Welcome to the first in a series of blogs dedicated to my love for film photography. Each blog will document a roll of film, the images developed from it (good and bad!), and the stories behind those images.
I’m not an expert in film photography, I just love the rawness and the challenge of it; if you get a great shot, it’s because you nailed every element in the short moments leading up to pressing the shutter. There’s no hiding behind post production, what comes back from the lab is what you get. I often hesitate before pressing the shutter when shooting film, whereas on a digital camera, I’d probably fire a shot or two just to see how they come out. It's photography in it's purest form and that’s why so many people love it.
CAMERA: Kodak Tele-Instamatic 330 pocket camera
FILM: Fujicolour 110 cartridge (expired)
I bought this camera from a charity shop for £4 a few years ago, it came with an expired 110 film cartridge that took me almost two years to shoot and then probably a further 6 months to send to be developed (getting 110 film developed ain’t cheap!). I’m not sure why it all took so long, I’ve since bought more film cameras and shot other rolls of film while this set of images sat in a drawer degrading.
I couldn’t remember half the shots I took, I just remembered taking the camera with me on walks and trips as it was an easy grab and go alternative to my bulky camera bag. As a result, I got a wide variety of shots from various places - so let’s get into it!
Gritty, grainy, dark and dirty! Cascades car park, Portsmouth.
Hayling beach - plain sailing
I'm not sure what I was expecting, but I wasn't blown away with these when they came back. I guess it's because I've had far better results on 35mm film with my Praktica MTL-3. Pretty foolish of me to expect the same image quality, I know... but you live in hope.
Beach house - Hayling Island
Groyne marker - Hayling Island
Pedro & Poppy - unfortunately we had to re-home these two once Dylan starting moving about.
Living it!
Dorset trip for my mum's birthday - we stayed in this amazing country cottage (Note the pregnant wife!)
Perranporth - spring 2019. Kye shouting something?! Last surf trip before Dylan was born!
Me and Rachel at our friends birthday party, pre covid and pre baby (by about a week!).
Hayling Beach - Rach about 6-7 months pregnant.
Seeing the images together on this blog, I like the desaturated colours and overall tone of the expired film. I loved the novelty of this little charity shop find, it definitely got me hooked on shooting film again. But at almost £20 a pop for developing, I won't be in a hurry to shoot on 110 film anytime soon!
Thanks for reading, take it easy.
Darren
