THREE ROLLS LATER...

09/17/26

Taking up photography is one of the best decisions I have ever made.

For a quick recap; I briefly talked about wanting to buy a film camera in a post from December last year but never acted on that urge to get one until late January. I bought a Canon A-1, "Jane", for around $175 with the 50mm f/1.8 kit lens and loaded up a roll of Ilford HP5 Plus, eager to begin snapping shots of whatever I could. I set out on photo walks around my neighborhood hoping to find images along the way, practicing compositions and learning how "Jane" operated. I took my camera to New York in February with a second roll of HP5 Plus loaded up, seeking out the magic that the city seems to offer to photographers. If you'd like to know more about my first two rolls, you can find the post here.

My third roll was exposed sporadically throughout March, April, and May, capturing random points in time when I figured I'd whip my camera out. I was still shooting on Ilford HP5 Plus because I liked the grain structure and the simplicity of B&W. I do wish that it had more contrast and I will be trying some higher contrast films in the future when I go back to shooting on B&W. A decision was made to try using a flash with this roll. It made life a bit easier knowing, to a certain extent, that a low-light image would have a far better chance of turning out properly exposed with a flash. I tried it early on when hanging out with friends and randomly on a man smoking a cigarette and carrying his dog down the street. "Jane" found her way onto campus at CSULB when I thought I was going to be the next best street photographer--thank you to Paulie B's Walkie Talkie series. We took the trek down to Knuckleheads to see Sunny Bear Forest open for Paul Quatrone's Expensive Shit and I realized how impossibly hard it was to manually focus in a low-light environment (this will be a recurring theme, just wait). I also tried my Sigma 135mm f/2.8 at The Wedge to finish out the roll and shockingly exposed everything correctly without having to use program mode. A few key takeaways here: 1. This roll had no inherent purpose to it. Most of the 36 exposures bounced around from place to place. Some were taken on a drunken walk around Alamitos Beach, some of bands playing at Knuckleheads, a few at Pappy and Harriet's in Pioneertown, and some random one-offs. 2. A lot of the low-light photos were out-of-focus, but none had shutter drag because I was using a flash. Several months prior, when I first shot Sunny Bear Forest at Vine and while walking around New York, shutter drag was all over the low-light exposures. Flash mitigated the shutter drag but did not solve my inability to focus in the dark, much to my dismay. From the previous roll I found that I needed to hold "Jane" as steady as possible while taking photos in the dark without a flash, which as you'll see, did not help that much...

FYI, all my film is bought, developed, and scanned at Tuttle's Cameras in Long Beach. They have a great selection of film stocks--check 'em out. Speaking of, the fourth stock I picked up and shot was Kodak Portra 800. Because it took me so damn long to finish roll #3, my roll of Portra wasn't loaded into the camera until mid-July. I had been waiting for the perfect opportunity to use it. Meatbodies played at a super small venue in San Diego called The Whistlestop, giving me the window I needed to finally expose the roll. The first 25 photos were taken at that show, with and without flash. The Whistlestop doesn't have a stage so the bands play on the floor in front of a giant train mural, meaning I could be an ass and get up in their grill and put the lens in their faces. Worth it. By the time the show was over I already wanted to get it developed. Though, the roll needed to be finished. No exposures would be wasted. A week later, Alex's Bar hosted a free show that we decided to take advantage of. In all honesty, the photos I took that night didn't turn out that great. Maybe one or two good ones. There's a photo of the floor for f**ks sake. Nice job, me! Now here's the lessons learned from roll #4: 1. Trying to get good focus in the dark...you get the idea. It's not easy. 2. Shutter drag was hefty in the non-flash photos, but they turned out much better than the last roll. Sometimes I can use the shutter drag to my advantage to obscure scenes or to give it more of an edge. 3. I need to work on my composition. This skill comes with practice and consistent shooting, neither of which I have time or money for. Having a selection of different prime lenses would help get more interesting compositions too. Thankfully, I picked up a 28mm f/2.8 at the Long Beach flea market a few weeks back that I'm really excited to shoot with. The Meatbodies show was as perfect as the circumstances could possibly be and some of the compositions didn't turn out because of one reason or the other. Maybe if I knew how to focus better I would've made those comps better. 4. Not every photo is going to be a winner. Maybe I already knew this going into this hobby, but I need to prepare myself for disappointment every time I wait to get my scans back. Though, disappointment is how we learn that our mistakes are experiences we use to improve our craft.

