Before smartphones, digital cameras, instant previews, and AI-assisted photography, photographers had to trust their camera, their film, their understanding of light—and the moment in front of them.

That traditional photographic process is part of the story behind Walk By Faith, an original photograph by Photographer Sheraton Walls.

Photographed on 35mm Film

Walk By Faith was originally photographed using a Canon AE-1 35mm film camera.

Introduced by Canon in 1976, the AE-1 became one of the most important cameras of the film era. It combined traditional SLR photography with electronic exposure technology, helping make serious 35mm photography accessible to a much wider generation of photographers.

But unlike today’s digital cameras, the Canon AE-1 did not provide a screen where the photographer could immediately review the photograph.

The image had to be captured on film, at the moment it happened.

How the Canon AE-1 Was Used to Create Walk By Faith

When Sheraton Walls raised the Canon AE-1 to photograph the scene that would become Walk By Faith, light entered through the camera’s lens and was focused directly onto 35mm photographic film inside the camera.

The photographer still had to make the creative decisions: compose the scene through the optical viewfinder, focus the lens, select the appropriate settings and decide precisely when to release the shutter.

Pressing the shutter exposed a single frame of film.

That physical piece of film became the original photographic record of the moment.

Only after the film was developed could the finished photograph truly be seen.

That process is fundamentally different from modern digital photography, where hundreds or thousands of photographs can be taken, examined immediately and altered extensively afterward.

A Photograph From a Different Era

Walk By Faith was captured more than 20 years ago, during the era of traditional film photography.

The characteristics associated with film—the grain, tonal transitions, contrast and texture—are part of the photographic character of the original image.

Those qualities were not added later to make a digital photograph appear old.

They came from the photographic process itself.

The Canon AE-1, the lens, the 35mm film, the available light and the photographer all became part of creating the original image.

The Significance of the Canon AE-1

The Canon AE-1 has an important place in camera history.

Canon introduced the camera in 1976, and its electronically controlled automatic-exposure system represented a major technological advance for consumer SLR cameras.

Despite those electronic innovations, it remained firmly rooted in traditional photography: 35mm film, interchangeable lenses, manual focusing and an optical viewfinder.

That combination made the AE-1 an important bridge between the mechanical film cameras that came before it and the increasingly electronic cameras that followed.

Today, surviving photographs made with cameras such as the Canon AE-1 also represent an era when photography was a physical process—from loading the film to making the exposure and developing the finished negative.

The History Behind Walk By Faith

The story of Walk By Faith extends beyond the equipment used to make it.

The photograph was captured approximately 30 days before Hurricane Katrina devastated the Gulf Coast in 2005.

At the time the shutter was released, there was no way to know what would happen only weeks later.

That history gives the photograph an additional meaning today.

A moment was preserved on a small frame of 35mm film before the world around it changed.

Over two decades later, that moment continues through Walk By Faith.

More Than a Reproduction

When someone purchases a Walk By Faith print, they are not simply purchasing a newly created digital image.

The print originates from an original photograph captured on 35mm film with a Canon AE-1.

That provenance is an important part of the artwork:

The technology may belong to another era, but the message captured through it remains timeless.

Walk By Faith.