I’ve been shooting on film (or with any non-convenient high-megapixel low-character smartphone capacity) for a little under half a year now, starting very feebly with what I chose would be worthy of taking a photo of, I slowly garnered the courage to capture moments spontaneously without fear of running out of film – I started to truly embrace my joy of film photography.
I always take photos on my phone of both the shot I took on the Olympus, and the settings on the camera – giving me an opportunity to reflect on what turned out well, what could do with improvement and which settings I had to achieve each – my personal method of practice makes perfect. Every photo I have taken makes its way to my Instagram, I embrace being an amateur to film photography and greatly appreciate any constructive criticism to improving my work.
January 2020, now on the 4th roll, the cheapest I could find before I could face forking out at least a tenner for a roll of Portra, my partner and I visited a desolate Blackpool from our home in Oxford, a brief weekend away. The eeriness of the city was a striking template for lockdown life, despite our visit occuring prior to this. We saw the sights, braved the winds and watched some wrestling (my camera was confiscated for this – considered much too “professional” by security).
Still, being new to this film malarkey has its pitfalls. Whilst slightly intoxicated, I incorrectly unwound this film to it’s canister and sliced through half a roll – losing snapshots of these days and moments that I was excited to relive.
The photos I attached survived this debacle, and whilst I feel very unqualified and uneducated to critique these photos, I personally enjoy them.
- A photo of my sister at New Year’s
- A neat reflection from outside our hotel
- Testing out the seaside tram system
- Early light over an out-of-season pleasure park
- A light leak on frame 13 of 36, the final develop-able shot from the roll.
Slow down, take a breath, revel in the memories your medium returns you to, and at this uncertain time, stay safe.
~ Jack
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2 responses to “5 Frames… Of a desolate Blackpool with Kodak ColorPlus 200 (35mm Format / EI 200 / OLYMPUS OM-2)”
Caught the moment there with your sister, quite nicely.
the most important thing with film is to love what you do – and look, even the light leak exposure has got it’s charme, hasn’t it?