The main pocket has the camera, the second lens, and a three pack of Fuji film. The front pocket has a little remote shutter cable that I found super cheap on Amazon and the ND filter I use with my Nikon. It doesn’t screw onto either of Dad’s lenses, but it does fit over them all snug like. I think it will be okay to use so long as there are no earthquakes.
The forecast for the coast at sunrise tomorrow calls for clear skies. If it stays that way, I am going. I am going and I am only bringing Dad’s camera. I’ll probably only use the 50mm lens, and I will only take a couple of cracks at long exposure, and I will only use the 24 shot roll that’s in the camera now. I just want to see how things look.
Last night I watched a bunch of YouTube videos on tips for film beginners. They all said don’t use drugstores like CVS to develop your film. I have been trying to get Google to tell me if I have any actual film labs in my area, but I don’t think I do. There is one in Methuen but their website says they no longer process film. I’m going to have to find an online service and ship to them. Or… I can just use CVS. I have two rolls there already (one will hopefully be coming back to me soon) so maybe I am just stuck with them.
I was also hoping to hit the Salvation Army store in Salem to see if they had any cameras on the cheap, but they are closed Sunday and tomorrow is a holiday. I think I will have to punt until next week. I also clearly remember going to a huge Goodwill (I think) store somewhere around here. It might be in Manchester. We donated the kids’ bikes there when we remodeled the garage. I just can’t remember exactly where it was, and Jen doesn’t remember it at all.
If you thought that I was going to post a summary of today’s film photography extravaganza before I had the film safely removed and ready to drop off at a developer then you’re just nuts.
I am knocking on every piece of wood in the house as I say this, but it went okay today… I think. Who knows? We won’t know until I get the actual photos back from wherever CVS sends them, but from what I can tell everything is okay.
I retraced most of yesterday’s steps. I didn’t go to Canobie Lake in Windham. I didn’t want to drive that far if it wasn’t a perfectly clear sky. Also, I was gun shy and didn’t want to go too far from home.
I started at the Methuen Rail Trail. I did not see any Canadian geese today, but I did see people. There was a couple out walking their dog, I waited in the car until they passed by, and another person walking away from me who was way in the distance. I went to that little bridge over the Spicket again. The river was perfectly calm and really low. This spot is within the bird sanctuary but I didn’t see any wildlife to speak of.
Obligatory iPhone pic for the Flickr 365 album
I then went downtown. I took one picture of the sidewalk where the businesses have their signs hanging off the buildings and then bolted to the Spicket Falls Dam again. I took a bunch of pictures there. Probably too many. Today’s roll had 36 exposures (Kodak ColorPlus 36/200) and after 12 years with my Nikon D90 and a memory card that can hold over 2,100 full res images, the idea of having to limit myself is kind of hard to wrap my brain around.
After I finished with the dam I went back to the record store to try and get the sidewalk from the other direction. I made sure to get one of the big clock too because it’s me we’re talking about here.
Next I went back to the Tenney Castle site and took a bunch of pictures of what’s left of the courtyard. I took one of the long dead water fountain that I think might have a blurry background. Fingers crossed on that, right?
This was the end of the picture taking as I ran out of film. I went back to the car, holding my breath the whole way. The next step is to unload the camera and that’s where my stupidity turned everything to cow shit yesterday. Picture me walking on eggshells, spiritually speaking (or some shit like that).
I made one other stop before I went home. I saw a flyer online a few days ago for a July 4th event where the Methuen Historical Society (I think) is going to read the Declaration of Independence at the oldest burial site in the city. I went to that site to see if it might be a good place for some pictures, but it’s fenced in and locked up. It looks like there might have even been barbed wire at some point. Yikes.
So back home I went. I left at 5:33 and got home at 6:25. Out of pure paranoia, I did all of my morning routine stuff before sitting down to try and unload the camera. Once that was out of the way I came downstairs to my desk and took care of things. As I mentioned yesterday, there is no way I will ever unload the camera again without having the manual open in front of me (yes, this is an exaggeration in the long term, but I sure as hell had that puppy open today). I read through the steps and did it. No issues that I know of. I have a little zip lock baggy in one of my desk drawers that holds finished rolls. It’s the only roll in the bag right now. I then took the third and final roll from my Walgreens experience last weekend and loaded it up. The camera is good to go.
Sigh of relief. No signs of any mechanical failures. If anything goes wrong from this point it’s because I suck at photography, not because I did something stupid or because there is something wrong with the camera. Sigh of relief indeed.
