Since becoming a professional photographer in this digital age, I’ve always had the fear that if I were to pick up a film camera again, it would become very clear very quickly that I didn’t actually know what I was doing behind the camera.

Now, I realize this is a lie, but some days it’s easier to hear the lies than the truth.  Plus, 17 year old Sabrina with her Nikon N50 (not D50!) truly didn’t know what she was doing with her SLR camera but today’s current version of Sabrina is well versed in her DSLR.  And since the only things/people we should be comparing ourselves to is who we were yesterday, then in comparison to my 17 year old self, I’m most definitely a professional and I most definitely know what I’m doing behind my camera!

All of that to say, I’m so thankful for The Signature Atelier and Abby last summer for our Film 101 class.  I’m so thankful for my friends who have been shooting film for a while who have been cheering me on and encouraging me even though I still don’t know what I’m doing with this film thing.

But I’m also really thankful that this Pentax found a home with me and is also being patient as I learn how to use it.

I’ve taken a couple rolls of black and white film and now several rolls of color film and y’all.  I’m so in love.  Each click (more like “ka-chunk) of the shutter is like someone poking me in the side to get me to laugh.  Not that I had fallen out of love with photography, but it’s like this has been a reminder as to why I fell in love with it in the first place!

I purchased a Pentax 645 from Amazon at the beginning of the year and shot these images on Fuji 400H.  These rolls of film were developed by The Find Lab on their Noritsu scanner.

And just to give you an idea of what the difference between digital and medium format film looks like, I took a couple of photos as identical as I could with both camera so I could do some side-by-sides.  The ones on the left are digital and the ones on the right are film.

Also, I have some really wonderful friends that (possibly reluctantly) stepped in front of my camera so I could practice.

Let’s just say that my smallest models (below) were my most reluctant of all.

This photo of Catherine holding the flowers is SO underexposed, but I don’t even care because her expression is everything!!!

I’m mostly posting these because I’m super excited about them but also because I want to come back and see what my first rolls of film looked like after I’ve been shooting film for a while.  I would hope that my 17 year old self would be proud.  And I do hope that in 20+ more years, I’ll be thankful for how much I’ve grown!