Brandi Smyth Photography

I always hope to stay inspired.  I never want to feel like I’ve accomplished it all or that I know it all, because what else is there after that? I continue to educate myself & challenge myself in different ways, through all aspects of life. This year I wanted to focus on photography, I wanted to learn something new - so I set my goal on beginning to learn and shoot film. Before I even had a film camera I signed up for the FIND workshop in NOLA. I figured if I was really going to do this that signing up and paying my deposit 8 months in advance would hold me to that. I soon after bought a 35mm camera just to get my feet wet, test the waters and experiment. I couldn’t go to this workshop not knowing anything right?!  My plan was to be comfortable with film, shooting medium format instead of 35mm and feeling very confident in my skills before even attending the workshop …. WELL leave it to me to be a procrastinator … fast forward 8 months later, and feeling so NOT confident and very clueless it was time for the workshop! So ready or not … I ended up renting a medium format camera to take down to New Orleans - and just hoped for the best! I believe my first questions was “how do I load this film”?? 

While I felt challenged and extremely unsure of myself the entire time, I gave it my all … Thanks to Jonathan Canlas for being encouraging and putting up with my million questions. I am so glad I stuck through it and am happy to announce that I now own my very own medium format camera =) … I’m using it regularly and loving it! I still have a lot of learning to do when it comes to film but my first REAL attempt wasn’t so bad …. 

SO here are some shots I got while down in New Orleans using nothing but film (go me!)