I grew up with analog photography. I still have my darkroom equipment (but haven’t used it in a while). I used to develop BW films and prints and even color sli

I grew up with analog photography. I still have my darkroom equipment (but haven’t used it in a while). I used to develop BW films and prints and even color slides. Here are some random thoughts: - yes, film shots, specially color film shots can be amazing “out of the box” it’s like a great lightroom filter that’s just there; some of my favorite shots were shot on ektar - developing film and prints is really a great hobby, i used to shot over summer and then develop in long winter nights… definitely keeps you off of social media - there’s lots of experiments you can do… different developers, processes, lots to explore - developing prints is a lot of work, at least it was for me. getting exposure and contrast right is hard. it could take me the whole evening to produce one print - when a print is good, it is amazing. the level of detail you get, specially with slow films (iso 25) is really something else. of course, if you go MF or LF, even more so (some say that top 35mm lenses are probably better than LF lenses, but still nothing beats the shades you get on LF) - I feel like my prints, even if they are not very good, are my creation. I’ve never felt the same of much better digital prints that come out of my inkjet - chemicals are messy and you should dispose of them at your dangerous waste disposal (could cost you) - advanced darkroom techniques require larger formats (like unsharp mask) - i’ve never done it. once you go digital, it’s hard to be happy with lesser results. - some techniques require dangerous chemicals, but is trivial in digital - photos of masters from the past would not be considered anything special today, expectations have shifted - ansel adams was better engineer than photographer. his approach was very technical. of course, what he did was amazing at the time - you can’t imagine what it takes to hike Yosemite with a LF camera! he was successful because nobody else did it (and his technical excellence of course). - focusing is a problem with film cameras. even the best cameras will have front/back focus. it was normal back then, but today, expectations are different - everything that could have been done has been done on film - future is in exploring new things, like ansel mounted his camera on the top of his car to get a novel perspective - today this novelty are drones, tomorrow it will be something else - stereoscopic photography is unutilised (it’s an old film invention) - i haven’t shot film for a few years now; i have a great full frame EVF, but I don’t use it much, either