Photography by Savannah Lauren Shealy: Shooting Film...again

I just got my film for the last semester back from Costco. Yes, I do get it scanned at Costco, not that anyone was wondering. ;) For my final project in my Intermediate class I did a series of portraits of boys, most of them with something partially obscuring their faces, and indeed that was the gist of what I was attempting to shoot, but when i was going over my contact sheet outside the darkroom I ended up choosing some pictures to include in the final set that were less in line with having something in front of their faces, and more just because their expressions were fascinating to me. Thanks to the awesome guys that posed for me, all of my brothers, Seth, Adam, Luke, and Caleb, and my "brothers" Jonathan, Kyle, and Malcolm. You guys are kinda the best.

On a different note, I was just thinking about how I overheard some of my photography classmates in a digital class saying they didn't want to take a film class because of all the work and time that they would have to put into it just to get ONE PICTURE. And I realized I felt really sad when they said that, because I've so grown to appreciate the entire process that goes into shooting just 36 (give or take) exposures, spending half an hour or more developing the film and drying it, cutting it, making contact sheets, editing your choices, making work prints, perfecting your printing time and filters, being so so careful with your process, light, etc, and when your first, second, third, and fourth attempts don't produce the desired result, redoing it again. And just how actually doing the dodging and burning IN the darkroom with your hands makes you so appreciate photoshop and helps with an understanding of what exactly it is that you're doing when you sit down with your mouse and click on a spot of overexposure and make it go away.

Anyway, I think all that to say, shooting film has made me appreciate the beauty of taking time.

So I wrote down a little list of things that I want to take time for, mostly in relation to photography.

take time to make a beautiful image

take time to really see

take time to love the people

take time to love the light

take time to be transparent

take time to see the needs

take time to see what's there

take time to see the empty space

take time to look without the camera

take time to smile to get a smile