My discovery of analog photography
I began using digital cameras a long time ago without trying to understand the technicalities of it until I got serious about bird photography. Then I really got into the technicalities… shooting thousands of photographs trying to improve my technique and to get beautiful and tricky shots of birds. I certainly had a lot of fun doing it but at one point I needed something different, something simpler and most importantly something more creative.
I began looking for an analog camera and I received a Nikon EM with a Nikon Nikkor series E 50mm 1/1.8 as a present. An analog camera with actual film that you buy and you pay to develop, with silver ions and toxic chemistry that made me think each shot and make only one. A prime lens that would force me to move closer or further by walking. Finally I could take the time to think about the composition of the shot instead of taking as many pictures as fast as I could before a bird would take off. And black and white film with an explosion of contrast!
This was a very welcome change and the Nikon EM served me very well. Its metering accuracy and reliability are impressive, especially knowing that it was made in 1979. However, the EM offering Aperture priority mode only, I’m sometimes limited by the absence of control of the speed and I’ve been looking for a replacement but this will be the subject of another blog post.
In the meantime, here is a picture of a Nikon EM: 
And some of my shots with it:
For some of these shots, I scanned the negs myself, more on this later.
Taking pictures of birds now certainly is a different kind of fun but hey, here is my first analog bird photo: a booted eagle photographed at full zoom 80mm! with auto-focus and sport mode with a Canon EOS 500 on Kodak Ultra 400ASA! I don’t know about you but I don’t see feathers or eyes…
