A Porsche Meet on Film

I have a confession to make: I have been using my digital camera as a crutch for the past few years. While the technology has revolutionised the imaging industry, there is no doubt that there is an inherent safety behind the instant gratification of seeing the photo you’ve just taken. Though I’m proud of these photos I’ve taken, in my mind, constantly checking if I had gotten the shot has been taking away part of the experience of what I was shooting.

There’s a different level of gratification in a good photo that was taken on film, rather than digitally. Perhaps part of it is knowing that there plausibly weren’t multiple opportunities to perfect the photograph; that there was only one shot (pardon the pun). When I had first started on my journey in photography, shooting film was something I experimented with. And though digital photography has always been a constant, film photography fell by the wayside and up until recently, I hadn’t gotten a roll of film developed for over a decade. In fact, I had only just gotten a roll developed that I originally shot in 2014.

“Why is this important?” you may be asking. For the first time ever I went to a car meet with only a film camera in hand. I’ve been to a few Porsche-centric meets now, including this one hosted by Duck & Whale magazine, so I thought this would be the turning point in changing the way I enjoy the experience – less about ‘getting the shot’ and more about being in the moment without inhibition. It was an odd feeling to say the least. It sounds paradoxical, but limiting yourself to 36 frames or less is freeing. It’s like there was suddenly more time to take in what was happening.

I’m not saying this is the end of my time with digital, but perhaps film will become more of a regularity. In the meantime, enjoy the snaps from the meet as well as some bonus ones from a trip to Melbourne earlier this year, and from that roll from 2014.