Using the light, by Andrew Miller

"The process of shooting film appeals to me more. "

Tell us about yourself.

I'm 35 years old. I am from Ohio but currently live on Maui via Chicago. I make a living on Maui with photography, family portraits on the beach, real estate, and will soon be doing work for magazines and things like that. Have to be diverse out here.

When and how did the film journey begin for you?

That's very easy to answer. I learned on film because I started photography before there was much of a digital market. I changed high schools after freshman year to a high school that offered photography. So I started shooting B&W film in 1998. From the 2000-2005 I was a photography student at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago where I worked exclusively with film.

What drives you to keep shooting film?

Mainly the process and the look. Plus I get a lot more personal satisfaction from shooting film. When I was in college I stubbornly refused to take any digital classes thinking I would only shoot film. Of course that didn't happen and I am glad to be shooting digital for pretty much all of the photography I do on Maui to earn a living. The more serious portraiture or art that I do I want to be on film. I took a years long break from film in the late '00s but now I have been shooting more than ever since I was a student.

When I shoot models it is a combination of film/digital. The main reason is in case anything were to happen to the film, I don't want to lose all the work from a shoot. My most recent trip to LA was the first time I relied more on film. Most of the shoots I only presented the images from film, but then a couple where the digital came out better.

The process of shooting film appeals to me more. Perhaps because it's what I learned on most likely but I prefer to shoot very deliberately. Even when I shoot digital I shoot slowly. Trying to get it as "correct" as possible on camera. The less editing I have to do the better. Plus I really don't want to have a thousand images to look at for a single shoot.

Tell us about the project

The project doesn't have a name. I am pretty lazy with names. I usually just get them from music or films. This shoot was a result of a workshop I went to in LA. The model's name is Natalie Horton. It's pretty simple. Just trying to use the light in the room to capture different moods. I have been trying to use shadows a lot more lately. No big concept here. Pretty much everything I shoot is 120 film. For this a combination of a Pentax 6x7 and Mamiya RZ67, which has been my preferred ratio lately.

You can find Andrew Miller here:
www.thedarkergrain.com,
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