Remembering the days before digital film...

OK raise your hand if you remember what it was like before digital cameras. Alright put your hands down. It's not like I can actually see your paws in the air. But all kidding aside, if you are of a certain age, or have a taste for the warmth and texture of film, you know of what I am talking about.

The other day, during those perfect conditions and waves, I found myself chatting (in person) with Brian Nevins and Ed O'Connell. Two photographers who I both admire and respect.

Ed brought up the memory of using film back in the day.

The three of us used our fair share of film. And the difference between today's digital disposal technique, as to yesterday's painstakingly slow, and deliberate process of dealing with film, was in a word. Significant.



We shook our heads at the speedy advancement of what digital has brought to our world of photography. But for the sake of time and space, I'll give you a quick breakdown of how things worked back then. Both in still photography, and shooting movies.

First and foremost, you had to know how to load the damn film.

Sounds easy enough don't you think? Nope. It was difficult at best. Sometimes you missed the sprockets that the film attached itself to, while other times, you exposed the film to sunlight, thus ruining the entire roll. Those of you who pop digital cards in and out of your cameras, have no idea how frustrating that was.

I lost many a roll of film to the dreaded sun exposure. And I shot thousands of ghost images, not knowing that the film was not loaded correctly. And once you actually succeeded in loading the film the right way, you had no idea how the shots were coming out until you got the film developed.

Most of us had contact sheets printed to see which ones to pick.

We'd spend hours looking at contact sheets with our loupes. Circling the ones we wanted, in either red or yellow sharpies. And even then it was hard to tell what you were going to get until the larger image was printed. It was a tedious process. Most of us shot in Black and white. Mostly because it was cheaper. The contact sheets were easier to view in B&W and easier to pick out with our markers.

The color images were usually slides. And that took time to get developed. And again, once you got the slides back it was another process of seeing how they came out as well. We all had mini slide viewers that we would look at over and over again.

Once you picked out which of the slides you wanted, there was the process of getting prints. Again, another time consuming process and additional costs. Ugh.

Any and all mistakes were costly back then.

It was the same with movie film. It was always "I hope I got that on film...and of course, I hope it was in focus." Then the long wait to get the movie film developed. Again, we never knew what we were getting until I had the reels in my hand, and had them on the movie projector.

And then, and only then, it was either me screaming with joy, or me cursing myself in that dark room.

Yet, with all the hassles and potential disasters of using film. I can honestly say, I miss it. I miss those days. The not knowing. The excitement of seeing the shots, and reels for the first time. It was all very exciting and rewarding when it all came together, and while I am forever grateful for the digital cameras...I have a special place in my heart, for the days of film and celluloid.

I miss you film. I miss you Kodachrome 40 super 8mm.

There's a fund raiser planned for the local ESA chapter here on the NH seacoast and it is being held at FLATBREAD in Hampton
on Tuesday May 14, 2013. See the poster below. It's easy to help. All you have to do is buy one of Flatbread's incredibly tasty All Natural Pizzas and a portion of the proceeds will go tworads helping out the NNE-ESA.

And they need help. It takes a lot of man power, time, and money to run these local surf contests here on the seacoast. The ESA has been great for most of the rippers you see out surfing year round. I mean without naming names, you know who I am talking about. The surfers that regularly appear in this blog were all former and current ESA competitors.

But to help you better understand how important the ESA has been in helping your surfers develop their competitive edge and style. Perhaps you heard of Kelly Slater? He's a former member of the ESA. He got his start with the ESA. That's right. Mr 11 World Championship titles started out in the ESA.

Who knows who will emerge from the incredible talent pool on the east coast in the future, but one thing's for sure. There has been and there is today some really good surfers coming out of the ESA . Both men and women. And they started out as young groms still wet behind the ears wantintg to compete.


So dig deep on Tuesday and throw down for a Flatbread and help the kids out at the same time.

Click above graphic for larger poster.