NEW MOUNTAIN MAGAZINE - AN ODE TO THE POINT-AND-SHOOT

Per usual, I lugged my heavy digital camera and a few lenses deep into the mountains for a classic Eastern Sierra adventure. Top of the line gear I use on commercial shoots, I had many thousands of dollars of gear on my back - but tucked into my chest pocket was my trusty little film point and shoot. One that I got for $150 and is taped together with bright green gaff tape. I can’t control much in terms of settings and don’t know if the photos are even being taken correctly, but it always comes along.

On trips like these, ones that I’m doing on my own with no clients to report to or deliverables to send, I find myself leaning into the film images more and more. I went from this trip to another and at some point dumped all the digital photos from my SD cards onto hard drives but admittedly I never edited them or even went through them. They just went into the digital abyss, as many do these days.

But some weeks later I sent in a few rolls of film and like a kid candy shop, I excitedly downloaded a folder from the film lab when I got the ever exciting email that my photos had been processed and were ready. A big grin went across my face as I started reliving my trip to the Eastern Sierra with my two close friends.

The film photos sum up the adventure perfectly for me - a classic trailhead gear explosion, heavy and fully loaded packs, a mission to the summit of Cloudripper (great name for a mountain), and some celebratory parking lot beers. Most importantly with two good friends who I’ve spent many nights in the mountains with. To me, it really doesn’t get much better. The scans are everything I’ll want to remember when I look back on this trip in years to come, or when I tell my grandkids of my mountain adventures many years down the line.

In a different life, back in college, I learned about the famous media expression “the medium is the message.” My college professor explained that the medium used (TV, radio, print, digital photos, etc) embeds itself in the message it conveys, influencing how a message is perceived. It’s argued that the medium itself has more significance than the content it delivers. As was often the case I didn’t really understand this at a fundamental level but I did learn to memorize the quote enough to do well on the test.

But now, many years later, while shooting filmed I’ve come to understand what this meant. With film, the medium is the message. Choosing to shoot something on film - especially now when I have a slew of digital cameras and lenses that I could use - conveys meaning in itself. It’s nostalgic, it’s fun, and it celebrates imperfection. The goal isn’t to shoot the sharpest images but to capture the feeling of the experience. Before anything is even shot, by loading film and ditching digital, the kind of message you want to convey is clear.”

So here is to film. Here is to shooting images that chase feeling over perfection. And of course, here is to getting out into the mountains with your friends.

info

prev / next

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19

· · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · ·