2nd Roll of 35mm Film. March 2018

I’m pretty proud of these pictures if I do say so myself. All of the ones I took actually showed up (albeit a lot were blurry) but I managed to get some rather nice photos.

So, let’s take a look:

This one is still pretty blurry. But I like the colours. This was taken at a bus stop I used to go to almost every day for 2 years. I don’t come here as often now, only about once a week.

I really like the lighting and the detail in this one.

This one is of my brother. He’s playing my telecaster. I like the lighting here too, especially on the guitar. Also, it’s pretty cool that you can see his reflection in the mirror.

The quality of this one isn’t the best but I still think it looks pretty cool. I like ’70’s punk music, so I had to get the book in the shot.

This one has some weird light leaks. It’s still a nice picture. This is my street. The brick wall on the left is part of my house.

Anyways, there ya have it!

They aren’t the best photos on the block but I think they look alright for my second roll.

Catch ya later,

K.

First (successful) Roll of 35mm Film

So, I’m back with a new update on my amateur film exploits.

I have gotten 2 rolls of film developed in the past week.

The first roll, which I am not showing in this article (but maybe will post eventually for fellow amateurs so that if their first roll of film comes out shite they won’t feel as bad) was a failure of epic proportions. I’m not entirely sure what happened to it but all the pictures came out black with some weird blue reflection on it. I mean it looked kind of cool but it isn’t something I want to keep happening, you know. A couple pictures worked on the top half and the bottom half was black and blue.

So I was hopeful that my camera wasn’t a dud since some of the pictures sort of worked. The problem with the ones that did kinda work was that the exposure was waaaay too high. Which is kind of to be expected considering I had absolutely no idea what I was doing and wasn’t using the light meter. It’s all part of the learning process.

Anyway, I probably should have started writing down the settings I used so that I could figure out what I was doing and how I need to alter it for next time but to be completely honest I couldn’t be arsed to do that. I tend to just wing it most of the time.

After the first roll of developed film, I was really bloody nervous to put in another roll to get developed. I tried to use different settings this time and slower shutter speeds. I was dreading that my camera was a dud and I would have to buy a new one and keep that one for decorative purposes. I had grown rather attached to the ole thing over the past 2 weeks and the thought of it not being the camera that I learned on really bummed me out. I knew it was a possibility considering the mirror is sort of dodgy at times and I bought it for around a hundred bucks on eBay.

But to my great surprise and happiness, the pictures actually freaking worked! I was so fucking relieved opening up that folder and looking at actual images. Thank god, I thought. Now I don’t have to blow my money on a new camera.

That’s not to say the pictures are objectively good. They’re kind of shit. Which is also to be expected. Most of them are blurry. But some of them I quite like.

So here is a few of the ones that I like out of the lot;

Excuse the blurriness. This is my kitchen, I think the light looks pretty cool.

An even shittier picture of my kitchen. The colours are nice though. It has some redeeming qualities.

Clearly I have some sort of fascination with my kitchen light. This picture is totally messed up but the light trails look cool. I was using a rather slow shutter speed and I forgot that you have to stay still. Whoops. Oh well.

Wow, an actual picture. It’s still out of focus and kind of blurry but I think it looks pretty neat. I put it in black and white because I felt like it looks cooler that way.

This is probably the best one of the lot. Also in black and white for DRAMATIC EFFECT.

So, there you have it. My first successful 35mm film photographs.

Until next time,

K.

I Bought My First Film Camera

Hello!

Apologies in advance; this is a rather wordy post. I think most of mine will be – I have a bit of a tendency to ramble.

So, for a very long time I have been interested in photography but never really took it up. I suppose in a way I am rather easily amused – I find lots of mundane daily things cool/beautiful.

