There does not exist an ISO 800 black and white film

I went into Snappy Snaps and asked for a black and white ISO 800 film. Robert was talking with a man who probably considers himself to know a lot about photography. The man, after Robert's hesitation, said there is no such thing. I felt embarrassed that I had made this mistake.

Robert asked me—again—where I work, and what I do, asking why I studied photography. I told him I'm sick of that question; a person can study what interests them, and one does not have to take that subject as a profession after studying. The other man said that some people find photography relaxes them, after Robert said he'd love photography to be his profession. I wish I were a quick person, because I would have said that I am not that person, I am not one of those people. Between the amateur that Geraint once mocked and the scholar is where I am; there are other degrees of interest, too. Some people study photography like people study medicine—they will do in life what they studied. Some people will study photography because it is in them. I liked to take photographs so I took a course that allowed me to do that. But then I opted out. I opted out of serious, academic photography because that wasn't what I wanted. I didn't like it, so I chose to choose a photography that I did like.

I am in love with the image. That is all. I only want the image. I've a thousand slides, don't I? Other people's slides, from decades ago, that I paid money for. I've thousands of photographs casually taken by myself, haven't I? Isn't that a person who is in love with the image? I resent being assumed to be an unknowledgeable amateur because I am not. I chose the way I take photographs; I consciously moved away from point-scoring academic photography and my photographic work serves only myself.

I do not like overthought verbosity surrounding photography. I don't like photography led by technology, photography where people are only interested in cameras and software and traditional concepts of what makes a good image (rule of thirds, photography-by numbers).

I enjoy photography; I like what I get when I press the button; I like the options; I like fantasising about how my work can move on; I like assuming a non-assuming casualness. It's a shame that it does get so unnecessarily caught up in verbosity.