Hasselblad Ballet with David Teran
Summary
In this episode, David Teran discusses his journey from wanting to be a chef to becoming a photographer. He shares how he fell in love with film photography and his passion for capturing ballerinas outside of the ballet. David emphasizes the importance of the Hasselblad camera in his work and the focus on creating visually stunning photographs. He also highlights the unique experience of shooting film and the limited number of frames available. In this conversation, David discusses his approach to ballet photography and the challenges of capturing unique and memorable shots with limited frames. He explains his preference for shooting on film and the magic of not knowing the outcome until the film is developed. David also shares his favorite locations for ballet photography and his inspiration from non-ballet photographers. He mentions his upcoming book and hints at a potential second project. Lastly, he talks about his process of developing and digitizing film.
David Teran https://www.hasselbladballet.com/
David Teran (00:00.85)
David, thank you so much for joining me today. I'm really excited to have you on. I actually have been following you for a long time. I don't know if you know this, but I've been following you for a really long time. And I sure you don't. I'm one of those like.
David (00:24.115)
I don't, but...
David (00:28.151)
Bye.
David Teran (00:28.97)
silent stalker types on Instagram sometimes. So yes, so it's really nice to finally meet you and have you on. So why don't we just jump into this? Why don't you tell everybody how you got into photography?
David (00:44.61)
So I, it's a funny question. I, getting out of high school, I wanted to be a chef. I saw the movie Ratatouille and I was like, that's what I wanna do for the rest of my life. And I applied to culinary school and my friend of mine said, hey, why don't you buy a camera to take pictures of your food? And I was like, okay, this is like 2008, so before Instagram for sure.
I don't know why he told me to take pictures of my food, but I bought a camera and at 18 years old, friends and girls asked me for pictures and I was like, yeah, I'll take your pictures. So it was just kind of a way for me to talk to people. Mainly pretty gross. I won't lie. And people started liking my pictures more than like my food.
And then so one day a friend of mine said, hey, I worked for this client of mine. He has a favor. Can you take pictures of a kid that he's, a musician, child prodigy, that he's trying to help get to Russia to study and do some Russian piano story. And I'm like, okay. I took some pictures of the kid and the client. To this day, he's my biggest client, but he's like a six-time Latin Grammy singer.
And he's like, Hey, David, I love your work. You should give up being a chef. Your pictures are gonna be seen around the world. And I'm like, what are you talking about? In my head, I'm like, I wanna be a chef. And he says, no, David, photography's your calling. And I'm like, whatever, man. I didn't really say that, but in my head, that's kind of the conversation I'm having. I'm like, this guy's crazy. I'm like, you know, my pictures are gonna be seen around the world. And sure enough, two years later, he hires me to photograph.
his then most recent album cover, and those pictures were seen in like 20 countries on billboards around the world. And so he kind of like fulfilled that prophecy. It was like a self-fulfilling prophecy that he did for me. That album ended up winning a Grammy, a Latin Grammy. So like those pictures were like, they for sure were seen all around the world. And then so, yeah, that's kind of how you got into photography. Or into photography, yeah.
David Teran (02:54.643)
Wow.
David Teran (03:00.254)
Are we allowed to know who this Grammy winner is?
David (03:02.77)
Yeah, his name is Marcos Witt. He's really big in the Latin Christian world. So like if in that world he's big, if you're not in that world, he's not big.
David Teran (03:13.59)
Oh, super cool. So that like, you after that experience, you're like, okay, this is what I'm supposed to be doing like, or were you like, still trying to balance the chef and the photos thing?
David (03:25.654)
Um, uh, life happened. And so I just kind of decided not to do go to the culinary route. Um, he, he was, he was a fan. He was like, if you want to do food, I will, uh, he, I remember he, once a year he'll go to Colorado and ski with like 30, 30 friends and he invited me through, through my friend, he invited me to cook for them. Like when I wanted to be a chef and I was like, you know, I don't, I don't want to do that. I'm not that good yet. Um.
And it's funny because now I hate cooking. I like eating food, but I hate cooking.
