 When I look at a role of film, I see an invitation to discovery. Let's see where this role of film takes us. My name is David Patton. When I started photography, I wanted to make art. But with bills to pay and a family to feed, I decided it would be better to be a working photographer than a starving artist. So I took a job as a photojournalist. 25 years and thousands of assignments later, it was time to go back to my first love. Come along as I follow my passion trying to create art that shows the essence of nature in a photograph. I'll be sharing my successes and my failures in hopes to inspire and educate. This is my journey. This is riding the edge. Keep it simple. That's my philosophy for photography. Simple doesn't always mean easy. It's really more of a state of mind. With my photography, I don't add complexity unless I think I need it to make the photo. Not a lot of complexity in this scene. I'm really liking the vertical element here. With the addition of mist and fog, that's really helping me simplify the composition. I'm not really sure about this front tree. It really has a strange lean, but that might also make the image a little more interesting. I'm a little concerned with that little bow in the base of it. Fog and mist does have a tendency to simplify compositions. The fog's kind of lifting, but we've got this beautiful glow from the lake hitting the side of these trees. There's a nice sense of depth here that it's really a basic shot. I'm choosing to do it vertically, focusing on this slanted tree here and then trying to space everything out. These three here, kind of playing with these using them as a way to plough for each other. I wish there was a little bit more fog. Seems like it's coming and going. Well, it's driving by and I saw this old apple tree. I don't know if it's a wild apple or something somebody planted, but we're in December, they're coming out of the tree. I think, I really want to try to make a photo here. I think these golden, these light colored apples against the darker background might stand out pretty good. It's just trying to find a good combination, a good cluster, a good arrangement of apples to have some balance is the trick. My longest lens with me right now is a 135. I almost wish I had a 200 millimeter, because I'd have to get a little closer to the tree and shoot up on it more than I would like. If I had a 200 I could get back a little further and not feel like I'm shooting up on the tree. But I think I can still make something work with this lens. I almost didn't stop. I thought, you know, that might be worth playing with. It might be kind of an interesting RC abstract looking image. Returning time and time again, revisiting the same compositions when the elements change can give you a completely different photograph. A month ago or so I made a similar shot here and I noticed it was kind of foggy in the hills so I thought I might come out and try this composition again and see if it gets a little bit better with a little more atmosphere, a little more mist, a little fog. We don't get a lot of fog out here, so when there's some fog in these hills, if I get a chance I like to run out here and see if I can make a photograph. It's a very similar composition that I've made out here before. But having the fog on the hill over there does add a little bit of drama to the scene. Keeping with the theme of simplicity, I've decided to dedicate my efforts in 2024 to film photography. I've said in the last couple of videos that I'm a film photographer and that that's the case. It's my intent that I do all my photography with film on film. Which means if I'm doing my photography on film, this channel is going to be a film photography channel for at least this year. I'm looking forward to it. I think it's going to be a fun adventure and exciting. I have a couple of projects I'm working on and none of those projects will be affected by what medium I decide to shoot. Film will work just fine. It might work better on some of the projects I'm working on. And yes, it's more expensive but I also feel like if it's worth making a photo of, it's worth the cost. So I hope you decide you want to join me in 2024. I hope you want to join me on my little journey in film photography. As I said at the beginning of this video, I look at each role of film as invitation for discovery. And that's something I'm really looking forward to this next year. I'm not sure why this scene has struck a chord with me. I keep revisiting this stand of trees in a forest not far from where I live. I think it's just the way the branches kind of stick out and cross. I haven't completely been satisfied with photos I've made here and I'm not sure today's going to be any different. I'm not really sure where I'm going to go from here. Let me just walk around a little bit and see if something jumps out at us. I've ended up blowing cut a few frames on this area so I'm not going to have a lot to show from this role of film. That's okay I guess. That's how it goes sometimes. I noticed these leafless trees here in the fog from a distance. And I'm on a footbridge here. I'm using a 135mm lens to crop in really tight. Focus on the middle to upper part of these last half of these trees. I think they work the best together. Getting some interesting sidelight in the fog. Giving some texture to these nice shaping texture to these trees. It's kind of an interesting piece. You just have to kind of visualize it what it would look like without all this other stuff around it. A lot of these crossing lines almost like spider web. It's pretty cool. I'm always attracted to this kind of stuff. They almost look better if you squint a little bit. Well I saw this scene. This house driving by and I just have been all I have is a 50 on my camera. I'm going to run back and I think I have my wide angle. I think this is a pretty cool scene. The light rays and the sidelight of trees. Pretty cool. Probably end up finishing my role here. The 50 is probably good enough. I'm afraid if I run back to the car I'm going to miss some good light. I'm going to get back to shooting. I'll be back with you in a bit. The back lit fog has moved through the woods now. That's not near as cool. Hopefully I got something. I think this probably is going to be my last frames on this role. I'm probably getting close to round 35. So I don't imagine I'm going to get a whole lot more. I can squeeze a couple more frames but there really isn't anything here now that's worth sitting up for. This role is done. This little adventure is over. It's time to get this back to the house and develop it and see what we got. I hope you decide to come along this next year. I think it's going to be a lot of fun. If you like coming along on my photography journey and would like to help keep me out making photos and videos consider picking up one of my zines or visit my PayPal donation page at my website Most of all don't forget to like and subscribe and why not leave a comment introducing yourself. I'm always interested in who stopped by my channel to say hello. So until next time thanks for coming along for the ride.