It has been a while but I feel like the love and itch for shooting film has returned. With prices in Armenia for film being incredibly high, I never really bothered to buy any. Though I recently noticed that film prices back in the UK are actually quite reasonable. Being half the price! This made me very interested in picking up the Canon AE-1 again, so much so that I'm looking to buy some film in bulk but also a Canon FD 28mm 2.8 lens for a wider street focal length. The street stuff has been incredibly appealing nonetheless, with the sunlight out and a few events here and there. I've been going crazy with the film photography over the digital. There's just something so fun about pressing that shutter, hearing it, and the mechanical feeling of winding the feel to the next shot.
I've also really missed that film look. While digital film emulation has improved and there are some great general templates out there, nothing quite lands the same. And getting a roll of negatives back after development is another experience entirely. The very physical image that you can archive and cherish beyond your life. Not quite the same as digital images. Film is what I started with, and I feel like I never would've really stopped shooting it had the prices not gone crazy. To some degree they still are, but certainly not as bad as I had assumed. I've also noticed my interactions with people have increased as they see the 35mm film camera instead of a digital one. More people come and speak to me about cameras and photography as a result. That's always something fun, having people connect through the interest. Though the photographer community in Yerevan genuinely sucks in regards to being so painfully recluse. An actual community is definitely needed.
I've taken more interest in people and feel the confidence of photographing them improving. These were from a roll where I was still a bit nervous. Still a bit cautious of being noticed or getting too close. Still range focusing and trying to hit that 5 - 7 feet range at F8. It's more the angles that need to improve, more that I need to face people head-on and accept that they might be curious about what I'm doing. Naturally that comes with knowing who is more likely to accept being photographed and who is more likely to throw a punch at you. That comes with a general intuition, I guess. But so far I think I have been fast enough for people to not care, and to have gone for unique characters that generally are more used to being photographed elsewhere in other nations. Rather than the fat Armenian men that chain smoke all day in the city.
Street photography and film have revived the love for photography for me suddenly. I feel that passion stronger than ever before. I feel hooked. All I can think about. All I want to do. I feel as if I have genuinely found and accepted my calling in life, and it is to explore and witness life with a camera in hand.