David Teran (04:03.102)
That really was your destiny to move away from culinary arts and get into the visual arts.
David (04:09.546)
Definitely Providence, definitely was out of there.
David Teran (04:12.062)
So jumping from taking pictures of a Latin artist to ballerinas, what is, and then on it, did you start with digital, like, did you start with film or digital because you're shooting film now? Like, how did you get to that?
David (04:24.998)
Yeah, I started digital. And then I remember it was like Valentine's Day of 2014, 2014 or 2015, one of those years, a friend of mine was like, David, you have to try film. And I'm like, film's lame. Why would I want to shoot film? This is 2014. I'm like, I don't have no desire to shoot film. He's like, I'm begging you, just try my camera. And it was a Mamiya RB67, so it's big, big format.
medium format, but a big negative. And one look through that waist level viewfinder and I fell in love instantly. Like the way the image pops, 3D image, it was a bit of me. So that was kind of, that was kind of it. I just, that was probably six, seven years into my career already. So no, I started digital and then the film came out of that. And then I just fell in love. So film just became my hobby.
And to this day, it's still a hobby. I rarely do work per se, per se. I don't like clients hiring me on film. I shoot all my client work digital.
David Teran (05:34.586)
Interesting. So what is your clientele? Because what I see is the, you know, the ballerinas that you do and that sounds like that's your personal work. So what do you do for work?
David (05:46.346)
So going back to the beginning where you said you haven't followed me for a while, I laughed because I have like six Instagram accounts and I just, I don't handle them well. They're all for different projects, all photo projects. One of them is like a food project. It's not a food project, it's David eats good food. This is not a plug, but it's my way of kind of connecting my food passion with photography. But they're just cell phone pictures. I just snap the food that I eat because I get to look.
David Teran (05:57.531)
Yeah, same.
David (06:14.234)
My work does get to take me around the world, so I do get to eat a lot of cool places. Anyways, my day job is, I'm a portrait photographer, so I photograph people. I live here in San Antonio, Texas, and I just, I photograph people for a living, so like this morning I had a couple magazines, local magazines that I did portraits for.
David Teran (06:34.406)
Very cool. And you said it takes you all around the world.
David (06:37.446)
The ballet project does. My commercial portraiture work as well, which is kind of like this Latin musician that does take me to Latin America. And that's kind of actually how this ballet project started.
David Teran (06:39.154)
Okay.
David Teran (06:52.574)
Okay, so tell us how this ballet project started since we're already there in this story.
David (06:56.806)
So, Mark Walswitt is, he's been around in his world for 35, 40 years. He's kind of like the top dog. To get to start photographing him, it was just a matter of trickling down now and photographing other artists who are in the same industry, same world, but just not as well known as him. And so, through that world, through that family tree, I photographed, I got to meet another artist who said, it was October 2017.
she asked me to go photograph her in Argentina for her album cover, Buenos Aires Argentina. And I had actually been to Buenos Aires like three or four times. And I guess everything does go back to food because Buenos Aires for me has like the best pizza in the world, hands down the best pizza I've ever had in the world. So if you ever get a chance to go to Buenos Aires, best pizza ever. So I had been to Buenos Aires actually with Marcus Witt twice.
David Teran (07:43.912)
Okay.
David Teran (07:49.398)
Noted.
David (07:54.238)
And this artist, her name's Christine Declavio, she said, hey David, will you come to Argentina and photograph my outfit for me? I said, sure. She's an American, but she was doing a live cover in Argentina. And I was like, sure, let's do this. We talked in October 2017, but the photo shoot was not gonna be until March 2018. Actually, about six, a little more than six years to the day.
like about six years and one week to the day when I was in Argentina. And I remember getting off the phone call, we ironed out the details, and like a week later I came across this Vogue article of this ballerina, this world famous ballerina. I didn't know who she was, but she was talking about her experience in Argentina. She had just guest starred at the ballet in Argentina and she was just talking about her experience. And so what drew me to the article
David Teran (08:28.222)
Okay.
