As a kid, I remember going through boxes and boxes of pictures and photo albums with my Mom and being amazed at just how many there were. Like, I’m talking about hundreds (possibly thousands) of printed, physical photos. And a majority of them were from a time before my sister and I. Seeing old family members young, and some you have never even met, is fucking weird. It’s the closet thing we have to time travel, but instead of a cool-ass DeLorean or blue police box, it takes its shape as a 4x6-inch piece of paper.

I guess that’s why I took an interest in the idea of starting my own photography journey. I wanted to be able to capture these memories that I may forget in my future old age and be able to relive those moments from the past. But I wanted it to be different. I wanted it to feel special. As I mentioned before, the number of photos of my sister and I were far fewer than those of my parents’ lives before us, and of those photos, there were even fewer of me than my older sister. You see, by the time I was entering that stage of childhood where photos were a constant thing, the consumer world had already started to move on to digital cameras and pictures living on a USB stick rather than in a photo album. So, I wanted to make my process feel more glamorous and sentimental. I wanted this new project to feel as raw and as a magical as it felt to look through those boxes with my Mom. This led me to the world of film photography.

There is something incredibly beautiful I find about this medium. Film just has that “look” and everyone knows what that “look” is without even having the words to describe it. It’s the colors, the imperfections, and the chemistry that brings the photos to life. It’s the grain, the halation, and the vignettes. It’s the act of loading up a new roll and clicking the shutter for the first time. It’s finishing a roll and going to get it developed and waiting days or weeks to see the results of photos taken months ago. It’s the entire process, from start to finish, that makes shooting on film special. It amazes me that we have allowed the medium to slowly die over the past 20-30 years. I understand why, of course. Times have changed. Technology has improved. But there is something so incredibly “human” about film that I’m thankful hasn’t gone completely extinct. In a way, I guess it’s similar to how vinyl records are still around. We have two media formats, that realistically have no business in still being around in the modern day, but have actually begun to trend upwards amongst young people over the last few years. This generation, who has had everything available to them in their pocket, is craving a real, tangible connection to the art they are consuming and creating.

Like most of the hobbies I have gotten into over my life, once I am set on starting something, I become fucking obsessed with it. I don’t really remember the exact moment when I decided I was going to start taking film photos. I guess it was just a gradual thing that grew over the course of months (maybe even years?). But, I do remember spending countless hours on YouTube, taking in as much information as I could and actually wanted to learn everything about the space. Vuhlandes, Willem Verbeeck, and Teo Crawford were my holy trinity during these early days. I must’ve watched videos from countless creators and photographers, but it was always these three that I kept coming back to. They all had their own unique styles when shooting on film, and they all had their own approaches to the craft. And I think that shows in their work. I loved their photography so much that I even tried to replicate their styles when I finally started to shoot. Which I honestly think is the best way to go about starting a new hobby or project. Steal like an artist.

my favorite photos from V, W.V, & T.C

The person who was probably the biggest help and inspiration during these early days was my good friend Tyler Lovence (@tylerlovence / @filmbytl). Tyler had been shooting film for a few years by that point, so naturally, I annoyed the fuck out of him. I went to him for pretty much everything. Questions on cameras, film stocks, his experiences, EVERYTHING. I’m grateful for him. He answered every single one of my queries gracefully and to the best of his ability. He’s actually part of the inspiration behind the name of my film photography project, “lev.”

As a kid, I learned pretty early on that you can’t really get a nickname from a four-letter name like “Levi”. And that broke my fucking heart… I don’t know why, but I thought having a nickname was the coolest thing ever. Pretty much all of my friends had nicknames growing up, and I just remember feeling super jealous of them. Fast forward years later, and I don’t really remember how or when it started, but Tyler and a mutual friend of ours starting calling me “Lev”. Since then, the nickname just sort of stuck.

During the time when I was creating the Instagram account for where these photos were going to live, I was really struggling to come up with what the project was going to be called. I knew the general idea was that these photos were going to be memories captured to last forever. I thought about the word “eternal” a lot. Even debated about “eterno.” (I’m very happy I threw this one out relatively quickly looking back). But at the end of the day, these photos were going to be about me, my surroundings, and how I view the world. Thus, I landed on lev.onfilm.

