alex_furman1

<p>John, that's a truly awesome photo.<br>

Tip my hat.</p>

John Sheridan

http://johnsheridanart.com/digital_printing1.htm

He does awesome work at about half the price of a commercial lab.

One thing that has always amused me in threads like this is how strong of a desire we all seem to feel in order

to justify our own decisions. Those who finally went out and got that DSLR they've been eying for a while write

pages and pages of high prose on the imminent death of film while others, who just spent their cash on a film

scanner will type up response after response about the soul that is lost in digital sensors, superior mid-tones

that only HP5+ will produce and so on and so forth.

The only thing I personally want to say to the original poster is a simple suggestion. Take that DSLR of yours

and, drumroll, take more pictures. The time you waste writing and re-writing the same two or three arguments is

better spent doing just about anything else. This got old a long time ago. It really has.

And no, film is not going away any time soon. It will likely get more expensive, but will be available to

hobbyists for the foreseeable future. It's cheap and easy enough to produce (unlike vacuum tubes) and is bound to

hold on to a small but dedicated following pretty much indefinitely.

Enjoy.

And yes, I shoot film. And digital too.

Good to know that i'm not the only one :)

I've gotten a completely blank roll of film twice in the past few months, once with edge markings - loaded the film the wrong way - and once without - a pre-mixed Rodinal 1:50 going bad in a sealed bottle. I am certain that both of those rolls contained at least one masterpiece each.

In an case, I'm still learning the analog ways. I now mix my rodinal from syrup immediately prior to developing and I doubt I'll be loading film the wrong way any time soon.

my first ever <a

href="http://images110.fotki.com/v1114/photos/2/280274/5816136/marina4-

vi.jpg">image</a> in the exact same situation a couple of months ago. i've gotten a lot

better since then.

I actually kinda like your shot. It's contrasty as hell due to this lighting conditions you're shooting in - bright light, dark shadows. In this case, I actually think it works well for you even if it doesn't seem to be what you were aiming at.

I'd do this: think about what it it you're trying to achieve with a particular shot. Think about what kind of lighting conditions would be best to capture it, how you wanna compose the frame, what kind of a reaction you want ot get out of the audience. When all the pieces are lined up, you may wanna come here for advise _before_ pressing the shutter and then, after you've developed the film, share your results for constructive criticism.

As it is, you're presenting and image that seems just fine to me. I'm not sure what you were trying to do and where you think you failed.