David (08:53.174)
was not the ballet, but the Buenos Aires, Argentina part. I was like, oh, that's, I'm just going down there. I've been there, let me click on this link. And I, going through the link, I'm like, I've been there, I've eaten there, I've eaten there, I've been there, I've been to all these places. It was like a photo blog. And at the end of the article, she posts, she mentions a ballerina, a local ballerina that she became friends with. And I'm like.
maybe I should reach out to her, I'll be there in half a year, maybe I should reach out to her and see if she'd be willing to shoot. And so I reached out to that ballerina, I was like, hey, would you like to take pictures? I've never photographed a ballerina, but it'd be kind of fun. I was like, sure, if I'm available, let's do it. And so film was still very much a hobby. I had just bought a Hasselblad that was kind of like my dream camera.
I went on one road trip with the Mamiya RB6-F. I don't know if you know that camera or not, but it's just a massive, massive camera. I did one road trip and I'm like, this camera's too heavy. I don't want it. I gotta get something smaller. And so I gravitated towards the Hasselblad. I'm like, it's gonna be a little bit smaller. Negative, but it's fine. And so I asked her, hey, would you like to shoot on this hobby camera?
David Teran (09:51.653)
Mm-hmm.
David Teran (09:57.466)
Yes.
David (10:13.394)
I've never been photographed film. I mean she's probably I thought at the time that she was like 20 But turns out she was about 30 looks Much much younger than she is, but she had never shot on film and I started finding most Most ballerinas have never even shot on film. So that was kind of a way to approach them but So she's like if I'm available six months on the road I'm willing to shoot turns out the only day she was had available was the only day I had off
David Teran (10:24.039)
Okay.
David (10:42.21)
So it just kind of, again, serendipitous. Very much, very much providential.
David Teran (10:46.626)
Yeah. So what drew you to ballerinas? You said you saw it in vogue, but like, what was that spark of, I want to shoot ballerinas?
David (10:55.954)
I um, so this photo shoot just happened. It was like the most perfect, it was like the most beautiful day. It was March, March 4th, 2018. It was a Sunday. It was, it was their fall, so it was probably like 68 degrees, 70 degrees. It was empty streets, sunny, beautiful. Like they call Buenos Aires the Latin Paris.
or the Paris in South America. So I was just like, I loved the architecture of the street. I loved everything about it. The way the ballerina and her mother, like her mother accompanied her on the shoot and the way they treated me was just like, in a non-romantic way, I fell in love with everything. And I always say like, had I been with any other ballerina where they just like, okay, this is very transactional, it's like we just get done. I probably wouldn't have fallen in love. And I didn't fall in love with her at all.
David Teran (11:29.714)
Mm-hmm.
David (11:50.986)
It was just like the way she treated me. Like she brought me chocolate and she took me to lunch afterwards. And it was just like, everything fell into place. And so she's like, hey, I've been following you since you reached out to me in October of last year. And I see you travel a lot. You should reach out to Ballerina in every city that you visit. I'm like, okay. And I had no attraction to this. I'm struggling. I'm fine. I have an internal dialogue deciding if I should tell you what I'd like to tell you, but I might as well tell you.
I actually don't like the ballet. I have a running joke that I fall asleep at the ballet in Four Continents. I just... Ballet is not my thing. It's definitely a much different cultural tier of different... It's not how I grew up. I grew up very much middle class and I think ballet is upper class. So I have no attraction to it. I love photographing from the wings. But going to the ballet is not...
David Teran (12:35.036)
It is.
David Teran (12:41.458)
Yeah.
David (12:48.794)
Okay, I live for that, I love that. But now photographing ballerinas outside a ballet, that's very much enjoyable. Hey, pause, is it okay if I walk? I'm actually outside and it's chilly, so I'm just gonna walk to my car. We can continue the conversation, is that okay? Or would you rather just me wait till I get to my car? It's getting like a three minute walk. We can finish.
David Teran (12:57.636)
Bye.
David Teran (13:02.01)
Yeah. Yeah, it's totally fine.
David Teran (13:08.562)
You're good. Go ahead. You can just go walk, and we'll see how it goes.
David (13:12.146)
Okay, alright. Okay, well, so that's kind of where I'm at now.
