Today I am kicking off my Film Project 2024. I can’t even tell you how excited I am to share the images & memories below. Before I do, I wanted to share just a little info and a few thoughts.
I have always known that I like learning and like new things. Recently, however, I have come to realize just how much this impacts me, my mood and my motivations. It impacts everything from resisting doing a bike ride because I have ridden my local routes and trails hundreds of times. It slows me from being as creative as I want to be because I am used to the sites, sounds, smells of my frequent paths.
Those that know me also know that I love to experiment with cameras and all types of gear as well. This is rooted in both my fascination of design, learning, experimenting and fighting boredom. I simply love experimenting with gear and learning how to get the most out of it as well as understand the design constraints & issues. It is this period exploration with new things that I am most creative as well. It’s a win-win and the learning and creativity feed one another.
So over the years I have collected an eclectic mix of old film cameras, now vintage small sensor digital cams as well as modern full frame cameras with all the features. I love them all and while I don’t use them enough, I do tend to jump around a bit depending on mood.
My current favorite cameras are my beloved, original Fujifim X-Pro-1 (now over 12 years old!) and my Yashica T4 compact point and shoot camera. BTW, my original Yashica T4 blog post is my most popular blog post of all time! You can go back in time and read that article here.
Way back in 2012 I did a film project. Here is a link to those blog posts. The purpose back then was to slow down and to learn. That project ended. I had so much fun and some of those pictures and memories are my most favorite of all time. I tried picking the project up again and carrying it forward, but a busy lifestyle, the slowness of film and my popcorn brain moving onto something else always got in the way.
Over the years, I have managed to shoot a little bit of film. This was mainly for fun and knowing that the images were simply meant for me and now one else. Note I said attempted. This resulted in partial rolls of film from an event, film sitting in my camera for years, and some canisters of film sitting on my desk for several years.
You may have noticed, but 2023 was a different year for me. I actually has several professional photography gigs but my personal, art, experimentation all but disappeared as I was either shooting some professionally or focused on riding my bike and simply being present. My Film Project 2024 is meant to jump start all that. Sheesh, that is a lot of background to kick of the 2024 project right?
So…The first installment of my Film Project 2024 is finally here. I took all those old rolls of film on my desk and processed them. It turns out that I don’t have too many pictures to share from those rolls, but what I am sharing are incredibly fun and meaningful to me. Note all the rolls are expired and sat on my desk or in the camera for a minimum of 2 years! I also had a friends roll of film in there and one that didn’t have a single image captured on it. But here are some of the images captured sometime over the last several years.
All shot on my Yashica T4. Film used will be called out below. Click on any image in each set to go to slideshow mode!
Maine – 2021 – This was the first trip with my wife as empty nesters. I shot the trip primarily on digital, so these pics don’t tell the whole story. But damn, am I in love with the feeling and mood of these images. Film = Portra
Mid South – These images were on the same roll as Maine and yes these trips were roughly 6 months apart from one another. But this was my re entry into the world of cycling after leaving my job of 25+ years and taking a break. You can find more on that story here if you wish. Otherwise enjoy the handful of shots. Dang I love film, this event and these people! Film = Portra
Up North – This is a throw back from the time machine. It was a trip up north to ride Fatbike’s with friends. So many good times. Riding. Laughing. Falling through the ice. Drinking. Laughing. We each had an old film camera and attempted to shoot a roll of film. We had big plans of doing a massive blog post with all of our images. I will share mine here. Maybe I will share the others as I developed one roll for one of those friends and one other developed and shared some pics with me yesterday. I have no idea what happened to those other rolls of film from that trip. I wanted a different feel from the rest, so I shot Delta 3200 on this trip. I also figured it’s winter and dark more than it is light, so the 3200 might be a good choice.
I love every single one of these memories and photos. While they may not be the best and technically perfect images, they far exceeded my expectations and brought those memories back into my brain.
OK…..One more shot. This is a shot from my friend Glenn Charles. It was on a roll of film I mention above from our up North trip. I sure love this and think it needs to be my profile picture. This was taken less than 30 minutes after I fell through the ice on Artists Point in Grand Marais, MN!
I’ll be back next month with shots from January 2024. I am already behind so I better stop writing and get out there to shoot!
ImagineGnat 