Expired Streets On Expired colors

I have been a professional photographer for sometime now, and some of you know me well enough to know I tried well hard enough to both like and believe in digital.
However, things did not turn out the way they probably should have. Basically, the more I tried, the more I disliked it.

It's now been (also) quite sometime I have been teaching photography; all I try to do is to make both sure and clear the differences of those mediums to my students. Some of them will catch that right away, other will just shrug it off, and yet more ones will be intrigued by the picture itself, and not the medium.
I feel that, as a teacher, I have the responsibility of making sure what the differences are between analog and digital.
Each time I do explain that, each time (at least for me) that gap increases.
Each time I do explain that, my classes move more towards analog.

Olympus OM-1 / Zuiko OM 24mm 1:2.8
Fuji ProPlusII 200 (expired)
Epson Perfection 4490

I like my classes being a mixture of theory and practise. No two classes are alike, and I like to keep it that way. Depending on their levels, students will be allowed to practise with their own cameras, but only after having made sure that (at least) some basic photography concepts are well clear to them.

And one thing I love doing with them is shooting the streets.

Olympus OM-1 / Zuiko 35mm 1:2.8
Fuji ProPlusII 200 (expired)
Epson Perfection 4490

Olympus OM-1 / Zuiko OM 35mm 1:2.8
Minolta VX100 (expired 2007)
Epson Perfection 4490

Little by little, I have come to love teaching analog photography.
Watching, feeling, being an active part into their enthusiasm for rediscovering this 'new' (to them} medium is something nothing short of a high. And that happens each time, no exceptions.

Olympus OM-1 / Zuiko OM 35mm 1:2.8
Minolta VX100 (expired 2007)
Epson Perfection 4490

So, as I wander around the streets of Bogotá with my students, I'm always fascinated by how we (yes, me included) perceive our own reality. Meaning, the process by which we all see things differently. No matter how many we are, no matter where we are standing, we will never take the 'same' picture. That will obviously depend on the angle, the photographer's height, etc.
But I also always tell my students that the picture-taking process starts well before that picture-taking moment.

Right before leaving, right before hitting the streets, I tell my students to pick up one and one camera only, one and one fixed focal length lens only, one and one film only.
So, by selecting what they end up selecting, they start making their own visual choices on how they're about to view the world they live.
It might not be that clear at first, but it sure gets into their minds in a short while.

Olympus OM-1 / Zuiko OM 24mm 1:2.8
Fuji ProPlusII 200 (expired)
Epson Perfection 4490

Moreover, when I go out with them, I like to be part of them. For many reasons, but mainly because 1) I am a photographer and b) you never really stop learning.
I will usually leave with my lovely Olympus OM-1 (now I've got two, but that's yet another story,) and anyone of my wonderful Zuiko OM glasses.
Once again, Whichever I pick will determine how I will be perceiving the world at that given moment in time... Gotcha?

Same thing on selecting the right the film; usually it will be one of the black and white ones that sit on my fridge (usually either a TriX, or a TMax 400, or an Ilford Pan 400.)
But sometimes I find somewhere and will buy very old, expired color films, something of yet another high. It just is so much fun.
And, as you might have already noticed, in this post I decided to put only pictures taken with my OM-1 and a variety of expired color films. They really show the city for what it really is: a crazy place.

Olympus OM-1 / Zuiko OM 35mm 1:2.8
Fuji ProPlusII 100 (expired)
Epson Perfection 4490

Olympus OM-1 / Zuiko OM 50mm 1:1.4
Fuji ProPlusII 100 (expired)
Epson Perfection 4490

Finally, another point I try make quite clear to my students, is that photography (although butchered to death by the digital medium) shall still be seen as a long creative process.
Meaning, you cannot not rush any step.
And that is why (to me) analog keeps on being way superior to digital; with analog you don't get that 'instant high' by looking at you've just snapped at through the camera display. With analog, the picture you have just taken will stay with you for a relatively long time, and that will allow the 'good picture' to grow in you. And that, believe me, is huge.

Olympus OM-1 / Zuiko OM 50mm 1:1.4
Fuji ProPlusII 100 (expired)
Epson Perfection 4490

Olympus OM-1 / Zuiko OM 50mm 1:1.4
Kodak Gold 200 (expired)
Epson Perfection 4490

Olympus OM-1 / Zuiko OM 24mm 1:2.8
Fuji ProPlusII 100 (expired)
Epson Perfection 4490

Have fun, shoot film. And in the meantime, learn from it.

Peace out.