Eager

Shooting film takes patience, patience long lost since the digital age came upon us; technology is usually seen as a means to make communication (and maybe even life) easier.

From my first time setting eyes on electronic mail back 18 years ago to experiencing the ways I communicated with coworkers at the office via email and instant messenger.

We rarely look back at how we interacted with each other on a more personal level.

My parents now email asking me how I'm doing and what's wrong with their computers; they still call but I always seem to be busy (not screening their calls intentionally at all times!).

It never hurts to take a step back to where we came from and this holds true with our photographic roots.

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Shooting my first true frame on a 35mm SLR will always remain a memory in the back of my gargantuan mind.

Rewind back to Seoul, South Korea 16 years ago and you'll see an equally large-headed Ian behind a Nikon FE mounted to a massive Slik tripod at a historical palace.

Snow covered the ground as well as the roof of the building he chose as his target.

The rest was captured on the printed picture sitting in a shoebox behind me; the negatives from that roll will never be found.

Fast forward to yesterday and I've realized that waiting for the perfect moment, perfect to us, the photographer, behind the lens, requires far too much patience for most to bear.

Patience that's all been forgotten.

We've grown too accustomed to immediate results.

Shoot a picture on our five megapixel camera phone / digital point and shoot / camera pen / .
Don't like it?
Delete it!
Take it again.
Wash rinse repeat until you're satisfied.

The LAST thing we'd want is for you to learn from your mistakes, which is no longer possible since we deleted them.

I'm now eager to get my first roll of film developed (yeah, asshole, I don't have a darkroom but eventually will learn how to process film on my own).

Eager to see the successful shots along with the failures, failures that can't be deleted aside from tossing the picture in the trash and snipping out the developed negative and burning it.

Eager to learn more about light and its affect on the way your audience perceives your work.

Eager to continue building upon my photographic foundation.

Yet thankful for being introduced to this addiction, this drug known as photography and attempting to share my view of the world with others...