instant love

I've been reading Pacing the Panic Room for a while. My sister and I swoon over Ryan's gorgeous maternity series he shot and compiled for his wife. And now Ryan has announced a contest that I'd like to a) win, and b) share with you. The embedded video is for a cool book about instant photography. Instant Love is about making memories with Polaroids.

Just last night my husband was chasing our dog around the yard, and it was getting darker and darker. The sky was an amazing midnight blue, navy, almost the color I had just painted my nails (excuse the rough cuticles; I'm not a nail-biter, but I am a cuticle-chewer).

I tried to capture the sky's brilliant color with my iPhone, which normally takes solid photos. But the darkness, the largeness of the sky — the iPhone can't handle that. I grabbed my point-and-shoot camera and tried again. Bleh. I suddenly, bare feet on the wooden deck, longed for film.

I remembered the Intro to Photojournalism summer class I took in college. We were the last class to use film; after that it was all digital. I yearned for the magic of patience, of taking the time to set up a shot, ponder the light, the composition. It is so easy to click, click, click — taking shots that aren't quite right. It's so easy to delete what I don't want, that I spend less time worrying about the integrity of the shot and more time taking pictures. I wanted to see that ticker count down the number of chances I had left. The moment of excitement when you've finished the roll, when you can finally see what you've captured.

My husband's late grandfather was into photography. I never got to meet him. His old cameras and filters are floating around in the family. I suddenly longed for those cameras, cameras that I've never seen that belonged to a man I never met. A man that, should I have a child in the future, will be a part of that child. Selfishly, maybe, I wanted something tangible of his. Selfishly, I wanted those gritty, beautiful, old school cameras.

So, back to the point. I embedded this video to share it with you and to increase my own chances of winning the oh-so-lovely camera giveaway from Pacing the Panic Room. I'm all about full disclosure here. You can give it a shot, too. Enter here.

And to anyone reading this who might be shooting photos with real film: Where do you buy it? What's the best camera to get reacquainted with?