Well, hi! This is a ghost town of a blog, demonstrating that the combination of a lack of perceived success and financial margin ended my Film 365 rather abruptly. But! News! I have plans for a New Film Project that might actually Come to Fruition. Announcing my Summer on Film project that I've been concocting for 2017.
My first step towards this project was purchasing a new-to-me Nikon f100 35mm camera off of ebay. I did this primarily for 1. Autofocus and 2. Autofocus. Other perks are: I can use all of my regular camera lenses! Most of the controls are second nature to me (because it has a similar layout to my regular camera)!
When we traveled to the Black Hills at the beginning of May, I thought it would be a perfect opportunity to have a bit of pre-Summer on Film and test out the new camera. I had a roll of recently expired Kodak Gold 400 (I rated it at 200) which I thought would be perfect to run through the camera and see if it was functioning properly.
As is my custom, when I shipped off my film to the FIND Lab, I pulled out three of my old mystery rolls of film to be developed as well. Two days before my scans were due back, I had an email from the lab informing me that one of my rolls was only "half exposed." I couldn't really remember what the mystery rolls of film were labelled as, but the roll they described DID match the roll I had taken in South Dakota. Nooooo! Enter much gnashing of teeth; googling to see if other people had this problem with f100s (they didn't); reading the manual to see if I had messed up some setting; and general fretting. The camera had appeared to be advancing and rewinding appropriately, so I was flummoxed as to how it could possibly only exposed half of my roll of film.
Two tortuously slow days later, the scans were in. Lo and behold, it was not my South Dakota roll that was so very broken! It was, ironically enough, not even my roll of film.
Apparently one of my baby sisters had taken some photos on some janky camera of my then-boyfriend-now-husband (note the baby face) 8 years ago while visiting me at Bible college. This was one of about four surviving photos from the roll.
Fun fact! This young lady actually just finished a year of college at this same Bible school. Whaaat.
So all of my anxiety was for not. Not only did my new-to-me camera work, it performed fantastically! The day I used it in South Dakota had challenging lighting, with harsh mid-day light and some mixed light as well. My digital photos from this day can hardly be compared to the colors and lighting in the film photos.
Getting ready to head out on our hike up Harney Peak!
Even though I was really pleased with my exposure, the autofocus of my new camera did not solve all of my focusing woes. I still missed focus in the majority of my photos, which was a little disappointing. I was using a lens that is finicky with focusing on my digital camera, which could account for some of the focusing issues. I am also going to experiment with some other focusing modes to see if it helps me with more accurate focusing.
Since I didn't miss focus all the time, I'm going to say it was probably more user error than equipment error.
All basic scans from the FIND Lab. Minimal adjustments to the highlights and contrast in Lightroom.
Intentional focal point here, promise. The girls point out our destination...that tiny little peak across the valley that is still way too far away.
And we made it!
In reality the contrast between the bright highlights on the stone and the dark shadows in the interior was really drastic. Film is so cool to retain both aspects so well.
Heading back down, it was a challenge to keep our spirits up.
Even though it took us about half the amount of time it took us to go up!
Phoebe totally did a victory lap and walked the last 1/10 of a mile or so. The first she had walked of the 7 miles we hiked that day...but you would have thought she had done the whole trail from her strut.
Can we just take a moment to appreciate that the horizon was that straight on the scan? Does film have magic to make me no longer shoot crooked photos?
Much anticipated rewards from the Rock Shop for our successful hike.
And this was the photo I shot to finish off the roll and it's probably my new favorite photo ever. The colors! The lighting! Yay film!
I'm hoping that I can see my project to completion as I photograph the big events, vacations and stereotypical summer moments. I'm looking forward to seeing how utilizing a new medium helps me to develop (ha) as an artist and to hone my technical skills. Thanks for your patience as I fumble through the obvious and wax eloquent on on newby problems.
