All posts filed under: Film

Cherry Blossom Festival on film

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If you remember from this post, my father owned and used a Nikkormat film camera in the 1970s. Well, guess who dusted it off and put it to work recently? This gal. Since I’m lucky enough to live close to Washington, D.C., I’ve been to the festival before and have taken photos of the blossoms time and time again. This time around, I thought I’d try something different in capturing one of my favorite spring time events. All photos are taken with ISO 400 film. Above at left is Jeff, my go-to friend for all things film. I hope everyone has a friend who encourages you to try new things; it’s good for you! Using film again was, I have to say, exhilarating. Finishing off a 24-exposure roll was more gratifying than taking hundreds of digital photos. I certainly won’t be packing my dad’s camera away just yet. I hope I made you proud, dad! P.S. My first and second exposure to manual SLR film cameras. (Pun intended, haha.)

Film

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I’m a believer. After the past two weeks, I can tell you that a sure-fire way to learn about ISO, shutter speed and aperture is to go ‘old school’ and use a film SLR camera. No automatic settings there. It’s just you, the camera, and more dials than you know what to do with. Jeff, my unofficial photography coach, literally dropped his vintage Canon AE-1 film SLR in my lap and told me to finish off a roll. Oh, boy. I did a little more than finish off the roll. Jeff’s camera had a 24-exposure roll of film, but the film had ripped and wasn’t winding properly. I ended up taking an extra 16 shots that would never turn out. To make matters worse, Jeff had to open the camera to fix the film, ruining it at the same time. Almost $9 later (the cost for one-hour film developing with digital CD), I walked away with three and a half photos that I took. Lovely. I’m sharing two of them with you on the blog. …

Father’s archives

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Two years ago I bought my dad a slide/negative scanner to convert all of his slides to digital. It ended up being a gift for me too because now I have all of his slides, something that is invaluable to me. Thanks, dad. I thought it would be fun to edit and share some of them with you. View of NYC in the 1970s. My dad used a Nikkormat EL-series manual SLR camera. Pagoda in what I believe is Hong Kong. My parents met, dated and married in Hong Kong in 1976. Hong Kong boat, known as a “sampan.” View of Hong Kong from Victoria Peak. My wonderful parents, who will have been married for 35 years this year. My dad was 26 years old in this photo, and my mom was 20. Aren’t they cute? (And skinny?!) Love you both. P.S. It’s hard to believe that I will be 26 in March. Egads!