I actually need to get my pantoprazole prescription refilled (for the final time ever, I hope) so when I go to CVS to pick that up I can also drop off the film. Seems like a decent deal.
Okay, the photography experience for today has come to a close. Time to make a protein shake and walk for half an hour while watching The Umbrella Academy. Bye for now, oh my readers and only friends.
I am going to try again tomorrow. There are clouds in the forecast, but only partly. This will be the third time I try this shit and if something goes wrong this time I’m going to put a pin in it for a bit. My goal is to shoot film in Disney in January and I am just trying to see if I can get the camera to work correctly and also see if the photos come out okay. That’s not too much to ask, is it?
I have a roll of 36 exposures at 200 speed in the camera right now. Let’s see if I can’t use some of that up while hitting my favorite places in the city. Yeah, let’s do it. And screw you to the universe if anything breaks down again, even if it is my fault like it was today. I am a moron.
Sunrise is at 5:12am tomorrow. Let’s do this thing!
The roll came out of the canister completely. It broke? I rewound until it stopped resisting, opened the back, and the roll was still around the spool, disconnected from the can.
I left the house at 5:00 and got home at 6:10. No issues* at all. There wasn’t a lot of sun either, but that’s okay for today’s purposes.
First stop was the little boat launch on Canobie Lake in Windham, right near the kids’ father’s house. I used to take pics with my phone there all the time when I was dropping the kids off. I was a little too early as the sun was up but it hadn’t topped the trees yet.
Second stop was the Methuen Rail Trail where it crosses The Mighty Spicket River. I spent some quality time with a family of Canadian geese. Fortunately they did not take offense to my arrival. The river was dead still but there was some groovy looking mist over it.
The next stop was Greycourt Park where I took WAY too many pictures of the courtyard ruins. Even though I was on top of a big hill, the sun still hadn’t really topped the trees yet so there isn’t much in the way of golden hour stuff.
The next stop was our tiny little downtown. There is one little stretch where three businesses in a row have signs hanging in front of their windows. I wanted that. From what seemed like the best vantage point I could only get two of the signs into the shot. The one I couldn’t see was the one I wanted the most, the used record store. I was a little distracted though because while I was standing there I found an entrance to the foot bridge over the Spicket Falls Dam! Holy Shit Snacks!
The water falling over the dam was loud, but there wasn’t a whole lot of it. I took a bunch of pictures anyway. I finally got a little sun as the canal that follows the dam goes by an old mill building (which is currently an apartment building) and I got a few shots of the sun hitting the building above the water. They probably suck, but I don’t care.
I ran out of film at that point so I walked back to the used record store and took one with my iPhone, just for luck, and then went home.
Stupid shadow
Now it’s time to unwind the camera while praying to the film canister gods that I don’t break anything. Wish me luck.
*The camera appears empty. It was a roll of 24 shots but the counter is at 21. Now I have clear memories of complaining about the counter not being accurate way back in the 1980’s so while I am pretty sure I shot the whole roll without issue, did I? Or did it crap out again with only three shots left? I choose to believe the roll is empty. Mostly because I know it is.
The sun comes up at 5:11 tomorrow morning. The forecast, via the epic Weather Kitty app, predicts that the skies above Methuen will be clear and sunny.
Let’s try that playing with Dad’s camera in the morning before work thing again. Please Please Please let nothing go wrong. If anything does go wrong I will literally cry in my protein shake.
So photography nerd in the morning followed by a half day at work followed by a doctor’s appointment followed by (maybe) a trip to a music store to investigate trading in my Fender followed by visiting my mother followed by dinner with my love. That’s the plan.
I did some Googling and some YouTubing today looking for ways to maybe save the half roll of film that I think I lost this morning. I found nothing.
Later, after work, I was on the Reddit app and I saw a post on a photography subreddit asking how to fix a roll that was accidentally rewound. Not the same problem I had today, but the same result.
The suggested fix was to reload the film and shoot blank pictures until you are past the last photo you knew you took. I think I was at shot number 12. I should put the film back in, sit in a dark room with the lens cap on, and click/wind at least 12 times. I’m thinking 14 to be safe.
Cool! I’m going to try it. Worst case scenario is I screw up a few pictures that likely weren’t good anyway. I can handle that. Not until the roll I loaded this morning is out though. I don’t want to do this twice.
I’ve also been poking around for Nikon SLRs that are as simple as Dad’s Pentax. The hope being I could use the lenses I already have for my D90 with a film camera. Unfortunately every model I look at is way more expensive than I expected. I was hoping to find old stuff for sub-$50 or so. Not likely.
