Adventures in Film

Although I am primarily a digital shooter, I've always been fascinated by film and its nostalgic quality. It has a permanence to it that doesn't exist in DSLR photography, which means we have to be that much more deliberate with what we choose to capture. This past weekend, J and I took his new film camera out for a spin. Armed with his trusty prime lens and some great film recommended by a friend (Kodak Portra 160), we set off into the chilly streets of New York's West Village to test out the first roll.

Honestly, we weren't quite sure of what to expect. Were the shots going to be under or overexposed? Were we focusing and metering properly? In the end, we decided to just shoot the 36 exposures and hope for the best. I was mentally prepared for a few in each roll to be tossed out (heartbreaking, I know), but that also meant the ones you do decide to keep are that much more precious.

As the sun began to set, our exposure count also dwindled to a close. Instead of sending the negatives in to a more professional studio, we decided to just go to a 1-hour photo place, given that the pictures could possibly have been a disaster. We lifted the deck of photos out of the paper packaging with apprehension -- and to our surprise (and by my perhaps biased opinion), they didn't turn out half bad! Of course, some were blurry or underexposed, but overall, I would say it was a success.  

So without further ado, here are some highlights from our adventure in film around NYC. I know I'm looking forward to more of these in the future.