I’M TEN rolls of film in. It should have been 11 rolls, but one 36-exposure film was wasted as I didn’t load it properly! Yikes! Learning can be painful – and expensive! But that aside, I’m enjoying the experience of my return to film shooting. I hope I can convey that in this Photo Friday feature.
Colour film.
My general idea was to shoot predominantly in black and white, but I did get some free film so my first was the colour Kodak Ultramax 400. I was quite pleased with the results and have now shot four rolls of that stock. Despite being satisfied with my first results I still crave something ‘different’ from film photography, so the times that things went unexpectedly ‘wrong’ pleased me too. Below are some photos shot on Ultramax, and the last one I can’t explain; it looks like a light leak but it isn’t. It was probably a lens flare or a stray finger over the lens! Certainly a shot that would have ended up in the digital bin of digital cameras.
Black & White.
Black and white photography has always interested me. The absence of colour allows you to concentrate on other aspects of an image like lines, shapes and texture. My search for the unexpected also led to me trying a film called Revolog SnoVlox. This came with a pre-exposed layer of random snow effects – so whatever you took, you got snow! Great fun to use – you have to imagine the snow effect in advance – although it is difficult to judge the correct exposure.
More Black & White.
More to come…
Many photographers describe their experiences as a ‘journey’, but, that is not the case relevant for me. I’m not aiming to get anywhere, it’s just about enjoying the whole process – that mindful approach rather than simple clickiness.
I’ll leave you with this shot of Newton Garth on Street Candy ATM 400 film…. it’s very grainy, and certainly not perfect in the digital sense! But I love it – and it has made a nice print. Of course, a photo isn’t a photo until it’s printed – but that’s another story!
Questions?
If you have any questions about film photography I’ll do my best to answer them – I am by no means an expert. Whether about the film stocks I’ve used so far, the cameras, achieving exposure, where I got the films developed, etc, just drop a comment below.