I dropped roll #4 off to get developed, picked up a roll of Ektacolor Pro 800 to bring up to Zebulon for Cory Hanson and Slowhand's hometown show. Kodak randomly decided to change the name of Portra to Ektacolor Pro in the months that it had been since I got the last roll. The formula and stock are the exact same. Roll #5 would be the same as roll #4, but with a different name. Did you enjoy the alliteration? Like the previous roll, 25 or 26 photos were taken trying to capture the talent unfolding on stage. I shot mostly without a flash this show. Bowie mentioned that some artists hate having the flash go off in their eyes while they're playing, so I decided to go without it for as long as possible. Unfortunately, a lot of the photos had brutal shutter drag and had me wishing I was shooting with a tripod for low shutter speeds. Moving around Zebulon was much easier than at The Whistlestop, letting me shoot from the back of the room and on all sides of the stage. BUT...yes, with the caps lock on...the back of the room did not produce anything that was even remotely usable. A 50mm without a flash in the back of a dark room was not my brightest idea. Nice pun, eh? Yeah, I know I'm an idiot. Keep reading. If only I had my 135mm on me. Shooting on prime lenses creates issues when wanting to get different compositions from varying distances. Having not been in this hobby for very long, I have yet to figure out the best way to bring lens options when I shoot shows. Considering some venues don't allow interchangeable lens bodies, the best option is to bring the smallest one you've got and pretend it doesn't come off. The obvious drawback is restricting yourself to one focal length that might not work in your favor. Or maybe I just don't have the knowledge to finesse bringing more than one lens. A week later I brought "Jane" to the Heathen Axe debut at Permanent Records to get the final 10 shots I needed. Slipping between people to get through the crowded room was the only way the photos were going to turn out. Thankfully, John Dwyer/Osees LA crowds are generally very nice and let me slink my way to the front. Permanent Records' stage is no more than a 15 by 10 foot space--similar to The Whistlestop but with, well, an actual stage. My flash stayed in my pocket the whole show and I had to time each click of the shutter to when the brightest color lights came around on the cycle. Funnily enough, most of the exposures were taken when the lights were red, but I was lucky to get one or two when the lights were white or blue. The final shot at the Heathen Axe show WAS taken with a flash. I met John Dwyer, fumbled my camera around like an idiot trying to focus in low light, and ended up getting one of my favorite photos ever. It's funny how things sometimes work out like that. I ended up with two shots in the end, so I took a couple of self portraits using the self-timer. I had never used the level before, but I'm glad I did. Here's what I learned from this roll: 1. Using full program mode all the time is not going to cut it if I want to improve. I need to switch into different modes so I can learn how to make the most of my camera and hopefully eliminate unwanted shutter-drag by dialing in the setting right. 2. Light-metering is extremely important. I should be using a dedicated light meter for proper exposure in conjunction with full manual. Maybe I should get a mirrorless or DSLR to practice... 3. I love shooting film, but I need to branch out and use a greater variety of stocks instead of Portra 800 and HP5 Plus. Ilford Delta 3200 will probably be my next film pickup. It's a high ISO b&w film that has been used by countless concert photographers that need an exponentially higher ISO for better low light performance. Color stocks cap out at 800 ISO, though I'm not too miffed about it because I've been wanting to try more b&w for concerts (not just for when I happen to bring my camera to a show). 4. Dedicate the rest of my life to figuring out how to focus in low light. Learn range focusing. That's all I'll say about that.

I was hoping to shoot a bit more this summer but ran out of steam (and money). I'm still stoked with the photos I got, the latter two rolls fueling me to want to shoot more. My camera bag has had a roll of Karmir 160 in it for months that I refuse to shoot on until I have something proper to shoot. The colors are too nice to be a "throwaway" roll. I also picked up an expired roll of Kodak Gold 200 that I'm planning on double exposing. My journey into the world of digital cameras has also begun as I've been scrounging around the interwebs for a good daily carry that I can take just about anywhere. Will update soon. As a Digital Media Arts student, Photoshop, Lightroom, and Illustrator will be mastered by the end of the semester. The blog will be upgraded accordingly. 

Thanks for hanging in and waiting for the next post. I know it's been a while. With work and school, time to write has been less than accessible for me. Hang in there, more to come soon(ish).

Do what you love | See you soon...

Cheers,

Jack