35mm

Yesterday, I was itching to go out and take some photographs.

I recently reverted back to Film Photography, thanks to a great photographer and new compadre, Antonio Alavarez (you can check out his blog by clicking on his name). Of course, it was a little daunting simply because I feel like I take less shots because I no longer have the luxury of shooting almost limitless amount of photos via a memory card. No, I’m relegated to just about 24 exposures so I must choose my shots wisely. What Mr. Alvarez has also inspired me to do, is to develop my own Black and White negatives. This makes the whole process much more fun!

Back to the story! I went to a Historic Street named Huguenot Street (Or, as I like to call it, Huge Nut Street) and felt that, at the moment, the lighting was perfect as the sun was close to its setting below the horizon stage. I snapped away with my “new” Nikon FE and caught what I thought would be marvelous photographs. A wild cat even approached me and made for some great photographs! Unfortunately for the cat, I don’t carry food in my pockets, not anymore at least. After it realized that I had no food, it took off nearby to a dirt driveway where it started to playfully roll on its back. It was modeling for me! Great shots!

I pressed the shutter to my heart’s content until I realized the counter read “30″. Hmmm, is this possible that I purchased a 24 exposure film and it was packaged incorrectly with 36 exposure film? As I snapped away at a couple more pictures which marvelously captured the shadows caused my the setting sun, I looked down at the counter and it now read 39. Ok, something’s not right. It was something I tried to ignore and thought this was how this “new” camera operated. Every time I cranked the film forward, I felt no pressure and it proceeded very smoothly. As a matter of fact, a little too smoothly. So I did something risky. I opened the camera’s back and exposed the film. To my horror delight, the film was never proceeding and all those great, marvelous photos that I took, never happened! Of course I was upset!

Quickly, I took out my Nikon F4 and loaded the very same film into the camera hoping that only a few frames were exposed and I immediately retraced my steps. Only problem was that the sun was closer the horizon and I was losing light. I found the cat again, only this time it was laying on a porch and no longer wanted to move.

Suffice to say, I got home, developed the film and I was happy to see that only two frames were exposed and left me with 22 exposures that all came out! So, in the end, it was an itch that was barely scratched!

No longer wants to play

Side note: Developed first roll of Kodak Tri-X 400, like it so much better than Ilford Delta 400! Done with Ilford chemicals.