Disposable cameras have always been a guilty pleasure for me. I love the idea of simply carrying around a film camera with me at all times, and snapping little bits of my day that I don't pick up my phone/digital camera for. I used to use disposable cameras (well, film cameras in general) all the time back in high school, and the days before Instagram or this blog. My mom is very into photography, so I always had a digtal camera growing up, but I preferred using her old film cameras or buying disposables to develop. After I started blogging and got a DSLR, and after I caved in a joined Instagram a little over a year ago (which I a glad I did, I ended up loving it instead of the hatred I had when the app first came out), I didn't use my disposable camera as much as I used to. I decided to change that months ago, and bought a large amount of disposable cameras I found at a store on sale.
This collection of photographs is from the first disposable I developed a couple weeks ago, which is a random assortment of past adventures varying even from seasons (as you can tell, with the snow and fall photographs). The one thing I am still doing poor at is developing the cameras in a descent amount of time, they are actually quite expensive now to get prints and the photographs onto a C.D. I have a handful of disposable cameras that I am currently using, and trying to use daily, so I am hoping to start a schedule of developing one camera a month.
My favorite thing about these cameras, and film in general, is the fact that is it not "right here, right now". I feel like that mindset is something I need to work on for myself and understand that not everything should be so sudden or instant, and using these film cameras.... in a way, is a good break from the instant gratification the past years have thought me. I also love using film because you have no idea how it is going to come out, and how the image will actually look when it is developed. I am also re-learning making mistakes with photography and experimenting with chemical burns/lens burning. I experimented with burning sections of my disposable camera to see how the images would turn out, which ended up not going as I planned, but I couldn't remember the last time I shoot something and it DIDN'T turn out. I don't know about you, but I semi-liked the fact I came away with nothing during the shoot I experimented with. With today's photography, you always get what you want and you know the way the images will turn out.. it was insightful in a way to walk away with simply knowledge. Well, and some interesting wrapped blurry pictures.
