Why Film Not Digital?

I get this question asked of me often.

"Why do you still shoot film? Digital is so much faster and easier!"

Why?

1) I can shoot and afford (because of digital) the best film cameras ever made. I now shoot Leica rangefinders, Hasselblad medium format and Linhof Technica 4x5s. Photography is just plain flat out easier, reliable (less camera breakdowns) and more fun when your using a state of the art (for film) high quality tool.

2) A black and white darkroom print looks better to me than anything I have seen printed on a printer. The darkroom print has a depth to the image and a tonality that I have not seen reproduced on a printer which seems to me to have a smaller tonal scale and a artificial printed on top of look.

3) There is a timeless beauty using film. I like to work with the same limitations that the great photographers of the past had. I do not want to use Photoshop tricks to spice up my photographs, either I capture it at the decisive moment or I fail. To try and create a photograph that hangs with the best of the past and to do it using similar tools as photographers of the past just seems honest and right.

4) The darkroom is fun! I love my time in the dark, it is a place of meditation and happiness for me. Sitting in front of a computer working in Photoshop then pressing control/print does not feel the same. When your in the darkroom with your hands in the chemistry touching and massaging the print to life it seems so much more real, so much more personal, great stuff!