People ask me, fairly regularly, where to start with film photography. Not which camera to buy — that question answers itself quickly enough — but how to actually think about it. How to stop guessing and start seeing. How to trust the process when you can’t see the results for a week.
For a long time I answered this in individual emails. Then in blog posts. Then in longer blog posts. Then in a series of posts that kept referring back to each other until I realised I wasn’t writing separate pieces at all — I was writing one thing, slowly, over several years.
That thing is now a book.
Photography from the Heart covers the ground I wish someone had covered for me when I started. Not the mechanics — the mechanics are in every manual ever printed. The thinking. How to use the exposure triangle as a creative tool rather than a technical hurdle. How to develop your own film without ruining it. How to decide what to photograph in the first place, and why that question matters more than any of the technical ones.
I’ve been shooting since the mid-1980s. I’ve used cameras that cost nothing and cameras that cost more than they should. I’ve developed film in darkrooms and my bathroom. I’ve taken photographs I’m proud of and a great many more that taught me something. This book is the distillation of all of that — not as a record of my career, but as a guide I would have found genuinely useful at the start.
It’s written the way I write here: plainly, without pretension, with the assumption that you are serious about what you’re doing and don’t need to be talked down to.
You can get it two ways. Buy it directly for 12€ — no email required, no subscription, just the book. Or get it free in exchange for your email address, and I’ll send it to you directly.
Either way, I hope it’s useful.
— Ian
Great when I left the popular travel forums folks there from all over the world asked to write a book on travels or a blog. Well me writing is not my cup of tea and a book seems so long, but a blog uhh interesting, contact a friend in Madrid and blog was it back in 2010 . It has been a wonderful rollercoaster indeed thanks to folks like you. Thank you.
if you sign up with the form you can get the book for free
Ian, that’s great! Congrats! 😎👏
It’s time to pass on the craft as it was passed onto me. Some might say it’s a legacy thing. I think it’s part of adding to a collective memory. Wouldn’t you want somebody guiding you? That’s what I tried to do. It’s the same apptoach i used for the street photography book.
Thank you for liking my posts. Something odd is happening in that I can get 600 visits and yet not a single comment or like. Is it AI stealing my work? No idea, but heartening when loyal followers revisit and communicate! I thought that was the point of creating and sharing.
It all started a couple of months ago. Before that same core of responsive people like yourself.
sometimes yes, AI does the rounds. I doubt very much that you work is being stolen though. I have been guilty not communicating enough and am trying to make amends!