st john cantius - cleveland ohio - polaroid sun 600
When I first started taking photos, it was almost immediately with a digital camera. First I had a brief stint with a 35mm camera, many rolls of poorly shot film and a sudden realization of the cost of film and developing. Soon after digital became my learning tool, and stepping stone, to where I am now... giving me the ability to shoot more photos for less money and continue to evolve my processes with just a single cost.
Ultimately, though, digital had another side effect that I didn't realize until later on. I never shot much black and white. I loved looking at black and white photos, admired those who could do it, but I never liked the look of my digital photos converted over to black and white. To this day, it's still something that I rarely do when I shoot digitally.
museum center - cincinnati ohio - polaroid sx70
My return to film, however, has definitely been my return to an appreciation of black and white photography and my return to learning how to shoot in black and white. For me, color has always been a big part of what and how I approach a photo, or, my post processing of digital photos. It's definitely been a learning process to stop thinking in color, to actually ignore color, and to focus simply on differences in contrast, lines and shapes as they occur in the frame.
hathaway brown school - cleveland ohio - polaroid sx70
I think I'm reaching the point where I can more efficiently see in black and white, and more importantly, accurately reproduce that image onto film.
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