I would have loved to have lived through the Sixties and Seventies. I just think everything looked better in times gone by. As i'm sure you're all aware by now I just love vintage, retro and anything that just looks a bit old and worn in, whether that be clothes, buildings, films, interiors or photographs. A lot of the outfit snaps I take are with East London backdrops (an area that I deem most to be like 'old London') or in locations I think have a vintage or dated edge. I try to make my snaps have a vintage feel by the way I edit them and so when Elliott got me a Yashica Minister film camera from 1969 for Christmas I was overjoyed. When I opened it he said 'looking through the lens is like looking into the Sixites' and he was spot on. It has that beautiful yellowish, a bit grainy and grubby look to it - basically exactly how I want all of my pictures to look with absolutely no filter necessary.
I love everything about film cameras. I love the anticipation of having to wait to get the film developed and the fact you can't shoot loads of takes to review and delete in the way you can with digital cameras these days. Remember the days you used to take disposables to festivals with you or on nights out and you couldn't wait to hot foot it down to Snappy Snaps and get them developed to see what was in store? Well that's how I feel every time (well, the two times so far I've done it LOLZ) I take a film in to be developed now. I also love the aesthetic of them, vintage film cameras are beautiful and i'd like to have a collection displayed in an old cabinet one day. They are a bit of a faff, however in life in general I love a faff and so if anything, I enjoy this about them; they take time and patience and I'm not gonna lie it took me a while to even learn how to load and unload film in my new snapper but i'm happy to persevere. Not all of these came out as I would have liked and by no means are my skills perfect yet, but i'm getting better each time and I absolutely love shooting with my vintage Yashica. Talking to photographer friends and watching loads of youtube videos are definitely essential factors if you're thinking about getting into film photography. I'd also highly reccomend checking out Lizzy's blog (Shot From The Street) if you haven't already as she shoots amazing film images and does a 'my week on 35mm' series of posts that are an absolute treat for your peepers.
In an ideal world I wish I could shoot all of my images on 35mm however practicality, clarity and the need for instant gratification has to be factored in. I think it's a nice addition alongside my usual snaps and i'm planning on doing monthly posts with film photos that I can't wait to share with you all here.
I hope you love them as much as I do!
Rachael
x