Film 365: Roll One - January 1-19

I used to shoot rolls and rolls and rolls of film.  When I was maybe 12 or so, my parents bought me my first SLR camera as a Christmas present.  I happily ran film through that thing, understanding the basic principles of photography (thank you, 4-H and my mother!) and happily getting my film developed by sending it off through the drug store (double prints, please!).  Fast forward a decade or so and I am now a professional photographer who is quite capable with a digital camera. I am ready to take on film once again.

I have challenged myself to take one frame on my trusty little Sears KS500 35mm camera every day this year. I am using a 55mm f2 lens and a 28mm f2.8 lens. I am planning to stick with this camera and use primarily consumer film.  I need to get a new battery for my meter, so I've been spot metering off of my digital camera or just guessing as best I can.  My goal of taking only one frame a day is to really get myself to slow down and consider the photo I'm taking before I happily shoot away.  The additional goal is that I will come to be as comfortable shooting film as I am with digital. I would also like to get more comfortable with manual focusing.

Today, I got my first scans back from theFINDlab.  This roll was shot on Kodak Ultramax 400.  I box  rated it.  Overall, I'm pleased with this first roll.  It has a very yellow color indoors (even though most of my indoor photos were lit with natural light), but I really adored the color in the one photo I happened to shoot outside.  I find that I am consistently blowing highlights more than I would like to be, in the interest of "exposing for the shadows."  I tweaked them all in Lightroom, mostly messing around with the temp and contrast/shadows/highlights.  And some straightening and cropping.

So, even though I'm almost through roll #2, things I will keep in mind for next time: Shoot outside.  Really, really, really take your time focusing (too many missed shots).  Watch your lines. Take notes!

So in light of keeping it all real, here are my photos (the good, but mostly the bad and the ugly) for January 1-19:

Okay, this one was a manually focused selfie.  Not too much complaining.

FAVORITE!!

An extra from this day, because the color was so much close to happiness.

Finally, I promised myself that for every roll of fresh film I sent in this year, I would also send in one of my unmarked, really old rolls that have been waiting to be developed for well over a decade.  The one I had developed was revealed to be from around 2005, I believe.  This was a store-brand roll of film, probably taken on my other SLR, a Sears TLS.  Which I just might have to break out again. Here are some bonus photos of my sister and me dying hand-spun yarn with Kool-aid: