Phlogger aka Andrew Walmsley

A website dedicated to photography showcasing articles, interviews, reviews and Photography Insights podcast.

180 day film challenge!

Phlogger undertakes new challenge – with the onset of 2017, a new era of professional development would take place, but what would this involve.

After recent events in my life and heading towards mid forties I feel the need to go analogue, play retro games, listen to the screech of a needle on a LP, talk about the old days!  Only joking, sort of, as you get older you become wiser through experience so what better time to throw myself in to film photography.

180 day film challenge - picture of olympus om10
Olympus OM10

Having only shot a handful of film in my entire life and finding a passion for this last year I recently engaged that part of my brain that works sometimes and came up with:

SHOOT ONLY FILM FOR 180 DAYS!

To fulfil this is no small undertaken as I’m not particularly patient with technology, there are not many people around me with experience of film and I cannot afford to buy vast quantities of film, let alone pay developing/printing costs.

180 day film challenge -  picture of various 35mm films
Examples of recently used 35mm film

Why would I do this and where did this come from, well to be honest it happened due to some financial circumstances which is why the digital camera will be sold and all lenses!!!  The idea came like a flash though, so many people are doing 52 week challenges and I am not one for copying others.   After recently been handed some expired film, why not see how many rolls could be obtained at a low cost.

This challenge will allow me to:

  • focus on composition
  • slow me down
  • use my feet (NO ZOOM LENSES)
  • learn new skills

At the end of the day it is a personal challenge, there are no laws, i cannot foresee the future and have no idea what will happen (the camera could break).  But the main purpose is to use what I have learned about photography, apply it more to film and improve my skill set as a photographer.

180 day film challenge - front of olympus om10
Olympus OM10

Every challenge needs some sort of rules, having thought about this, here, are the constraints of the next 6 months:

  • only use 2 cameras
  • no buying lenses
  • shoot expired film (where possible)
  • shots must include long exposure
  • shots must include double exposure
  • learn to use flash
  • learn to meter
  • learn how to develop
  • figure out how to scan

So there we have it, another stupid random idea, this just goes to show what happens to the subconscious of your mind.  My faith in digital technology to help accelerate your learning has been great, so it will be interesting to see what a glimpse in to the past will achieve.  It does not matter if there are mistakes or total failure, it matters that you try and learn, like anything in life.

180 day film challenge -  front of zenit camera
Zenit film camera

The blog will feature further updates so keep watching, there will be further digitally captured uploads due to a backlog of images to edit.  Hopefully the first of these images will appear here soon, wish me luck.

Phlogger

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