The actual statistics on the survey showed almost 8% of photographers are shooting film exclusively, while 9% said less than 50% of the time.  Jose Villa would be a great example of a photographer totally dedicated to film, with Joe Buissink in the category of shooting both film and digital.  The remaining 83% cast their votes for “not at all” and “rarely”, which isn’t surprising.  I’m not about to proclaim myself a rocket scientist, but 322 people answered the poll, enough to simply make it an interesting statistic.

Jose and Joe aren’t alone.  Check out Elizabeth Messina, Jonathan Canlas, Lisa Lefkowitz and Rodney Lough Jr just to name a few.  All film shooters and each doing remarkable work.

About four years ago I was at a gallery opening of Chris Ranier’s in Santa Monica.  The work was shot on Hasselblad with film.  The images were scanned and then printed on an Epson Stylus 9800, since replaced with even better technology with the 9880 and 9900.  Media 27, one of my most favorite creative companies on planet earth, did the images and produced Ancient Marks, the subject of the exhibit.   The work was spectacular with an amazing tonal range.  Every image was at least 40×40 and exquisite.   Without question Chris and Media 27 took advantage of both technologies to create some of the most stunning images I’ve ever seen!

So, while some of you are in mourning over the loss of film, I wouldn’t wear totally black just yet.   In fact, there was an article in the Sunday Los Angeles Times about 18 months ago that profiled a wedding photographer in L.A.  She talked about how she shoots exclusively on film, positioning herself as an artist and a craftsman!  

What goes around, comes around and it sure is fun seeing that it’s film.