It comes as no surprise to anyone that I love photography. I love the medium, I love the images, and I love the gear. But the more I learn, the more I need, and the more my mind begins to swirl. I find myself focusing too much on the technical things, worrying about shooting at this aperture or dreaming about that new lens. I know this about myself, I obsess about the things I enjoy, but sometimes I don’t realize how deep the rabbit hole goes until something pulls me out.

Read on…

Last weekend, I went to pick up two rolls at Sunshine photo lab. Now this is something I do fairly regularly, but this time around I was particularly worried about one of my rolls. Rewind a couple of days and you would have found me crouched alongside a concrete bank, Hasselblad in hand, photographing some skaters. Though the ‘Blad doesn’t necessarily lend itself to action sports, I was enjoying the moment and shot off the last few frames of a roll. In my excitement, however, I committed the cardinal sin. I slipped out the film back without rewinding, exposing the exquisite emulsion to the elements. Realizing my error, I attempted to reload the back and rewind, but I had little faith that anything survived.

Snap back to reality, and back to Sunshine. I was prepared to pay the price, to shell over my $5 only to receive a clear sheet of overexposed plastic. But much to my surprise, there were my images, each and every one. Now remember how I mentioned that I’m prone to obsession, well obsessing over my error had caused me to completely forget the images I stood to loose. Standing over the light table, Jesus the lab technician at my side, a smile crept across my face. I soaked up each and every frame. I had never shot slide film in medium format, and I couldn’t get enough of the color and crispness. Goofy grin growing bigger by the second, I couldn’t help but feel happy.

And that is what photography is all about. Forget bokeh, forget brands, forget everything bloggers badmouth and banter about in photo forums. Just get lost. Enjoy moments like this that make us fall in love with photography all over again. It helps us step back, take a breath, and enjoy the process rather than obsess over it.

Now, if only I had a drum scanner…