07/14/2026
A new era has begun 🎞️🪻📷
It all started with a honeymoon in Italy…🇮🇹
A few months ago, I snagged this old film camera off Facebook Marketplace from an elderly Italian man who was selling it because he no longer used it. When I went to his house to pick it up, he told me the story behind it and it truly touched me, so I’d like to share it with you too.
He had first bought this camera when he and his wife went on their honeymoon to Italy, the only time he ever returned to his homeland after moving to the U.S. when he was just a child.
He never went back again after that.
Sadly, his wife became very sick shortly after they got married, and traveling became incredibly difficult for them. Later on, their only son used the camera during his college years, but eventually it sat untouched in one of the bedrooms of the home they were now selling. They were moving somewhere without stairs so it would be easier for him to care for his wife.
From our short conversation, I could immediately tell that he was such a sweet, caring and incredibly kind soul.
I’m so grateful I had the opportunity to buy this camera from him and give it a new purpose.
Now that it’s in my hands, it will continue capturing more trips, more love, and more adventures. Not only for my couples, but for myself too.
Film photography made me fall in love with this craft all over again after a season where I thought I had lost my passion for it and couldn’t find the same joy in it that I used to.
And all of that is thanks to Jacob, who first introduced me to film photography and encouraged me to use his own film cameras for a while so I could try it and see whether it was something I would enjoy. Seeing the images he had captured throughout the years on film inspired me to get my own film camera and start my own journey photographing like people used to back in the day.
Needless to say, I didn’t just fall in love with him.
I fell in love with film photography too.
And now this good old vintage camera gets to come back to life.
It all started with a honeymoon in Italy, and now its journey continues capturing more love stories 💜
Photos by Jacob Ballin 🫶🏼
Edited by me ✨