David Teran (13:17.635)
So like when you photograph, so you said that, you know, being Argentina, right, that you were in Argentina, that it was the architecture you really liked. And I feel like, you know, looking at your work, you definitely incorporate architecture. And then ballerinas are so figurative, like it, they play off of each other, those lines of the architecture and then the ballerina lines.
David (13:25.952)
Uh-huh.
David Teran (13:43.658)
Is that kind of what also part of the magic for you of doing this project?
David (13:49.442)
Um, I, for me, the magic is, is the Hasselblad, the name of the project is Hasselblad Ballet. And it just happens to me that Hasselblad comes first. But for me, the approach is definitely, the emphasis is on Hasselblad. I want to, I want to always make sure that like the photography comes first. I want, I want to honor the ballet, that's for sure. But the ballet technique comes secondary to how can I make a cool photograph? And so...
David Teran (13:55.646)
Mm-hmm.
David Teran (14:03.568)
Okay.
David Teran (14:09.991)
Mm-hmm.
David Teran (14:15.889)
Mm-hmm.
David (14:16.658)
Yeah, the lines. I mean, I don't know if you have ballet experience at all, but you mentioned the lines of the ballerina. There's a section in my book called Lines on Lines, and it's a play on that. That's like my architectural, where it's like, okay, I have zero architectural background, but I do love, you know, good lines. And so, yeah, it's a play on that.
David Teran (14:39.486)
Okay, so you're saying the Hasselblad is the magic for you. So tell me more about Hasselblad magic.
David (14:46.466)
I mean, just the experience, like, that I travel across the world. So I traveled to Argentina, I took one roll of film and I took 12 pictures. Versus like when you shoot digital, you can have unlimited exposure. It's not like a downplay of digital at all. It's just there's something special when you know you only have 12 frames.
David Teran (14:54.386)
Mm-hmm.
David Teran (15:04.75)
Yeah, yeah, no, I totally get it. I'm a film shooter too. And it was the same for me. Like as soon as I took a picture on film, again, it had been a very long time since I had taken a picture on film. And it was that magic. And then also creating that presence and having to be very present with your moment. And do I want to have this as a picture versus digital? Yes, it's like so, so much.
but film creates that slower art and yeah, for sure. And digital's great. Digital is fantastic. It can do so many things, but for film shooting, especially for my personal stuff, I love shooting on film.
David (15:38.254)
Sure.
David (15:52.042)
Yes, it's just that you only have 12 clicks and there's no like, let's redo it. Um, like if you look at a contact sheet, it's not like I have 12 of the same things, I have 12 different unique poses. And so I think that was kind of the fun challenge of making 12 photos that are great, that are unique and that just can't be, you can never redo it again. You can take the same, take it again, but like it'll never be the same.
David Teran (16:07.695)
Right.
David Teran (16:14.696)
Mm-hmm.
David Teran (16:22.202)
Right, yeah, yeah. It does, the limit that like having some sort of limit on yourself, I feel like pushes your creative abilities. Like you have to definitely be sure of what you're shooting or feel it before you take that, you know, press the shutter and having that limit on yourself definitely adds to the magic of film, which sounds so backwards.
But it's very true.
David (16:54.194)
Yeah, um, and again, it's not discrediting digital, but like I have, I have ballet photographer friends who shoot hundreds and hundreds and even thousands of frames per photo shoot and they're like, how do you do it in 12 frames? I'm just like, I just forced myself to do it. Uh, when you know,
David Teran (16:58.012)
No.
David Teran (17:13.17)
So you only give yourself one roll of film per shoot, too? You're not doing multiple? Wow!
David (17:17.134)
Yeah, no, it's strictly like sometimes I'll shoot like I'll connect with the ballerina and this is like this sometimes is probably like less than 10 times out of three about 291 frames I shot in the project the project's done um but uh sometimes I'll shoot two frames two roles I'm sorry but by and by and large it's one it's one role
David Teran (17:38.682)
Mm-hmm.
David Teran (17:43.338)
That's crazy. What film do you use?
David (17:46.095)
HB5. Everything was shot on HB5.
