Ang Kape Ni LaTtEX

I am amused at how the popularity of photography using digital SLR (Single Lens Reflex, or in simpler terms, “professional”) cameras simply exploded in the past three years. Most every colleague I know owns one, and obscure photography terms like, depth of field, aperture, shutter speed, and “bokeh” have become vernacular.

Even Quiapo’s Hidalgo St. is experiencing a boom because of digital photography, and it’s all good, really. There were anectodes that, in the last Hot Air Balloon Festival at Clark, there were more DSLR holders than plain spectators.

Unlike them, I do not own a digital SLR camera (I only use a mid-range, ill-reputed Olympus SP-510UZ) though I have been dabbling in photography for much longer. For the past decade we have had a Canon EOS 300 35mm film SLR, and my experience in using it underscores why digital photography is so popular these days.

It was simply expensive: you had to buy a 130+ peso roll of film for a mere 36 shots, and development and printing of each roll runs up from 250 to 300 pesos for 4R size prints. To add insult to injury, you only get to see your pictures the first time when they are printed, so even if a shot is terrible, or is blurry, since you have no way of knowing you will have to settle for having them printed and wasting money on them.

These limits of film photography are quite burdensome for tight-budgeted people like myself, but what happened was that this quandary influenced my decision making processes in a certain way with lessons that not only apply to photography, but to a lot of other things in life:

Risk-taking - Every shot you took with a film SLR is a risk; a risk of a lousy picture, a risk of a bad exposure, a risk of bad color, a risk of wasting your money when the photograph is printed. But there are simply places, things, and events that you have to have a picture of. So you have to take that shot — even if there’s little light. Or if you have no tripod. Or if you have little film left. You just have to take that risk, or else suffer in a plethora of what-ifs on your mind on how the shot would have come out later on.

Resource management - With 36 shots per roll, and usually just a few spare rolls with you, plus a budget for developing and printing, you have to keep in mind how many shots you still have with you, and accordingly, if loading that spare roll of film (which you have to finish, as you have to develop all 36 frames on the roll whether you used everything up or not) will be worth it for the given situation. You also have to manage your supply of film, making sure that they don’t go to waste (those things have expiry dates!). It also involves saying no when you have to — like saying no to that camwhore’s request to have a picture taken of them even if you’ve already had 10 pictures of the same group of people taken already.

Risk-management - Both previous points come down to this, added with the fact that in film SLRs, you cannot undo nor erase shots already taken. Every shot you take is literally a gamble, and you must learn when to lay down your cards, or when to call a bluff, or when to up the ante. It takes a lot of practice to master this, but when you do almost every other shot will be rewarding enough for you to ignore the wasted ones.

Foresight - Or more accurately, learning to anticipate what would happen next. On ceremonies like weddings, or during events this is a bit easier — the reason why the availability of wedding photographers likewise exploded is because weddings are very predictable, and you could, as their photographer, call out shots even during the ceremony as to how the shots will be composed and how they would look like. In nature, sports events, or in unscheduled “act of God” events, it would be much more difficult. You have to learn to “see the future” and be there ready to take your shot when it happens, with the correct settings on your camera to capture the moment. This one takes a lot of practice too.

Discipline - Finally it all boils down to discipline. The constant decision making during the time that you are holding the camera up will, over time, instill more discipline in the way that you treat each location, each event, each roll of film, and each shot.

I’m not saying that DSLR users can or will not learn the lessons stated above, but it certainly is easier to see them in action when handling a film SLR. It will definitely help digital photographers though, who have to suffer a far different curse — that of possessing way too many pictures than, say, their web photo hosting or external storage solutions can handle. Perhaps taking a leaf from the obsolescent art of film photography would help them solve these problems too.