Regular readers may recall that I bought a classic film camera a couple years ago and I am happy to report that I finally got my first roll of black and white film developed, with which I am quite pleased, and a sample print is pictured above. As you may realize, it is of our very own Marshall Point lighthouse here in Port Clyde, Maine. The entire roll was shot mostly last year and much of it in the winter to capitalize on the contrasts of the season. 

I was able to locate here in New England one of the few labs still processing black and white film and along with my prints they enclosed a bookmark thanking me for my business and suggesting: “Take a picture; read a book; hug someone,” all references to what I’d call the analog life. Though the first two can be done digitally, that was not the intent of the note, and their specialty is film photography.

As much as I value the digital revolution there is a special quality to tangible photographs, especially black and white prints. As photographer Bill Smith suggests, “The craft of photography is represented by, and visualized in, the beauty of a good black-and-white print, a translation of the world around us into shades of gray.” And life here on the coast of Maine lends itself very much to the monochromatic landscape photography that I love sharing with others. 

I still have three more rolls of 36-exposure black and white film to shoot so I am planning to use it and hopefully it will not take me another couple years per roll to finish them. And in the meantime, I may even get some of the first prints enlarged and framed for the total analog experience, so I will keep you posted. For more thoughts about analog stuff read my earlier post about The Revenge of Analog.