Authenticity

I have a digital camera that can simulate film photography. And folks this is more than simply adding some noise to the picture and calling it 'grain'. Fuji have gone out of their way to make the digital processing behave like film even simulating how grain behaves around areas of high contrast etc. And the Acros film simulation is wonderful.

I took my Fuji camera out to the lake this weekend and shot Acros. I have a manual lens that I use for zone focusing and it has a lot in common with my vintage lenses. With that setup I can get some really nice looking pictures.

It makes you question if film is even worth fooling with.

My answer is yes.

Lomography

The idea of lomography is that you always carry a cheap camera with you and shoot with abandon. Take pictures everywhere! Take pictures from your hip!

There are a lot of situations, I would say most situations, where you do not want to carry an expensive digital camera. If you really want to capture your life and your situation you probably want a plastic camera in the dashboard of your car. Your life is not a photo shoot that you can plan and control for.

Authenticity

In the year of our Lord 2026 almost nothing is real. This is a sad fact. The art is an A.I. hallucination, the music is an A.I. hallucination, you don't own the games, you don't own the books. Even your date posted an A.I. enhanced picture from her phone that gave her cat ears. It's all a bit tiresome.

When you hold a black and white picture in your hand that was shot on film you feel it. I cannot express it better than that. When you see real film brother you know what you are looking at.

Last month I created my own personal photo lab. The picture above was one of the first that I developed. All I can tell you is that there is no substitute for authentic film photography.