Black & White Photography

When I began apprenticing under Michelle Rainey, a local photographer in Creston, British Columbia, and the co-founder of Rainika Photographik (https://www.rainika.com/), I decided to try out black and white photography since the option was available.

Black and white photography is a lost art that brings together light and dark, joy and mood, texture and abstraction. Though it can be challenging in the sense that once the photo is taken, you cannot see it (unlike digital photos) and in the precarious system of developing, drying, and displaying photos, it is a type of photography that draws the eye to subtle tones that can be commonly missed in colour photography. The simple shades of black, gray, and white can bring an entirely different feel to the photo when tweaked or shifted.

I was given an old Pentax camera, two rolls of film, and an objective to use up all of the film by taking photos. My teacher instructed me on aperture (the opening in the camera lens that lets in a certain amount of light – the larger the aperture, the brighter the photo, and the smaller the aperture, the darker the photo), shutter speed (how fast the photo is taken; the larger the number, the faster the speed), and exposure (a fusion of shutter speed and aperture, it determines the focus and light of the photo). Over the course of a couple weeks, I took photos of trees, mountains, old buildings, industrial pipes – anything that looked interesting. I didn’t know how these photos turned out, so it was merely a process of experimenting.

After I had taken all the photos I could on two rolls of film, my teacher and I developed them together. This was a bit tricky, as because we didn’t have access to a dark room (a dark space where film can safely be taken out of the casing), we had to use a “dark bag”. This meant I had to put my hands in a bag that, essentially, looked like a t-shirt, sleeves for my arms and all, and process the film in that bag without being able to see it. It took a couple practice runs with blank rolls of film, but eventually I felt confident enough to develop my own film. Developing film involves cutting off the “tail” at the end of the roll, fitting the film onto a spool, and placing the spool into a container than cannot let light in, but can allow liquid in. After I had put both spools of my film into the container, we removed it from the dark bag and poured in a series of liquids. These involved chemicals strong enough to make me wrinkle my nose, and water that had to be just the right temperature.

After the film rolls were taken out of the spools (they were safe to expose the the light after being developed) we squeegeed them and hung them to fully dry. About a week later, we cut the film into small strips – leaving the photos on them intact – and my teacher, Michelle, processed them at her photography business. We loaded them onto a USB, and then they were all mine!

I enjoyed black and white photography thoroughly. It was an interesting new way of photography, one I had never experienced before. It had new challenges – developing photos, keeping film safe from light, making sure my aperture, shutter speed, and exposure would combine to make the photo successful. But though I appreciated learning this new sequence of photography, I don’t think I would pursue it. Sadly, I can see why it is becoming a lost art – digital photos are so much more convenient. They don’t require developing, processing, or editing. They are quick, cheap, and accessible. I do think that black and white photography has a different magic than digital photography; a magic that can create depth and emotion with only seemingly three shades.