Adria Lea Photography |Film Photography

I have been telling you for a while now that there are so many amazing new things coming to Adria Lea Photography, and with my new years goals, I’ve planned on blogging more, and keeping you all updated. Well, we are over 5 weeks into the year, and that part hasn’t gone quite as I had hoped. With this New Year, there are so many things I am excited about, both with my business and my personal life. We are coming up on my daughter’s one-year anniversary of her adoption date. Our new baby girl, Eile, will be making her arrival by May, I already have almost twice as many weddings booked this year than last year, and we are only in February!! And thats without even getting started on film photography. 

My newest adventure, one that I am soooooo excited about (film photography, if you haven’t figured it out), is what I really want to tell you about today. If you follow my Instagram, you may have heard a little bit about it, but I want to explain more. When I first started photography, I was finishing my bachelor’s degree at the School of Architecture at UTA. I took a film photography elective because I always had this huge admiration for photography. I instantly fell in love! We were using film, photographing in black and white, and processing and developing in the dark room. It was love at first sight. When my professors started seeing my work, they all highly encouraged me to get into Architectural Photography, but I am such a people person, and I knew I couldn’t just talk to walls all day. My knowledge at this point was VERY basic. The camera I shot with was as basic as it gets, with all manual settings. I wanted all the bells and whistles! So what did I do when I graduated? I spent all of my money on digital photography gear (because it was the best, duh) and got a job in retail while I built my skills.

I’ll tell you what, I am SO GLAD I have no idea where those first digital photos are. I mean seriously y’all, they were BAD! I’m talking like, I took photos of my friend’s newborn baby where I turned the photo black and white, but left the flowers in color… so pretty much the baby looks dead. Please forgive me, Lauren! I learned quickly that editing “tricks” and photo fads come and go very quickly. As my skills developed, I realized it was actually harder to take a photo in it’s purest form and to edit it beautifully, but still make it look timeless. This became the goal for my work. I wasn’t going to hide behind filters that washed away all of the detail in the photo, so you couldn’t tell I did such an awful job!

One of my biggest lessons I’ve learned in Photography is that there is always more to learn. I have committed myself to constantly studying photography, evaluating my work, and challenging myself to do better. But this past year, I hit a bit of a wall. I needed a new challenge.

I have dreamed for a long time of going back to film photography, but I have been somewhat afraid of it. I love how pure and beautiful it is. There is a character to it that can’t be replaced. It was a dream I knew would take a lot of money, and a lot of time. All of the basic knowledge I learned in that photography class 12+ years ago, and all that I know with digital photography since then has only somewhat prepared me. It is a completely different world with new rules and new excitement!

So in the first week of January, I was watching my sweet Emmy dancing around the living room with music on, holding her baby doll by the arms and swinging her around to the music. In that moment I got this strange feeling and said to myself, “now that is a moment that could only be captured properly on film.” I decided then and there that with the new baby on the way, I want to capture life differently, and a little more slowly than what digital can offer.

So this past month, I dove in. Instead of spending the month working on blogging and my website, I researched gear, purchased it, and studied, studied, studied!! I was SO SCARED to shoot my first roll of film, but I finally felt like I was ready. I dressed Emmy up and a beautiful gown from Dollcake, called the amazing Domonie at Wild Rose Events for a floral crown, and took her out for about 15 minutes at sunset. I am so happy with the results!! I realize I have such a LONG WAY to go, and I will probably look back at these photos one day and cringe at all of the ways I could have done it better, but for now… it’s a start. And a really exciting one!!