Finding my way with film

My name is Adam Miles, and I live in a charming village in Derbyshire, England, providing me with plenty of inspiration for my photography. Including photography, I have several hobbies and interests; I enjoy hiking and cycling, I follow the world of Formula 1, and I‘m a keen military aviation enthusiast, but my main interest from being a young boy has always been railways. My passion stemming from time spent with my Grandad, who would regularly take me down to the local station to watch the days comings and goings. Sharing this passion, we would travel on the train to the coast every summer and sometimes, if I was lucky, we’d also go to the National Railway Museum in York, to see the railway locomotives of yesteryear. I vividly remember as a young boy seeing these magnificent pieces of British engineering, standing tall and highly polished, inspiring me to pursue a range of railway related hobbies throughout my life.

For the past 20 years, photography has also played a part in my life. Starting in my early teens using disposable film cameras and later upgrading to a digital Nikon Coolpix ‘point and shoot’ around 2010. By 2016, I had fallen out of love with my Coolpix and my goal became saving up for a DSLR camera, to achieve the quality images that my Nikon wasn’t capable of. Life doesn’t always lend itself to hobbies though, and 2017 was the beginning of some wonderful, but expensive life experiences. Becoming a homeowner, getting married and later welcoming two children into the world meant that one’s new camera fund had been left somewhat dilapidated.

Fast forward to summer 2024, scrolling through social media, a post suddenly caught my attention. A 1960s ‘Railways at Work’ event captured perfectly on black and white 35mm film! The pictures looked like they had been taken straight out of the 60’s; steam locomotives, classic cars and people dressed in period clothing. These images had a vintage look to them that I feel cannot be captured with a digital camera. Seeing these pictures ignited a love of film I didn’t know I had, bringing back memories of the early 2000s capturing my adventures on film. That was the turning point for me, the DSLR dream was no more because I knew exactly how I wanted to photograph the world around me.

The following days were spent researching film cameras, equipment, different film ISO’s and how to shoot a SLR camera. I had very little experience shooting anything other than a ‘point and shoot’, so I searched the web for a good candidate to be my first film camera, and I eventually settled on a Pentax K1000, a manual camera with a 50mm F/1.7 lens, simple enough to help me find my feet. I used the Pentax for a couple of months, shooting test rolls of pretty much anything, in as many different lighting conditions as I could, learning ‘on the job’ about the basics like shutter speeds, apertures and how to properly load film into the camera. Yes, a good percentage of the pictures were no good, but trial and error is the best way to learn, right?

After using the K1000 for a whil, I decided I wanted to try another brand of camera, preferably something with an automatic mode. I found a listing on an online auction site for an Olympus OM2-N. It was described as spares or repair, as the mirror was stuck in the ‘up’ position. Doing some research, I read that the OM2-N needs working batteries to reset the mirror position, so with that information in my back pocket, I decided to put in a bid and won. The camera arrived a few days later, and I put a couple of batteries in, reset the mirror, checked the light meter and shutter speeds were correct. Amazingly, I realised I had just bought a working OM2-N for £15!

And that’s where my Olympus story begins. After a clean, replacement of the light seals and purchasing a few new lenses, off I went with a test roll of film to start shooting. One thing I liked about the OM2-N from the beginning, was the ability to shoot manual or automatic with the click of a switch, meaning I could line up the shot in manual mode, get the shot, then flick the switch to automatic and shoot subsequent frames quickly afterwards without needing to adjust the shutter speed. This comes in useful when I’m out shooting trains as I can get my first shot, then go for a panning shot and a going away shot while only needing to adjust the focus and aperture settings.

I put a lot of time in researching my next shot; one of my favourite things to capture are older trains that still run out on the mainline network, such as steam locomotive specials and diesels that have long been retired but have been kept going by dedicated teams of people. With the use of train tracker websites, I can see when specials are due to pass nearby and once decided what I’d like to photograph, I check maps for a suitable location to shoot from. I then check the weather, identify the position of the sun when I plan to take my shot and pray that it all comes together.

As a beginner I only have a small amount of kit, my OM2-N camera body, a tripod, a hot shoe flash (although I still haven’t tried this yet) and 3 lenses, a 50mm F1.8 lens, a 28-80mm F3.8-4.8 zoom lens and a 75-150mm F/4 zoom lens. Despite my newness to photography, I already have a favoured lens, the 75-150mm. It gives me flexibility with the types of images I’m trying to capture and has enough range to get a zoomed in photo at 150mm, then reset to 75-100mm, getting a second image without too much input. This does depend on the speed of the transport I’m trying to capture, sometimes one capture is all that’s possible.

Something I’ve had to learn is which film stocks best suit my photography and style. I’ve tried to buy a different stock each time, trying different manufacturers, ISO’s and colour, or black and white. There are a few stocks I’ve tried that aren’t for me for numerous reasons, from being too grainy, to just not producing the look I want. There have however, been film stocks that I’ve purchased again, multiple times, the main ones I keep returning to are:

1. Kodak Ultramax ISO 400, a great all-rounder that produces colourful images across bright and dull conditions.
2. Ilford HP5 ISO 400 Plus, a black and white film stock that works across most conditions.
3. Candido ISO 800, a colour negative film great for low light conditions. I’ve used this twice now, it produces a lovely glow when capturing lights in the dark, such as neon signs and colourful lightbulbs.

Currently, I pay to have my film developed by professionals. J&A Photography Studio are a local company that I have used from day one. A quick and reliable service means that I’ve yet to have a go at developing my own film stock. Eventually, I would like to have a go myself but with a busy homelife and a young family, I have little spare time to do so. Instead, it’s great having the option of posting film stock off and a few days later, receiving an email containing quality scans of my images.

For me the motivation to pick up a camera is the thrill of chasing that image that makes me say “Wow, did I take that?” And shooting film makes this moment even more special. Knowing I have one shot, one click of the shutter button to get the image. When I look back on my images, I still remember that ‘click’ for every single one of them, and that’s something more special than I’ve ever experienced shooting digital. I also like having the restriction of only 36 exposures on a film, it makes me focus hard on achieving a great shot and makes me think twice about when I click the shutter button, not wanting to waste an exposure in case another great shot presents itself later in the day, and this is exactly what keeps happening to me.

Although I originally brought the camera to photograph the railways, I keep spotting all kinds of things that are just too good to ignore. As I notice more and more of the world around me since starting my film photography journey, stopping and capturing these moments are no longer just my hobby, but an integral part of my life now.