David Teran (17:48.461)
That's a beautiful, beautiful film stock. I love that one.
David (17:51.606)
I love it. The first probably, I think 79 roles were metered at 400. I would shoot with the digital camera and kind of chimp and that's how I metered. And then I was taking a community darkening class and the instructor was like, David, don't do that. And he showed me how to use a meter, like a proper meter. He got me a, he told me what to buy. I bought a, it was a Pentax Spot Meter 5.
David Teran (18:15.471)
Night meter.
David Teran (18:20.807)
Okay.
David (18:22.106)
which is like, it has like the one degree, one degree spot meter. And then he's like, just get a gray card, meter off that. And then he told me something that changed my life. Cause I was, then I was metering at 400 and he's like, meter at 200 and you'll be happy. And I was like, no way. And I did, and like these negatives were incredible. Like they're just so much denser and thicker. So now across the board, everything I, I meter is at one stop overexposed.
David Teran (18:44.547)
Uh huh.
David Teran (18:50.254)
Yep, always. I love that. I love that trick too. So tell us about like where are some of your favorite places that you've gone? So this is going to be a book, audience, this is going to be a book comes out in May, right? That's so exciting.
David (19:03.546)
May 15th. Yeah, actually tomorrow. So today is March 18th. Tomorrow I get my first advance. And I'm so excited. So like I have I've seen the book and like Every like there's like multiple parts of the book and I've seen every part of the book in its final stage But I have not seen the whole book together Put together finished and tomorrow's I'll get to see that for the first time. So I'm excited
David Teran (19:22.855)
Uh-huh.
David Teran (19:27.838)
That is exciting. You'll have to give us a sneak peek on your Instagram stories. We'd love to see it. So tell us. Okay, good. Tell me like some of your favorite places besides Argentina that you have got shot at for this book.
David (19:33.042)
I'm sure I will.
David (19:42.994)
My favorite hands down would be Paris, New York City. New York City has a lot of a lot of good ballerinas. Cuba, the cover of the shoot of the book is actually from Cuba. But I would say probably my favorite would be Paris, hands down Paris.
David Teran (20:02.07)
Okay, that sounds like a no-brainer. I've never been, but...
David (20:03.966)
And it's that call back to Ratatouille, like where there's that whole, like Ratatouille kind of started my career in a very, in a direct way. I can see how you went from Ratatouille to photography and now to ballet photography. And I was actually talking with a friend. I do not want to ever be called a ballerina photographer or a dance photographer. I'm just a photographer that happens to photograph ballerinas.
David Teran (20:08.948)
No!
Yeah.
David (20:32.73)
Um, but paris definitely for sure would probably one of my favorites Uh all over the place, uh, louv, um One of my favorites was I can't i'm totally gonna butcher it tuliaris park tulia Tull I don't know, but that was one of my favorites right next to the louv. Um, it's beautiful park. I mean paris just has a ton of Beautiful park. So yeah
David Teran (20:35.686)
Where did you shoot in Paris?
David Teran (20:48.294)
I don't know French, so you're okay, but you're away.
David Teran (20:56.656)
Uh-huh.
David (21:01.142)
That was one of my favorite places.
David Teran (21:02.93)
So for your shoots and you know your location, do you like plan it out? Do you pick your location and pick your poses for your ballerinas and like have it all planned out? Or do you just like go off the cuff when you're there?
David (21:15.658)
Um, locations, I try to just Google locations and then try to go from there. Um, I do have my poses kind of an idea of my poses before I will start, uh, the shoot, um, which I'll discuss with like wardrobe and whatnot with the ballerinas that were kind of on the same page. Um, my inspiration totally comes from non ballet. I try to follow very few ballerina photographers. Um, cause I just don't.
David Teran (21:22.055)
Mm-hmm.
David Teran (21:30.045)
Mm-hmm.
David (21:45.178)
I try not to be influenced that way, but rather like, uh, I guess I follow fashion photographers. My favorite photographer would be, his name is Rodney Smith. He passed away about 10 years ago, a little less than 10 years ago. But when I came across his work, he just revolutionized how I look at photography and I mean, you can totally see his influence in a lot of my work.
