Ramblings of an aging IT geek
← Ramblings of an aging IT geek
personal

rediscovering an old hobby

Picking up film photography again after years away, and why the slowness of it turned out to be the appeal.

Coffee and a stack of books on a table

I found my old film camera at the back of a cupboard this week, behind a box of cables I will never use and cannot bring myself to throw away. It still had a half-finished roll in it, which felt like a small message from a younger version of me who clearly got distracted by something. Probably a job.

So I finished the roll, sent it off to be developed, and spent the wait genuinely curious in a way I had forgotten was possible. No chimping at a screen, no burst mode, no second chances. Thirty-six frames and a fair amount of hope.

The photos came back middling. A couple were properly bad, one or two were lovely, and most were fine. But the interesting part was how much I enjoyed the constraint. Everything I do for work is about iterating fast and getting instant feedback. This was the opposite, and that was exactly the point. I think I will buy another roll.