BY KATIE LANDRY

Image taken with a DSLR camera. By Katie

Landry.

IT is easy in this day and age to for-get that photography once could only be captured with film. The Nikon D1, released in 1999 was the first DSLR (digital single lens reflex) camera made by a major manufacturer. This new digital camera was generally easy to use and did not require film. Digital photography spiked in popularity and has only continued to grad-ually advance since. Cell phones with built in cameras were released in 2002, followed by the iPhone in 2007. Present day smartphones can have camera quality as good as a professional DSLR or film camera. Everyone has their own opinion on which device takes the best images,

but each have their own particu-lar pros and cons. However, there are generally less people that pre-fer film photography over the oth-er types, but some people do still think old fashioned is the best way to go.

Image taken with a film camera. By Katie Landry.

David Landry, 53, was 18 when he began exploring photography as a fine art form. He saw the pho-tographs of a family member that had went to school in Philadelphia, PA to study photography, and be-came interested in taking his own photographs. He purchased a cam-era and in his free time, got in his car and drove until he found some-thing he wanted to photograph. Over the years, Landry developed his collection of lenses and add-ons for his film camera, the Canon F1. The camera body, in 1985 cost $550, which was a lot of money

back then. More recently, Landry uses DSLR cameras for his photography and does not frequently take pictures on his cellphone. The new technology is substantially more convenient and affordable in the long run, howev-er he does regularly think back on shooting with film. “I regret getting rid of it [the film camera], but I know I would never use it if I did still have it,” Landry conceded. One of Landry’s most loved shots, he took in Glacier National Park in Montana. It featured a mountain goat that him and his father saw while at a parking lot. “The moun-tain goats would like to come and drink antifreeze that leaked from the cars,” Landry recalled. “The photo looks like the goat is in the middle of nowhere, but it was actually around one hundred cars.” Although Landry misses his film camera, he does prefer digital cam-eras now, just like most other people. They are more convenient and easy to use. There is no need for film, which saves a considerable amount of mon-ey, and uploading photos directly to a computer is a plus for many peo-ple. Film photography should still be preserved and utilized as an art

form, though. It is important to still incorporate the original process into photography, so photographers can really explore which form they pre-fer to produce their best work.

Photographs on Film by David Landry