Falling back in love with film

I’ve been overthinking - like I do - about why I’ve struggled with film so much recently. One is the weight of equipment physically, I just can’t carry as much for as long anymore thanks to chronic illness (anyone have any tips for light film cameras they looooove?). So I’ve been using my phone and then not sharing photos anywhere (second question - would people mind me sharing digital phone photos here..? Would I mind, I used to… Hmm, I’ll over think on it) But the other thing - the thing I couldn’t figure out wasn’t as obvious until I found the right photo that highlighted the issue and here it is…

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

More Ektar love

I couldn’t just share one post about Kodak Ektar after discovering that I can actually scan it! I’m so excited to share more photos from from this roll.

These photos are also from York Gate Garden - I think I’ll be getting a year pass next year just so I can go back and take regular photos of this lovely garden, so definitely expect more photos from here at some point in the future!

Camera: Canon EOS 750
Film: Kodak Ektar 100 - sent to me for free by Kodak Alaris and scanned (successfully) by myself woo!
Location: York Gate Garden, Leeds

A gloomy afternoon

One of the fun things about scanning your own films is that - there are no rules anymore. In fact most of the self imposed 'rules' I had for film photography have vanished since I started scanning my own films... I didn't realise I had so many ha! These photos were actually taken with colour film - but it was so gloomy at this point of the day that the colours washed out and looked a bit - well - rubbish. I knew there were some good photos here though - and as scanning and editing is now all about finding those hidden gems in the results I get - I was determined to find the ones in these.

Drop the saturation - adjust the contrast a little - and boom. Here we are. One gloomy afternoon walking around the lake at Kiplin Hall in Richmond.

Camera: Canon EOS 750
Location: Kiplin Hall, Richmond

On scanning photos...

I'm currently scanning my 3rd film out of 12 that I've taken over the past 2 weeks (yeay!) and I wanted to quickly write about how I'm finding scanning the films myself rather than getting them scanned elsewhere.

(Camera: Canon EOS 750  Film: Kodak BW400CN  Location: Hardcastle Craggs, Hebden Bridge)

It's been a joy and I am loving it.

I just shared a post last Friday about using the scanner but I actually wrote that about 3 weeks ago and since then I've had time to think about my photo process (in between all the other exciting things going on ha) and all of a sudden I feel in a much more relaxed place compared to the last few months of taking photos before having my scanner.

I thought that I would be impatient to see my photos and annoyed that I'd have to wait for each roll to scan - that I would hate the prolonged process and just want to have the results already. But then I started scanning and the excitement wasn't in getting a whole CD of photos that I quickly rushed through. The excitement was having the time with each individual photo and getting to look at them all as single items rather than part of a collection of photos and that has been SO exciting! Some photos aren't quite in focus (grr Rhianne) and some aren't the best photos I've taken but having that small amount of time to look at the photo, remember where I was and how I felt when I took it has almost been meditative for me.

I'm still quite surprised that I feel this way as I am usually so impatient about things - but adding another step to the photo process has only made the journey feel more like its mine rather than detract from it in any way and I'm so relieved about that. I can't wait to see what the next 9 rolls of film bring me and I definitely can't wait to share more photos!

p.s. A sneak peak of the photos coming up with the image above - scanned by myself, woop!