Welcome to Brian Riedel Photography in Hazleton, PA. Years ago, back when film photography was king and digital was just a twinkle in some engineers eye at Eastman/Kodak. I was introduced to photography. Simple as that, I learned, trained, developed (my skills and film), and became one with the 35 mm world. For me medium and large format photography was for the studio houses, the serious professionals! I was just a young guy learning it all. And to top it all off, it was EXPENSIVE! Again, a young guy, just out of art school.
So I took my 35 mm camera (an old Pentax), bought a second camera (the Canon Elan 7) and started on my road to wedding photography. As time moved on, so did my interests and from that I finally made the transition to digital buying my first digital camera Canon T2. Both served me well. Both taught me lessons. But it wasn’t until I made the move a few years ago into the world of Sony cameras that it really took off for me. With Sony there were so many options, so much more learning from their platforms. But in the end something was missing. Something felt unfinished, incomplete… I wanted more.
I wanted to be able to experience what I did when I shot film. But I wanted what the big guys and girls had. So last month, I know only a month ago, I made my first big purchase. I went back to film!
I understand its film, and with all of the technology out there I could have had my pick of some pretty amazing cameras from some spectacular platforms. But what I wanted they didn’t have. I wanted the romance, the richness, the consistent inconsistency of film photography. Working that much harder, taking my time to meter the light, composing the frame for the right shot, and getting only one or two chances to get it right.
Some may argue that I made a bad choice. But that’s where their opinion and mine differ. I feel that for me while technology is beautiful and amazing and almost endless, it leaves something out of the frame. It makes great images, but when the point of the task is to get as may as possible and pick the best out of 100 options (of the same thing). Then I feel that what you gain in pixels you loose in true image quality. Now I won’t be putting down and packing up my Sony anytime soon, I will be picking up my Canon FD and Mamiya RB67 a lot more.
But those are the lessons we learn through life and photography, to slow down, create and live in the moment.
Brian Riedel Photography Hazleton address and phone