A Return to Film

 

Voigtlander Bessa R, Nikkor-S.C 5cm f1.4 LTM, Kodak Tri-X

I’ve definitely been experiencing a resurgence in my interest in shooting film of late. I’m not going to abandon digital any time soon, but I’m pretty sure a large part of what’s driving the renewed interest is simple exhaustion in my interest in shooting digital in my local neighborhood. Flower & bee season is over and that’s all I really enjoyed shooting locally with the digital cameras.

I know I could just set the X-T2 to Classic Chrome or Acros, stick the 25/1.8 on it and wander about shooting film style, and I Actually have been doing that some, but there’s a shooting experience and process experience aspect to this and I just find myself unable to divorce the film process from this sort of shooting without losing some of the enjoyment. A couple rolls through the FE last week reminded me of the joys of shooting film for cityscape work.

I’ve also found my interest in larger formats returning. I shot 2 rolls of 120 yesterday, the first two I’d shot since 2012. One was finishing a roll in my Coronet Twelve-20 box camera, a roll that had been sitting in there for more than a decade as I honestly don’t much like shooting with a box camera. The second was a fresh roll of FP4 in my a Super Ricohflex TLR, which I quite enjoy using.

On the development side, I have a large backlog as I pretty much stopped cold with developing when I stopped actively shooting film in 2017. I even have a few rolls of 120 from 2012 that need development. I’m out of fixer and Rodinal, as well as 35mm neg sleeves, so a supply run will have to happen before anything else.

So expect some film work to start appearing here over the next little while.