I love to shoot film. It makes me slow down and take a moment in. I need to meter, set my shutter speed and aperture. I need to frame and focus. It takes me a few moments before I press the shutter and my camera makes that click noise that makes my heart beat faster. I also need to keep a few things in mind while shooting- what film do I have in my camera? Is it black and white or color? What is the ISO? Am I going to push or pull my film?

All of these questions and the slowing down are a few of the reasons I love to shoot film, and I wouldn’t change a thing. However, there are days that I wake up, and I don’t want to slow nor do I want to think.

There are mornings that I don’t want to think before each image. There are days when I don’t want to slow for each shutter click.

I want to wander and see and capture and move on. That is when I pull out my trusty digital. Because, as much as I love my film cameras, I also love my digital. I can click, click, click until my heart is content. I never need to think what film I have or ISO I need to shoot in. I can set my camera’s settings to AP and only need to think about what aperture I want… nothing else. My sweet little digital does the rest of the thinking for me.

And while shooting film can be a sort of meditation with its concentration and slowing, so can my digital. I can stop thinking of the technical and only concentrate on seeing. I can shoot one flower 100 times, knowing I don’t need to limit myself to 12 images. I can sit in one spot for a half an hour and notice what my lens finds.

Do you shoot digital and film? What are your favorites about each?

~Staci Lee