When I think about taking pictures now as opposed to when I was just starting off, I am so grateful for the room for error! There was something so serene about the dark room though, it really had to be perfect. Not only could you not go back and delete and reshoot, but you had to actually trust yourself that you knew what you were doing. Setting the F-stop, creating a cheat sheet to talk around a college campus with and stop every shot to check that you're shooting with the right aperture, the right f stop the right focus. I'll admit I feel a little less stressed because I know I can study my light, change my ISO and take a practice shot and adjust. I found this little gem. My children wanted so badly to see how it works. I don't even know if I can wind the film up properly any more. Remember "kiss marks" on your film you had to unwind in the complete darkness room (complete darkness) and none of the film could touch itself or it would leave those ~ pretty artistic ~ kiss marks on the film. The fumes, the process, the lighting, the drying, the buying each other lunches while we waited for our film to process. It's sad to think they don't make all the different types of film we got to experiment with because editing and digital can replicate much of the same effects. Like a record to a download though, it's just not as crisp. Great reads: Films Worth Shooting Before They're Gone

Why These Photographers are Still Shooting Film, and Why It's Worth It.