Elle Alder
Automotive Writer
Shooting Analog
Having grown up on digital, film seemed a slow, inefficient, and understandably-neglected relic of the past. My first serious exposure to film came in the form of a $20 Nikon FE purchased so that I could disassemble the attached lens. After a few weeks of staring at the camera body on my shelf, I bought a roll of Superia and decided to give it a shot. I very quickly came to realize how much those 24 frames force the photographer to slow down and make every shot count - indeed, that first roll took a full week to get through.
For something once so commonplace, the neglect of film photography seems ever-more tragic. More than just improving my technical understanding, this experience forced me to develop and refine the careful compositional techniques I have since applied to my digital work. Digital is great, but I expect I'll keep developing in the basement for as long as I can.
