I received my first camera when I was 11. It was a very simple USSR film camera made in 80's - Smena 8M. Also growing up with the photographer dad it was very easy to catch the photography bug. We had a darkroom at home, where all of our photos were developed one frame at a time. Moving to NZ in 2000 meant we had to say good-bye to the family photography darkroom, as we couldn't bring it with us.
When digital photography burst in to our lives in the early 2000's it pushed film photography aside. With digital photography it became so much easier to take photos as you were no longer limited by the amount of 'clicks' you have and you can immediately check the results... Something was missing for me. I missed that anticipation and careful planning of each shot as it was somewhat precious, so in 2009 I got back in to analog photography, as it reminded me of my childhood...
Just recently I was helping my parents to sort out the storage where we had a few things from Latvia, and among the old things I found my first camera. I was very surprised as I thought it was long gone along with my childhood, so I couldn't wait to take it for a spin, and I was very impressed with the results... I have also been given a Canon AL-1 film camera, and I absolutely fell in love with it!
Below are a few very recent images I took with those two cameras and I love the 'graininess' of the photos and colours look 'alive'... I won't be giving up analog photography any time soon that's for sure...