It doesn’t matter. I’m good with what I have. Assuming it’s not somehow broken.
I am pretty nervous about my camera failure this morning. Is the camera broken? Did I break the camera? Will the same thing happen again? I loaded a new roll of film into it when I got home and it seems okay. I don’t know though. Am I screwing up Dad’s camera?
I did another experiment today. Mostly just as an excuse to take a couple of pictures and make sure it’s winding correctly. It is. So far, so good.
I took out my D90, put it on my tripod (which is broken! The head piece doesn’t move anymore. Sand in the gears?), and pointed it at a candle. I used the light meter app and set up the camera manually. I then turned off all of the lights and took a picture. I then did the same thing except that I turned off the lights and then checked the light meter. The only setting on the camera I changed was the shutter speed.
Then I swapped cameras and did it all again. All of the same manual settings, everything. I took two pictures and the film advanced successfully. No issues at all.
Maybe someday I’ll get the pics developed and I’ll be able to compare, but for now I just have the digital stuff.
Aperture f/5.6, ISO 400, Shutter speed 1/30:
Aperture f/5.6, ISO 400, Shutter speed 1:
Now, we just have to wait for the film… someday. Remember, I just sent a roll off to get developed that is at least 30 years old. So… be patient, m’kay?
I’m sitting at my desk eating some scrambled eggs (two eggs, four ounces total). My exercise ring is closed. Dad’s camera has been reloaded. I could use a shave, but otherwise the full morning routine is complete. It’s 8:53am. Time to punch in for the day.
I screwed up the Time Machine backup on my Mac the other day. I tried to restore it but failed (don’t ask). I kicked off a new backup yesterday after work. It still has 15 hours to go. Urgh.
I have a meeting at 10:00. I have to wait 60 minutes after eating before I can drink. I am not going to finish these eggs before 9:00 so I am going to be pretty dehydrated when the meeting starts. Coworkers are going to see me sippin’ not long after the meeting starts.
I tried Googling the problem I had with Dad’s camera today but didn’t come up with much. I found a few more tips on loading film so that it winds, but nothing about what happens if it stops winding halfway through the roll.
I checked the forecast. Tomorrow will not be a good day to try again (too cloudy), but Thursday might be. We’ll see. I’m kinda pissed off. Partly at the camera, partly at the roll of film, partly at the universe in general (fucking Covid), but mostly at myself for getting so hyped over something so stupid that could so easily go wrong.
I wonder if Nikon makes an equivalent, fully manual film camera that can also use the lenses I already own for my D90. Also, I wonder if such a mythical camera would be really cheap on ebay. That might be the next thing I research.
The sun came up at 5:10am today. I was out of the house at 5:05 and heading to Greycourt Park to see if I could take some first-hour-of-sunlight pics of the castle courtyard up on top of the big hill. I got there just after the sun came up and there were already people there. What the hell? No covid exposures for me. I didn’t even stop the car.
Next I headed for a public parking lot in our tiny little downtown. You know, the place with the clock that I post pictures of 100 times a day (be patient, there’s one coming)? It was full. Oh, come on. I could have parked in a business parking lot. There is exactly one of those. No, I was annoyed. I left.
I headed for Walnut Grove cemetery and it’s 1800’s family monuments. There was no one there, which is normal in my tiny bit of experience. I got out. Took a few pictures. That’s when it turned into the epic fail.
I had a roll of 24 exposures. I was on shot #12, I think. The camera wouldn’t wind. At first the mechanism felt stuck, and then it felt like there was nothing there. No resistance from the film moving along the track at all. Safe to assume the film is off the track again? How could that be? Everything was working fine? It was wrapped around the spool and everything was good?
To hell with it. I got back into the car and tried winding the film back into the canister. Yeah, I’ll waste half a roll, but maybe I can salvage a few pictures. Remember the first few were already burned when I fixed the roll the first time. Rolling back up was difficult though. Was it difficult the other day? I don’t remember. I feel like it was fighting me the whole time, but eventually it finished.
I am pretty pissed off. My first try at this and everything fucks up. I’ll try again, but I am not pleased with this situation at all.
I took one picture with my phone while I was driving around, just so I would have something for my photo a day thing on Flickr. Here it is. Blah fucking blah.
At least I was able to stop at the gas station and top off the Kia’s tank so Jen won’t have to worry about it when she drives to the office today. That’s me looking at the bright side and shit.
Inside the Red Head's Head 