In my photography course in college, I learned that there are some situations that nobody can screw up. Really dramatic sky shots are easy for everyone because it is impossible to miss something as big as the sky. On the other hand, there are lots of shots where framing is everything — is worrying about that something a photographer does, or does that make you a photographist?

My experience was that as a poor college student, paying for film and development for bad shots hurt too much, so I took the task of learning composition a priority. With my old Canon A1 I only really had two modes I used, shutter priority and aperture priority, and I had to adjust the exposure dial for snow and the like, but the technical choices of the camera were not like a modern DSLR.

The “ouch” factor in the wallet from bad shots in a film camera made me a better something — photographer or photographist? Still, it was worth it, whatever it is.

That “ouch” factor put me off learning very much with film, I just dare not risk the shots I really wanted to take because I didn’t have the cash to keep buying film and paying for developing. Now I could afford it but would not want to go back to film after enjoying DSLR so much :O)