When I was 15-ish years old, I got one of those cute pastel coloured Fuji-film instant cameras for my birthday. I have shitloads of photos I’ve taken on that camera, I keep them in boxes and I write little notes on the white frame with a sharpie. I found it so exciting not knowing how the picture would turn out. Sometimes you get cool blotches on the pictures or weird light leaks. I even did some double exposures on it at one point. (They were terrible, but hey, at least it worked. I was pretty bloody excited.) We live in a world where everything is so fast. Technology is advancing so quickly and a lot of things are right at our fingertips. Especially with digital photography and smart phones in particular. I mean, it’s great how easy it is to take pictures. Virtually anyone can do it. But what I enjoyed so much about instant film is that you only get to take one shot. It’s not like your phone where you can do a burst and take 10+ pictures in a fraction of a second. You have to really think about the moments. It makes them feel more special in a way.

I also like the fact that they don’t turn out perfect. ‘Cos hey, life isn’t perfect.

Anyways. Now, I really love the 1960s and 70s. A lot of my favourite bands came out of those decades. When I would look at the cool photos of those bands or even just street photography from back then I felt inspired. I decided I wanted to get a film camera so I could take pictures the way those photographers did. So, I bought one.

My Camera: 

The camera I bought was rather cheap. I got it off of eBay for around a hundred bucks. It came with a leather case and a light meter. I have no idea how to use the light meter so I’ve sort of cast it aside for now while I get the basics down.

The brand is Ihagee, it’s a German brand. My particular camera is an Exa II-b. They were manufactured between 1964 and 1966. So my camera is pretty bloody old.

This is not my exact camera, I just nicked this picture off of google images. Mine has a different lens. But this is an Exa II-b.

It’s a really beautiful camera. I was so excited when I got it in the mail. Gotta say though, it smells old. Especially the case. I gave it a good clean.

The camera is fully functional except for some minor issues with the mirror. It gets stuck sometimes when I press the shutter and I have to remove the lens and manually pull it down each time I take a picture. It’s not because it’s sticking to the foam, so I dunno why it’s happening. It seems alright on slower shutter speeds. It probably needs to warm up, god knows how long it’s been since it was last used. (Judging by that classic musty smell, I’d say quite a while.) And to be honest, it’s not a big enough issue for me to want to go pay and get it repaired. Not yet anyway.

Learning How to Use it: 

I’ll be honest. I’ve already wasted an entire roll of film. I’m a complete noob. I really have absolutely no idea what I’m doing. I’ve never used a proper camera before besides my phone or that aforementioned instant camera. But not knowing is half the fun. (The other half is frustration coupled with some mild disappointment.)

Now, I can’t be bothered to write a how-to guide. Maybe if people were interested and I manage to figure it out, I’ll write one. A simple one for people like me who’ve got no clue.

Loading the film was a right pain in the arse, but it was so exciting. I’m using a 3 pack of Kodak Ultramax colour film. The ISO is 400. It was around 20 bucks. I got it at Big W. I know you can also get it at Kmart. I’m probably going to just keep using this film until I actually know what I’m doing.

I wasted a bunch of it trying to put it in the take up spool. I even ripped some of it. Whoops. I’m pretty sure those first few pictures would have been blank since they were all exposed and I forgot to advance the film twice. But man. The satisfaction I felt when I finally got it in properly and it was moving along when I wound it up was awesome. I felt like a child on Christmas morning.

Now, sometimes I am a bit of a goof. About half way through the roll I decided to open the back of the camera and check if it was working. I probably lost a good few shots there.

The real kicker was that at the end, somehow I completely messed up rewinding the film. I must have turned it the wrong way – I thought it was going the right way but whatever. Instead of it winding back up into the film canister, it wound completely out of there and onto the take up spool. So when I opened it I exposed the entire roll film to light, since it was just all out there. I tried to put it back in the canister inside my closet with the curtains drawn but alas, I couldn’t get it back in. Rest in peace, my first roll of film. I don’t think any of those pictures are salvageable. I kept it anyway, in the light proof plastic container it came in.

Better luck next time. I put a new roll of film in and it was so much easier second time around. Fingers crossed I can get the film out safely. I’m so intrigued to know what my first developed roll of pictures will look like.

Well, that’s it for now.

I shall update again on my amateur photography endeavours in the near future.