the alchemy of film

Now you might be wondering, why shoot film? Why not just take a picture on your phone? Sure, a phone can do the trick in a pinch, but if you really want to have an appreciation for photography it's good to become familiar with other mediums. You also might be asking yourself, what's the difference? And to that I say, it's all about the quality. When it comes down to it, film is a chemical process whereas shooting digital it's all about 0's and 1's logged into a computer. When relying on technology like that photography becomes binary and boring. Film is different, it depends on light and chemicals which push through a lens- it's chemistry. That's the real difference.
The results of that difference can be seen in the final photo. Analog cameras capture all the latitudes of light and shadow where a digital camera WISHES it could do that. The coloring of a film photo is easy to see, the bright colors are diluted and it begins to look like a watercolor painting. You can buy an expensive digital camera, but in the end you more than likely will be trying to whittle the photo back to the basics. My dad always says film photography has a sort of magic to it and claims a film photographer is closely related to an alchemist. Needless to say, the digital and film world are very different from each other.
However, shooting film is not some sort of angel in disguise. It has it's own set of flaws. Some cons to shooting film would be the wait period. Our society is so demanding of instant gratification and the amount of time it takes to go from shooting to receiving your film can be annoying. This is usually the process I experience:
a roll is purchased
the roll is shot (this process usually takes a few weeks depending on how much you shoot a day)
the roll is taken to a place that is able to develop film, like a camera store (unless you have a darkroom of your own)
the development of the roll takes about 3-5 business days
the photos are then given back to the photographer
congrats!
Typically people aren't fond of this elongated timeline and would much rather snap away millions of  shots per minute. Of course this is all a personal preference, and it's just that shooting film is mine.