Tag: film

Photo Walk Redux

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.

July 1st
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.

One More Try

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!

Nope, Total Failure

That last post? Forget it.

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.

Fuck.

Fail City

What a waste

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 , 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.

I Don’t Have a Clue

I experienced my first loading of a film camera today, and I sure as hell fucked it up. Of course. The question then is… how bad?

I’ve been sitting here watching youtube videos both on my camera and on tips for shooting film, and common mistakes. This video is on common mistakes:

One of the mistakes noted is failing to advance the film after each shot. Specifically, the film comes off the track and doesn’t move when you wind the film. I took two pictures earlier today but I thought to myself, what if I am guilty of this? I took a third pic, advanced the film, and nothing happened. I had to open the back of the camera and fix it. In doing so I exposed the film to the light. My question… how much did I expose? Just the area that I could see? Did I burn the entire roll? I won’t know until I get it back from the developer.

Yippee Skippee. The first of a lifetime of film related fuck ups has been fucked up. Amen and Huzzah.

I Have the Bug Again

I have it again. I definitely have the ol’ shutterbug once again. And I ain’t talking about no iPhone here.

I took the roll of film that was in Dad’s camera to CVS today. They will send it somewhere to get developed and I should have it back in 7-10 days. Still no clue how much it will cost.

I spent some time today trying to find stores that actually sell 35mm film. There are none. At least not in a reasonable radius from home. I even put a post onto a film photography subreddit and got nothing back. Looks like film shopping is a fully online experience for me. No instant gratification for this guy.

So I don’t have any film for Dad’s camera. I guess I’ll go shoot the sunrise with my digital tomorrow. The sunrise is at 5:09am. My alarm is set for 4:00. I’m a psycho idiot and proud of it. We will see if I actually get up, and if so we will see how the pictures come out. I’m going to try to use Manual mode as much as I can, duck and cover.