David Teran (22:07.106)
Yes, you can. You absolutely can. It is very editorial. You're like fashion editorial-like and very Rodney at the same time. Like I love him too. He's fantastic. So what else should we ask? Is there anything else you want me to ask? Like, do you want me to ask more about the book? Do you want to?
David (22:26.437)
Whatever you want, whatever you want. I'm an open book, no pun intended.
David Teran (22:33.074)
No, I like it. So your book comes out in May. Is there do you have like another project coming in the works? Or is this like your first big one? It seems like it's taking you a lot of years to put it together.
David (22:46.846)
Yeah, so it's been six years now since I started this project. When I started, I didn't intend for it to be a book. It just kind of fell into place where it's like, okay, this can be a book. It's lived on Instagram its entire life. I do have a project, almost like a part two.
lined up. I put a lot of Easter eggs for this name for the second project throughout my book. I can count off my memory like four Easter eggs that just kind of point to... It's not official either. It's not like I will do for sure, but if the book does well, there's a good evolution progression, part two.
David Teran (23:18.296)
Okay.
David Teran (23:30.845)
Mm-hmm.
David Teran (23:38.302)
super cool. Is it related to the ballerina thing or is it? Okay.
David (23:41.894)
Yeah, yeah, it would still be valet and still be on film, but that's all I'll say for now.
David Teran (23:47.866)
Okay, let's go back to talking about Rodney. Like, so your work being influenced by it, I feel like his has this like fantasy, like a foot in fantasy and a foot in reality, and it has this like lightness and playfulness, but it's still in black, but it's in black and white, which tends to be more dramatic and grounding.
David (24:01.274)
Mm-hmm.
David (24:12.204)
Mm-hmm.
David Teran (24:12.994)
And I feel like you balance that same thing that he does. Like, is your commercial work similar to that? Or is this just like total play, creativity, opposite? Cause like for me, my client work is very different than my play work. So is your similar or different? Like how do you balance all of that and create that magic?
David (24:28.681)
Mm-hmm.
David (24:35.602)
My, my, it's definitely, they're not, there's no similarities at all. Like you see my, my ballet work and you see my commercial work, my portraiture, and they're not at all similar. Um, I shoot a lot of black and white in my, my commercial, my, my day-to-day portraiture, but there's no, there's no similarities. But today, this photo shoot I did this morning, I tried to like, incorporate some weirdness and I, and I explained to them why I wanted to do that. And they looked at me kind of weird.
David Teran (24:44.418)
Yeah.
David (25:04.206)
those two psychiatrists and they're like, okay. And I don't think the magazine will go that I was shooting for will go for it. And that's okay. But I did try to play, but no, they're very much two separate worlds. My film work and almost entirely my film work is ballet. I don't really don't shoot much outside of that anymore on film, on film. Cause I mean, I guess, honestly, you do get burnt out and I shot
David Teran (25:11.275)
Yeah.
Mm-hmm.
David Teran (25:17.532)
Yeah.
David Teran (25:26.874)
Okay.
David (25:34.77)
290 rolls over the last six years strictly for the ballet work so I mean I guess I got burnt out but it's been like almost a year since my last shoot and I'm kind of getting antsy now so we'll see
David Teran (25:49.602)
Yeah. So you don't like even shoot your travels on film like, because you're for your personal stuff.
David (25:55.947)
I have a Roli 35, so a small 35 millimeter camera that I'll take some pictures for fun. But just like digitizing that work, getting it from film onto computer or Instagram, it's just a chore. Like I'll do a roll and it's like 36 frames. This is way too much, this is too much work.
David Teran (25:59.451)
Mm-hmm.
David Teran (26:18.774)
It is. I feel like 36 is too much too. It's a lot.
David (26:22.714)
So so i'm just like I the uh, rolly there so I don't know if this is on brand or whatnot, but Ro, uh mint photography mint camera. They're they're like this camera that This camera maker that they remake polaroid cameras. I think something like that. I know I think i'm butchering what they do But they're about to re-release What's called a rolly 35 af? Which is I don't know if you know the rolly 35, but it's this really small 35 really
David Teran (26:47.355)
Okay.
