It seems this notebook has ended up being a scrapbook of my film photography. I haven’t found this very easy, especially developing and scanning the pictures after they have been taken. It has been difficult to make sure there are no scratches on the negatives and that the scanner makes a clean image without weird artifacts. Digital photographs are much easier – and in addition to this, these film photographs end up digitised anyway. So why bother using a film camera?

The reason, for me, is the experience while taking pictures. My Nikon FM has the absolute minimum of controls to influence how the photograph is made. The SQA even less control as the maximum shutter speed is 1/500th and there is no light meter. This means that I concentrate on what I am seeing through the viewfinder, choosing the shutter speed and f stop – and that’s it. It feels more pure to me. This is the reason that I would love to own a Leica M-D. No screen, no settings, no distractions, but the convenience of digital.

Developing and scanning the film has become a meditative process. I don’t mind it, in fact I like it. Next stop is probably printing pictures from a negative, if I can set up my own darkroom.