35mm Film Photography and Why It Means So Much To Us
When I first began my business my grandfather gifted me his Nikon FG 35mm film camera. I share a lot of the backstory on an older blog which you can read by clicking here, if you haven’t already. Read on as I explain how I ended up where I am now… shooting film at almost every wedding and session I book, how I grew during my film journey, and how you can add film photos to your future sessions and weddings booked with me!
April Sunset in Southern California, Torrey Pines Beach, shot on Kodak Gold 200 - By Becca Grimm
Something about film photos really just makes me FEEL. The grain, the tones, the way you take in the image knowing that is exactly what the photographer saw — not adding any filters or edits to change the experience — just a raw and real moment. I think that film photography has taught me so much as an artist, especially how to slow down. When I shoot film, I am aware of my lighting, my aperture and shutter speed. I am manually adjusting the focus and perfecting my shot in camera rather than quickly shooting and “fixing” an image in Lightroom after. In this fast paced world, film photography has been the best way to stay in the moment with my creativity.
When I was first gifted my grandfathers Nikon FG, I thought it was neat but I truly didn’t think I had the time to spend learning something new on top of running my own business. I left it on my shelf for a few years and thought of it as a cool and sentimental decoration. After he passed away I spent a lot of time looking over his camera bag and actually found a few rolls of film that he never developed. After moving to South Carolina and stumbling upon our very own local camera shop — Spartan Photo Center (click their name to checkout their website!!)— I realized his film could still be processed. When I got back a roll of film scans that were shot in 1996, the year I was born, I felt such a connection to my Pap again. It was truly like a gift from heaven. I knew I was ready to dive into film. I watched YouTube videos mostly, and trial & error became my best friend.
When shooting film on a fully manual camera, you have to take into account the basics of lighting. You breakdown the camera settings and utilize a light meter to fine tune your aperture and shutter speed after loading in your ISO specific film. It’s okay if you don’t understand those words… but the point is you can’t just take a test shot and adjust your settings after. My husband Tyler, who shoots all my weddings with me, began learning too—excited to learn more about film cameras in general due to his Engineering background. As friends and family heard we were interested in film, they began gifting us old film cameras, polaroids, and camera accessories from their attics and garages. Before we knew it, we were collectors and began displaying our collection in our home office. Film photography turned into a huge passion for us, and a way to grow and learn something together.
After shooting images of our dogs, our home, friends, and day trips on weekends we tested several of our cameras and narrowed down our favorites —our trusted old faithfuls, haha. We mostly shoot on our Ricoh XR-P and our Canon AV-1, both 35mm. Most importantly we learned that you don’t need the most expensive, fancy, or noteworthy film camera to shoot film professionally. These two models were never the most prized in the film industry but the fun thing about them is the memories our families have had with them and the fact that we can still use their same cameras today. Tyler explains to me that these cameras are more of a machine than a piece of technology like a phone or DSLR camera made today. He began to take up his own hobby in fixing any of the broken film cameras we were gifted or thrifted ourselves by meticulously taking them apart, deep cleaning them, and slowly piecing them back together.
Since Tyler is my second shooter at weddings, he pushed me to start bringing our film camera’s along to some weddings and shoots. We took turns taking a few shots here and there and I quickly realized how much I loved film when we got our first wedding scans back. (Another side note: each roll of film gets processed with chemicals, rinsed, hung, and the negatives are then scanned onto a computer to be digitally sent back to us. We pick up the negatives—think: a strip of black film with all the images side by side in one long roll—in case we want to rescan the negatives at some point for large prints).
Here are some of those first scans we received, shot at Katie and Jared’s wedding in 2020.
I certainly do not even try to take all the credit when it comes to our film photography. If it weren’t for Tyler I never would have pursued this type of photography or felt the confidence to try something so new and intimidating. Some of our film shots are taken by Tyler himself, since during a wedding day as lead I have to spread my focus on timelines and schedules and the digital images, too.
The two of us love documenting our lives, from living away from family with our two doodle pups, to moving back to our home state, and all the travel in between. We love the way these film photographs tell our story. Below are some of those film scans, amidst our everyday ordinary but beautiful lives.
If you made it this far, you probably understand the desire and love we have for film photos and you want to add 35mm film photography to your wedding or session package. To do that, just ask us for pricing and we can chat about how many rolls would work best for you and your budget! Shooting film has become a part of our everyday lives and I love getting to gift these precious moments on film to our couples when shooting their most memorable days to date. Pricing depends on current film stock pricing and our processing fees to get the images developed locally (which change over time), and are based on the number of rolls you choose. Most 35mm film has 24 or 36 shots per roll. We’d love to add film to your gallery so email us or inquire through our contact page and let us know you want a film add-on! Scroll through the rest of this page to see our different film shots over the past few years that our clients have added to their session or wedding packages. I hope they too make you feel.