David (26:51.574)
35 millimeter camera, but they're re-releasing it in partnership with Roli, and it's gonna be an autofocus camera. And I'm super, super excited because it's a brand new camera. They're not rebuilding old cameras. They're making a brand new camera, the exact same body. There's gonna be a couple different new features, like autofocus and the flash and something like that, but I'm really excited for that camera, and that'll probably make me shoot more personal stuff on film.
David Teran (27:20.702)
I'll have to look that up. I haven't heard of that one. That sounds awesome. It feels like because film has made such a comeback that some companies are starting to like very small, like with a small type of camera. I just saw that Kodak did 35, not 35, eight millimeter camera, but with a digital screen, which I thought was super cool to like marry that eight millimeter, you know, film video type of a thing for people because video is so big.
David (27:32.128)
Mm-hmm.
David (27:40.663)
Mm-hmm.
David Teran (27:50.446)
Like I think it's really cool that cameras are, I hope that cameras will still start making more instead of our ancient ones that we have to keep getting fixed and find and stuff like that. That'd be really fun.
David (27:50.912)
Mm-hmm.
David (28:02.798)
I mean, going back to the magic of film, for me, the magic is that you don't know what you get until, you know, a week later, three days later, a month later, depending how long the trip is, until you get to digitize that or develop the film and pull it out of the chemistry, and you don't know if you got the shot or not. And so that, that to me is the magic. Like, being able to see the image right away, there's just nothing... It's not very magical. And so, like...
David Teran (28:12.562)
Mm-hmm.
David Teran (28:19.42)
Yeah.
David (28:28.654)
I don't know. I'm not getting, I'm not old, but that's my old man rant. The... The magic of film is not knowing if you got the shot and... But being good at your craft and knowing that, okay, I anticipated that I'll get the shot, but maybe I didn't get the shot, maybe I didn't. And when you get the shot, the highs are very high, and when you miss it, the lows really hurt. But...
David Teran (28:35.194)
And I get it, so.
David Teran (28:47.409)
Yeah.
David (28:57.898)
That's part of the process and that's why I enjoy shooting film.
David Teran (28:59.486)
Absolutely.
Yeah. Do you develop it yourself? You're saying like, it's like hard to get it to digital.
David (29:05.685)
I do.
David (29:09.742)
I do, I develop and I guess digitize my film. I took apart an old, this was like during COVID, the community classes that I would take, they closed down. So I just kind of had to figure something out for myself. So they had a scanner and I used to scan all my stuff there. And so I was reading online and I heard that you can like digitize film. And this was like 2020, I guess.
David Teran (29:24.318)
Mm-hmm.
David (29:37.438)
it was February 2020 and I took apart an old and larger, put a ball head where the condenser is and then using the condenser I kind of built like a flash tube, put my Profoto strobe inside and I built some like, there's some mirrors inside of the condenser head that kind of like bounce the light around and then put the negative on top and then I photographed it with the macro camera.
David Teran (30:05.999)
Uh-huh. That's how I do it too. And I hate it. I hate the post-processing in any way, shape or form. I wanna just take the picture. I wanna be in the moment. I wanna create and I want someone else to develop it. You're amazing for doing that. Cause it is, that scares me still. I'm not good enough at it. Like I can do black and white pretty well, but color film, I'm just like, oh, I don't love this. It's hard.
David (30:06.414)
and
David (30:29.886)
I think I've shot like a thousand Black and White, a thousand rolls of Black and White films since I started and like I've shot like two color films, color rolls. I don't touch color. It's just, I don't touch it. I enjoy the Black and White. Yeah.
David Teran (30:41.498)
It's a different beast. Yeah, yeah, for sure. All right, well, thanks, David. I appreciate this. It's been so fun to talk to you. I'm super excited for your book and definitely show us a sneak peek on stories when you get your copy. And thank you so much for doing this.
David (30:56.047)
Yes, thanks for having me. Appreciate it.
David Teran (30:58.826)
I am gonna stop it and we have to just wait.
