I was hesitating to come back here and talk about photography again, since I’m not sure it’s really a crowd pleaser. But I’ve gotta be true to myself, and right now I am in one-track, broken-record, totally obsessed film photography mode. Just ask anyone who has had to talk to me in person over the last month or so.
If you are here for the knitting, or the polymer claying, or maybe even the sewing, don’t despair. I will eventually circle back to those topics, as I always do. In fact, I do want to post a little something about mixing Kato Polyclay and Premo Sculpey soon, but I need more time to finalize my experiment.
So for now, let me show you two rolls of expired film that I shot. I’m so glad to have had this stuff just sitting around the house for however many years. It means I can pick up an old camera, and pick up an old roll of film, and experiment without having to buy a thing.
I had two cameras going at the end of April and beginning of May, and I got these pictures back a few weeks ago. They’ve got a great vibe, and I really feel like I’m getting the hang of this. They show such improvement over the previous roll.
First up, a few of my favorites from my grandfather’s Minolta SRT 102, shot on Fujifilm Fujicolor SuperHQ II 200 (or something like that) which expired in 2002:
Such an improvement over last time! I am growing as an artist, LOL. Funny story about the pourover coffee image: I took that one with the self timer. Or, I thought I did. I was supposed to be in it, pouring hot water into the cone, but I am not. I’ve since figured out what I did wrong, but it was too late for that image, LOL!
Here are some favorites from the Fujifilm Superia X-Tra 400 that expired in 2011, which I shot with my Canon TLb:
I love the moody vibes that these images give off. But don’t let them fool you. I have once and for all confirmed that this camera is broken. I took 38 shots with it. It was a 24 exposure roll, so right there that tells you something is amiss. 16 images were returned to me, and the rest were lost to severe multiple exposure issues, I can only assume.
It’s time to stop thinking it might be user error, and just stop giving that camera any more chances 🙂
Next up? I’m waiting for the LomoChrome Purple to be developed. I can hardly wait to see how those came out! I should have the scans in my email any day now. I also have a roll of (non-purple, non expired) photos that I took in Wildwood last week. We were in Ocean City, and Aidan and I took a few hours, drove south to Wildwood, and I shot a whole roll of film. Between the boardwalk and the vintage hotel signs, I have high hopes that there will be some fun images in there. I’ll share those when I get them back.
Also, as much fun as I am having playing with the vintage Minoltas in the house, I have decided that I would like a film camera that is similar enough to my digital Canon EOS 80D that I don’t have to think too much. I found a Canon EOS Rebel 2000 (c.1999) on eBay last week, and I got it for a whopping $26. It arrived on my doorstep yesterday, and I’ve already nearly finished shooting one of the expired rolls. It’s important to make sure the camera works, right? 😜
I’ll share more about that in another post.
Thanks for reading! I’ll be back soon with my Lomo Purple scans, Wildwood photos, and maybe a little bit of non-photography content, too 🙂