A big part of my process when shooting on film, is to really try and NOT overthink it. Which, if you know me at all, is a really fucking difficult thing for me to do. But it’s important important for me to keep this project fun and enjoyable. I’m not trying to be a professional photographer here. I just want to be able to take photos of my home, my friends, and the important moments in my life. Because those are the memories that I want to remember forever. I feel as though if I overthought every frame before I pressed the shutter, I would never have finished a roll. So… I just shoot. It can take weeks. Sometimes months. Hell, my last set that I had developed had photos I had taken over a year ago on it. That’s not an issue for me, though. A major part of why I love this medium is because of the lack of immediacy. I love that it takes me months to finish a roll and send it off. I love that it takes a week for it to be developed and scanned out of state. I love it all because when I open that folder and see photos I’d forgotten I’d taken, I get this surge of joy and nostalgia and start reminiscing about the memories associated with those photos. It’s a feeling that I have only been able to obtain by shooting film.

Along with not overthinking the process, I also don’t really edit my film photos. This is a never-ending debate amongst those who are into analog photography. For me, I just don’t really feel the need. Again, I’m not trying to be a professional. If I like how a photo has come out, why would I need to touch it up? Now, that’s not to say I have never edited a photo of mine before, because I have, but it’s usually just been small adjustments. The one edit that I always consistently do, however, is adding a white border to all the images that I decide to post on Instagram. I’m not sure why I decided to add the border, I just feel like it looks more presentable when posting. Like it’s a frame around a canvas.

Now, I just want to quickly run through my film photography setup. If you have no interest in any of this technical mumbo-jumbo, feel free to skip this paragraph. For those who are interested, I shoot on an Olympus Infinity Zoom 105 (Point & Shoot) and an Olympus OM-2 (SLR). At the moment, I’d say I’m shooting about 70% of my photos on the point & shoot, and the other 30% on the SLR. Since the big idea behind the project is to just capture any moment in time, the Infinity Zoom has proven to be a more versatile camera for my needs. When I am shooting with the OM-2, I’m using a Zuiko 50mm f/1.4 lens as the glass (You can really never go wrong with a good 50mm lens, in my opinion). I’m still in the midst of trying as many film stocks as I can. I currently have some Fujicolor 200 loaded up and have been shooting on that for the last few weeks. I’ve previously shot on Kodak Gold 200, Kodak Color Plus 200, and Ilford HP5 Plus. I consider these three film stocks to be really good options as starting points for beginners just getting into the craft. Personally, I’ve preferred the images I’ve gotten out of Color Plus 200 the most. I love the heftier grain that comes with it, as well as the more “true-to-life” colors the stock possesses. As for where I get my finished rolls developed and scanned, I ship them off (usually three rolls at a time) to Thacker’s Film Lab in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. It takes about a week from sending them off to getting my scans back, and honestly, they provide some exceptional service. Highly recommend. (Not sponsored, just really love them)

`yikes finale, feat. ricky, cris, and ryan.`

Shooting on film has honestly been some of the most fun I’ve ever had creatively. Similarly to this blog, it has allowed me to still flex those creative muscles in a much less stressful state compared to that of video. For me, it’s become much more than just the photos. It’s the entire process that goes into capturing the images. From picking the film stock to loading it up and shooting for countless days, and then shipping it off and waiting in anticipation and hoping that at least a couple have come out alright. It’s the best equivalent to any sort of gambling that I’ve ever done in my life. As much as I love sharing the results online for the world to see, at the end of the day, this project really is for me. I have this pretty really fear or memory loss as I grow older, so being able to capture those important moments in time is very important to me. And shooting those moments on film makes them feel just a bit more special, in my opinion.

If you’ve been thinking about shooting on film, go ahead and give it try. Buy a disposable camera. Ask a friend to help you shoot a roll. Search on eBay for days on end for second-hand cameras like I did. DO WHATEVER IT TAKES.

Don’t let this medium die, there really isn’t anything like it.

Shooting Film.

An Introduction.