I announced on Facebook that I had been working as a professional photographer for 24 years as of the 1st of July.  In 1989 film was the norm, and continued to be the norm until 2002 when we started using the Fuji S2 digital cameras. We were probably the first local photographic studio to go 100% digital launching Younger Photography in 2003 with our fresh ideas. Back then we had all the ideas and digital skills to comfortably get booked up within the 1st year. Thankfully we haven’t looked back since.

I turned 40 back in December, perfect time for a mid life crisis! We have a two year old boy so a Porsche was out of the question so I bought a VW T5 transformer and had it totally  pimped out as a bespoke camper van ( been featured and everything)………….That wasn’t enough.

To get back on track with this topic……..Earlier this year while working for Graphi Studio  at Focus on Imaging at the NEC . I got talking to a total Stranger & his partner about the the great new albums Graphi studio had  just launched. I was excited as I had something really new to show our clients but I could see Geoff  ( the photographer) was buzzing. I could see his mind racing with all kind of thoughts. I wanted to know more…..To cut a long conversation short the subject was FILM. Shooting film at weddings, eeak, shock horror. Most people would not understand why Geoff would want to return to film but I did. I understood right away. Like I sad from the start back in 2002 digital was new, endless options & opportunities as long as you knew how to manipulate a file. Today many people own a digital camera of some sort, at weddings the iPhone is flashed about more than confetti.

I sometimes wonder where the industry will be in a few years time. It seems a quality image with a beautiful sharpness and tones is not so important today. Are we all getting diluted with digital? Don’t get me wrong I love the digital , it has allowed us to get creative and experiment.  Digital will always be the main core of our business. As part of my midlife crisis I decided I  want to get back to technical photography, photography crafted in the camera I wanted to shoot film again.

Today I see lots of overly digital looking wedding images, “the in thing” thats not “in” for very long. Once the new in thing has gripped the internet the previous ” in”  digital clients are left with an outdated wedding book ( or worse a CD )  We have always wanted our images to be timeless, we keep our digital editing to a minimal look that as contemporary   today and our 1st display books looked ten years ago.

So why the rant about film, well first of all I hope this does not read so much as a rant but as a new found passion using old skills. With all that in mind I have decided to offer a Film only wedding package,  not everybody will be interested  as it will cost more than digital but some people will notice the difference and there is that romantic idea that your wedding has been created as a form of art and  in the form of a negative.

Film is fun, the waiting time is exciting, the results are outstanding. I might do a blog on the differences one day but for now enjoy a few images of our boy Woody on a local beach.

Images shot on a Contax 645 80mm F2 the film was Fuji Reala 120