Why Film Photography’s Inherent “Delayed Gratification” Is Good For Children
This week I’m getting on my soapbox to once again champion the benefits of film over digital in photography!
My girls are now 3 and 2 and watching them navigate the excitement of advent with awareness this year has really got me pondering the concept of delayed gratification and how this relates to the old-school photography process.
As you may know, I capture all my family portraits on medium format and 35mm film. This means there is the inevitable wait for the photographs after I’ve taken them; a delay of a few weeks while the rolls of film are posted off on their adventure across the Atlantic to the developing team at Richard Photo Lab.
One of the reasons I first started shooting on film was because I am, by nature, a busy person. Amongst my family and friends I’m notorious for not being able to sit still, but when it comes to photography, I slow the pace.
Film forces me to stop and think, to consider composition and light, to be patient for the decisive moments; rather than capturing absolutely everything in the hope that I can edit the results into something worth having afterwards.
For me, film photography is the very essence and definition of delayed gratification, which is the “act of resisting an impulse to take an immediately available reward in the hope of obtaining a more-valued reward in the future”.
The more time I spend with families, the more I realise the importance of delayed gratification on the children I photograph too. If I had a pound for every time a child has said to me “can I see the photo?” immediately after I’ve taken it, I’d be writing this blog from my hammock in the Maldives!
So with that in mind, here are a few of my thoughts on why patience is a virtue and why I think film photography is the ideal remedy to the instant endorphin kick of the digital world.
WHAT THE RESEARCH SAYS
When I started looking into this topic, I went down a fascinating rabbit hole. There is so much research around the benefits of teaching children about delayed gratification, much of it centred on the Marshmallow Test.
What I discovered, is that a child’s ability to wait and be patient for something isn’t inherent, but taught. It is learnt from a feeling of built trust, i.e. a direct result of a child learning that what they were promised will be delivered to them if they wait. So children who are rewarded for patience learn to be more patient.
Not only that, but the research found that children who learn this skill are far more likely to have a more positive experience of adulthood; being able to save for the things they want, study their subject diligently and even make healthier choices for their overall wellbeing, such as exercise and diet.
This evidence certainly relates to the experience I create for my clients, where the goal is to deliver beautifully printed family portraits displayed in albums, adorned on your walls or both.
The digital model means satisfying a child’s curiosity with an immediate display of their photograph on the back of the screen and delivering the edited high resolution file to their parents online for it to likely languish on their computer indefinitely.
The film model does not offer instant viewing. Instead children must wait. But what they receive in the end is so much greater than a digital file. The process of turning a film photograph into physical artwork means they will see the end result from the session every single day, it won’t be hidden away on a digital cloud somewhere lost amongst thousands of other images.
WHY I BELIEVE DELAYED GRATIFICATION IS IMPORTANT
Like you, I’m raising my girls in an era of on-demand television and voice-activated commands and like you I have concerns about how this experience of growing up will affect them. But that’s the way the 2024 cookie crumbles!
So while we can’t shelter our children from the modern world, we can build experiences into their daily lives which teach them the value in waiting. The kind of experiences we were likely to share with our own parents and grandparents, such as planting spring bulbs and waiting for them to grow; baking a cake from scratch and waiting for it to be cooled and iced; and taking pictures on a film camera and waiting to see the photographs.
THE THING ABOUT PHOTOGRAPHING FAMILIES EXCLUSIVELY ON FILM
A year ago, after returning back to full-time work after my second maternity leave, I decided to take my photography business in a different direction, creating family portraits entirely on film. I’d shot on film for many years as a wedding photographer, but never exclusively.
What I hadn’t considered when I ditched my digital camera, was how this method of photography would be entirely alien to modern children.
Every time I get my photography kit out, kids are immediately intrigued by my cumbersome (and arguably quite ugly!) Contax 645 camera. Some have never seen a roll of film before. And for today’s iPhone generation, not being able to look at the photo instantly is mind-blowing!
We forget that for them, this is a new concept and it has quite a wonderful effect. It forces them to forget about what the camera is doing and to be themselves, which is vital in creating the candid family portraits I take.
What’s more, children find the whole process completely magical. I love it when they take an interest; watching me remove and replace a roll of film, before I explain to them how all their photos are inside and that they’ll have to wait to see them. I’m yet to meet a child who isn’t fascinated by this.
WHY I THINK YOU SHOULD HAVE YOUR FAMILY PHOTOS TAKEN ON FILM
Family photos are precious. They are an investment in memories that are guaranteed to appreciate in value with time.
When you have your family’s portraits taken on a film camera, rather than on a digital camera, the end result is entirely different. In my opinion the quality is superior, but that’s only the beginning.
For children there is no distraction of being able to see their photographs straight away, so they start concentrating on playing rather than worrying about what they look like or how they should behave in front of the lens.
For parents, particularly Mums, film is quite freeing. In a world of AI, social media and PhotoShop, the temptation can be to look at your photos and instantly think they aren’t good enough; that they need to be edited or filtered in some way. I get it. But I also challenge it.
When I take your photograph on film, something magic happens. The shutter opens and in that moment light dances on the negative to create a rich, luminous portrait which is both honest and extraordinarily flattering. Photographic grain finds the beauty in everyone.
This notion of delayed gratification is as good for adults as it is for children. It removes distraction and holds little space for self-consciousness. When your family’s photographs are taken on film, you won’t see them until weeks later. So during your family portrait session and during the reveal itself, you’ll feel free to concentrate on the connection between you and those you love most in the world, unencumbered by insecurity.
If this has peaked your interest and you’d like to arrange for your family to be photographed on film, then I’d love to grab a mocha somewhere and learn more about what photographs would mean the most to you. Get in touch to arrange a time or, if you’re not quite ready to book, give me a follow on Instagram or Facebook for daily updates on all things photography.
