I got these scans back, and then poof! My love affair with film ended a little bit. I haven't even looked at them until tonight, really, and I got them back a few weeks ago. I was initially very excited to see these, because included is the first roll I shot with my Rolleicord. And those turned out really well! They are Portra 160, and most of them were in focus. To use this camera, I have to concentrate very, very hard. I think the shot of the flowers and the sidewalk took me 15 minutes to compose, because of the way everything moves in the opposite direction you are expecting it to when you move the camera. It is so fun to shoot though- the shutter is probably my favorite shutter experience of any camera ever. None of these are masterfully composed, because I was mostly just working on the manual focus aspect and getting used to the camera, but I really love these photos. Now comes the not good part- a roll of Provia, but it doesn't look like Provia to me, and at least half the roll was underexposed to the point of not being salvageable at all. My worst results so far. I don't know what happened. I was obviously metering totally incorrectly. I am wondering if at some point I was thinking I was shooting another film stock. And I don't really understand why the few photos that are ok don't really have the Provia "wow" thing that I usually see when I shoot it. They just look blah, and this is all that I got worth sharing from that roll.

Here is the roll of Agfa Vista 200. A film stock I have always liked, but certainly nowhere near as much as I liked my Provia results previously. Here are my favorites from that roll.

I had planned for months to shoot only film at the state fair, but then I got these back, and I pretty much totally lost confidence in myself and my film shooting skills. Whatever I thought I knew about film stocks, I don't know. And apparently I am not metering correctly either, although I was using an external light meter and being very careful. It is still the case that every time I get scans back, my opinion of what I like and don't like changes. Where I am now is not really a place where shooting a lot of film fits, but I do want to shoot a few rolls and see if I can get some of the magic back. I am just going to stick with inexpensive film for awhile, instead of slide film. And tomorrow I will share my digital photos of the state fair. I think fairs and film are a perfect match, so maybe I can try again next year to capture the fair experience that way.

I sent three rolls of film off to Richard Photo Lab at the beginning of this month, and because it was E6 film and because I choose to scan with Frontier, I just got the scans back today. I opened them and I was immediately incredibly happy. I knew one roll was shot with my Holga, and I wasn't all that happy with those. They were pretty much all out of focus, and it was just something fun for me to try out. I also knew one roll was Velvia, because it was VERY Velvia looking. To find out for sure what the other roll was, I had to call the lab to ask- and found out it was Provia, which makes sense in the context of my reaction. I loved my first Provia scans so much, and I love these too. It is really nice when the lab names the file folders with the film stock used. I was relieved to find out it was slide film, and was afraid that I would have to totally switch to RPL because they had created magical Portra or 400H scans. I can also say that I am going to commit to shooting primarily Provia when it is practical. Velvia is a little fun and funky, but I will happily shoot it every now and then! I am trying out some consumer film as well (Fuji Superia 800, and I LOVE Agfa Vista and need to buy some more of that). I think I will be selling a lot of my excess film soon, because there is no point to me in shooting through what doesn't really work for me. Portra and 400H leaves me feeling confused, and I have never felt super over the top happy with those scans.

The photos though! I am so excited to share the photos I got back today. These first three are from the Holga, Portra 160. You can see I created a triple exposure, totally a result of my disbelief that the shutter was really working. It is very quiet.

And then these are the Velvia- not necessarily suited for portraits, but I think the one I got of my daughter is pretty awesome.

And finally, Provia.

The extra days waiting on these, the extra money for E6 development, all worth it for me. I didn't have to edit these, except for straightening and tiny HSL panel tweaks for skin. I'll be sending off three rolls tomorrow, and will keep updating the results of my film journey...

Nebraska State Fair 2016

August Film

Happy Scan Day