life and travels here in Lombok. I don’t know how long it lasts for and where it takes me, but so far I’m really enjoying it. There’s plenty more to come, so stay tuned!