Looking at this photo, my first thought was ‘Eeep!! Look at the colours on that!’ and then my second was ‘there is no way I could have got those colours scanning this film myself’. And I realised, that I hadn’t fallen out of love with film photography but instead with all the other ‘stuff’ that goes with it. I got caught up in the ‘internet prestige’ (for lack of a better term) of developing and scanning photos myself… and I didnt realise how much I really chuffing disliked it haha.
There is something so infruitating about scanning colour film that honestly makes me ragey to my gut, everytime something is too green, or too purple, I want to punch a wall. And there is something about dust particles on a scanned film that you’ve wiped a million times with the right kind of cloth and blown on the scanner with the stupid puffer thing that makes me want to scream. Perhaps if I had the time, money and effort to dedicate to a better scanner and scanning programme I would do it better. But then again, probably not… I am a perfectionist and in doing a process and not getting it 100% as I wanted, I just wasn’t enjoying myself anymore.
Thankfully - Take It Easy Lab opened in Leeds around the same time that I had a crack at developing film myself and ended up loosing two films to the chemicals - and suddenly I had a local film business to support that I was more than happy to send my money to! And here we are, I have a photo that I’m absolutely thrilled with, a process that is a lot easier, less stressful and a much happier sense of self for it.
Camera: Olympus OM-10
Film: Fuji Superia 200
Location: Sandilands, Lincolnshire
Developed by: Take it Easy lab (not an ad, just a very grateful nod to them for saving my sanity)
p.s. I hope my prestige isn’t too damaged by this revelation… eep
