35mm Film | Looking Back

I first started shooting 35mm film back in my sophomore year of High School. I remember my dad finding a floor model of a Canon Rebel k2 SLR from Best Buy where he worked, and it ripped. I loved that camera. Everyone else had vintage Canon AE’s, Minoltas or Pentax 35mm’s. I had one of the newest and last 35mm film cameras.

It made me feel pretty unique, something my Father and I have always had a knack for.

For a while, until I was 18, I would use that camera off and on. It pretty much stopped altogether when I wasn’t part of that Photography Class in High School.

Once I started working full time, I eventually went digital and never really considered shooting film again, until 2 years ago when I picked up a Pentax ME Super 35mm from a friend.

I hardly knew what I was doing or how to operate the camera.

Past Processed

So, I went to the ever-faithful Biggs Camera, in Charlotte, NC. The only shops we had for decades was Camera World and Biggs. I’m so glad Biggs is still serving the film community. Color negative processing was only $5. I used these Fujifilm ISO 200 35mm film rolls, they were cheap and I figured it’d be best in case of user error. It’s a good thing because in my opinion, tons of shots from this roll weren’t useable. It’s not Biggs’ fault, the negatives were normal. It was all me, as expected.

I Felt So STUPID
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HUMBLE PIE’d

This was such a fun experience to go back to by re-living the process of shooting film again. I had completely forgotten what I had taken pictures of when it came time to develop them. There were months that would go by, then I’d take a few snaps. It was really sporadic, but it made it rather fun to see the results after development.

Once I saw how hard I failed my first attempt, it made me even more excited to get back out there, now that I know what to expect from myself, the camera and the film process.

…. Even If the photos were very amateur, it was humbling to see my roots after 20 years of photography being challenged again. Not only by the camera itself, but also by the second part of scanning your film negatives. I tried this in the past with a canon flatbed scanner.

The results worked, but they were really bad quality and super slow to scan. This time I was scanning the negatives directly.

I’ll share more about scanning in a future tutorial post. I’m still learning exactly how to efficiently scan these.

Failing Isn’t Free

I handed Biggs an entire roll of film with not one photo on it. Still paid for it. I thought I used it. I guess I wasted a roll by winding it rather prematurely.

EDIT: I went back to develop another roll that was empty. They didn’t charge me for it and there is no need to pick it up. They sent a confirmation email with a jpeg named ” empty film “. It’s like 3 rolls of Film I somehow wasted.

Nice. And of course, there were sections of film that I exposed by opening the camera on the other roll I developed. So, I lost some shots there.

The total cost for 3 rolls of 35mm film developed was $25. That’s doesn’t include prints or scans. Total I had about 41 Shots.

Could be worse. But that’s a hard pill to swallow when you’ve shot digital for the last two decades.

Holding A Space

This pretty much wraps up things worth sharing from the Fujifilm roll. There’s a few I like and I still have another roll of color. These were all untouched and taken straight from the negatives. The few I liked; I ran through some post process, which you’ll see below.

I would never wait over a year to process photos. It’s crazy that some of these shots were that old. It brought back a lot of respect for the camera. Something as photographers and creatures of creativity we take for granted. Our tools, the space they hold for us.

You know, it’s not so much about what we fabricate as purpose. As a Photographer, its more about the purpose of the camera and the story it conveys through our emotions. The Camera has a definite purpose. Ours will always expand and evolve.

My photos will always be emotional. I can tell you what happened, what I was feeling, what lens and what camera I used. Every picture is a song. ( Oddly enough, I sing a lot when I take photos )

Sometimes the right tool, or the perfect person can bring so much clarity and purpose to our lives. Did you actually hold it? Did you cherish that time? Did you miss that moment you should’ve taken a picture?

Will the right person or the perfect camera provide space for you as you grow and expand? With love, it’s easy. Right?