In 2024, I decided to embrace Slow Photography. I invested in a new film range finder camera, and a range finder digital. As well, I’ve been more intentional with my rapid fire do everything for you camera.
I was noticing other photographers taking 3-4000 images in a week on workshops and painstakingly editing and going through each one. They would complain about the painful process and being overwhelmed. I felt overwhelmed for them. There just isn’t enough time in the year to work through all of these.
Falling into this mode a little bit, and I would end up with 1200 images from that same week and found THIS to be terribly overwhelming and I wasn’t entirely happy with anything.
Although upon review 2 years later work satisfaction improved. I found I liked the shots that I had broken free from the group to quietly take more time with.
The rest were the easy get, and the same images everyone else had. Which I found disappointing, especially as these were expensive travel photography workshops. Bored of myself and my work I needed to rethink my approach.
I thought about what I could change to be more satisfied with my work. What efforts and expense I needed to go through to achieve this.
So I took a year off from travelling and used my travel money to invest in both the digital and analog Leica range finders.
Slowing down to get anything I’d like in focus has been a huge challenge with the range finder system. As well, it is not wysiwyg. The frame is off by a little bit, and the frame adjusts with the lens you have on. So the reality is that I don’t know what I have until it’s all over.
The other major challenge has been threading the film! It has foiled me twice now with not catching, even though I am SURE that I’ve done it correctly before I’ve closed it all up.
This was particularly heartbreaking when I had a few ‘bangers’ from a trip turn out to be nothing, and recently I was in Lapland and that roll was a bust as well.
It’s turning out that the Slow Photography is a challenge. I feel like I’ve gone back to square one, to my first roll, to the first day with a camera, I know nothing and can DO nothing!
If you had extra funds, you would invest in a Polaroid and do a test shot to see if the exposure was anywhere near correct.
Today you can still torture yourself with this process, but you can also take it slow with your digital. Training myself to take a similar approach is taking time.
Rarely reviewing any of the images immediately, I make myself wait for later that day or the next to download and review on a bigger screen. Taking that chance at complete failure, I feel that the more I fail, the more care I will take with getting things correct the first time.
There isn’t always a second chance, and this adds to the pressure to do it right in the moment. However, there is joy in the mistakes and that takes time to surface. You don’t meet your expectations immediately. Upon later review, I found that there is a sort of magic to the errors. Like the old days.
The point of this is taking time to connect with your subject, wait for the light, look them in the eye, absorb the place instead of just creating fodder for social media that is more visual clutter and completely forgettable.
I haven’t done away with my full frame digital. I do need the speed of it to try and catch the birds I love to shoot, and sometimes having the extra help, even if it’s on manual is a relief. The auto focus is such a treat when you’ve been struggling with your so specific range finder that mostly does something else than you thought.
When I shot film at the beginning of my photography life, I would end up with 65% of each roll was good. 10% was great, as the standard predicts. However I had a lot more useable imagery and shots that I was happy with. Now, I’m back to a barely useable 10% at best.
So you need to daily practice at slowing down to train yourself and get to know your equipment intimately and then you will get those shots.
Now, where was I?