Recently, I have been contemplating going back to my first photographic love, and shooting black and white film again. It finally got the better of me, and after digging out my old Minolta Maxxum 9, 800si, and XE7 film bodies, which have been stored for some 20 years now, they all seem to be working perfectly after replacing the batteries. So I bought some film and processing chemicals, and it is back to the peace and quiet of the darkroom again for me. It is like trying on an old pair of slippers, or jacket that used to be a favourite for many years. Why would I do this you might ask? Well, let me see, no more checking the white balance, no more looking through an electric view finder. The optical view finders of the above cameras are just super. The tactile experience of loading a roll of film into a camera body, and being very deliberate to pay attention to the quality and direction of the lighting, makes one feel like they are actually in control of the process, and not some built in computer that insists on doing things its way. The only controls you need to worry about, aside from the ASA or ISO of the film, is the aperture and the shutter speeds needed for a decent exposure. The rest is all darkroom magic. No more special effects filters, or special effects modes built into the camera. Just find a pleasing image, determine the exposure, and go click, make a nice simple image in black and white. This image that I am posting tonight was one that I shot about 40 years ago on a visit to Florida, and it was shot with probably an old Minolta SRT101, and 28mm lens. Since I do not have my darkroom set up yet, I scanned the Ilford FP5 negative on my Epson V550 Photo scanner, and added a little sepia in Photo Shop Elements. So I ask myself....in 40 years from now, will any of my digital images still be useable? I certainly won't be making any images of them, and I doubt anyone else will care to either.....let me see, that would make me 119 years old...LOL! Anyway, for what it is worth, I am looking forward to putting some fun back into photography again. Stay tuned....Cheers!