Photography is a Top Driver in Silver Demand, Showing Film’s Resurgence

[Two23]

Petrochemical-related cost increases are a major factor today, especially the film base itself. Color film and paper uses relatively little silver per comparable surface area. Plant maintenance and re-tooling, etc - now that's gotta be a huge part of it, unless we want to see the Kodak coating operation fall apart through maintenance neglect like the Efke plant did. Supply chains are a mess right now. Every little missing link in the chain has consequences - either mfg slowdown or higher rates for limited supply. If that is crippling the major auto makers with a lot of clout, what do you think it's doing to niche businesses like film makers?

At the moment I need another box of 8x10 Portra 160 for making contact internegatives, but at around $35 per sheet for film and processing ... Yikes! Guess I'll procrastinate and just go out and shoot some of the 8x10 Ektar I already have on hand, which doesn't need to go through an interneg to print. Well, I won't do even that until the price of gas drops more and tempts me on a worthy road trip. In the meantime, there's always 4x5, and in 8x10, at least comparatively affordable black and white film. Glad I have a big stash of 8x10 TMax in the freezer too. No way I'd opt for Triassic-X in this day and age.

I just arrived in Western Missouri. Gas is $3.28, How about a road trip here?


Kent in SD

[Drew Wiley]

No thanks. A bit too far. My aging butt wouldn't enjoy that long a haul on the truck seat. I'd be happy this autumn just to get in a decent loop over the top and into the desert with the 8x10 for a little while. Once it's down to four bucks a gallon average, that's fine. Even in the best of years it can be over six in some remoter locations. The tricky thing is really the weather and the fires - one just doesn't know anymore. But in former years late October or early Nov was often nice because flashfloods in the canyons quiet down, and there is a fair amount of fall color left. But extreme drought has probably screwed up that formula, and the arrival of early blizzards is always a possibility too. Plus a lot of backroad washout probably haven't been fixed yet. I basically just want to reconnect with some raw geology color that places like Missouri aren't know for. If push comes to shove, I could just drive down the freeway an hour and fill in an application for any Space-X trip scheduled for the moon, and then watch my credit card limit bounce all the way there by itself.

[esearing]

I watched the photographers shoot countless frames at my daughters wedding last night and never had the urge to pick up one of their cameras even though they told me I could - nor want to edit the 5 hours of video or the mind numbing quantity of shots. Film photography now lives on the same plane as painting , sculpting, fly fishing, stamp collecting, and model railroad building. We do it for the joy and challenges it brings us. I no longer look at digital images the same way I look at a hand processed/printed photograph.