Using Up Expired Film On New York’s Fire Island
Film Family Photography
If you happen to be one of the two readers of this blog, you may have seen that I still dabble in film photography. It is what I did in college, before my technical knowledge of cameras was so great. Back then, it was about composition, the darkroom, and the reason behind your work.
I recently picked up Sally Mann’s memoir, Hold Still, and have been so inspired. Less digital, more analog. More of the art side of photography. More art overall. I have started drawing again (well, two drawings, but I am hoping to do about one a week). And I shipped off several rolls of the film to the FIND Lab in Utah.
I received my film scans today, and let me tell you, it is like Christmas for me. I have a box with over 20 rolls of film to be developed, and I randomly picked a few to send out. Where and when would the images be from? 2016? Baby shots of my kids? My trip to Mexico? My trip to Oregon? Last summer? It’s like Christmas Eve, with the excitement of Santa Claus.
So, after reviewing the images, I wouldn’t necessarily call them high art or anything, but there were a few that I loved. Today I am sharing film family images from a trip to the beach that my family took last summer. We took the ferry out of Sayville, Long Island to Sailor’s Haven. This is one of the beaches I grew up visiting, and it was wild to bring my two sons along for the experience, as well as have my toddler cousin visit too.
The film stock is expired (I have no idea when) Motophoto 200 35mm film. I would not choose to use this stock on a paid photo shoot, but for my own family at the beach, I am really loving the colors. So fun and cheerful in the sunshine. Not loving the colors/muddiness in the more back-lit photos. A bit too much grain for my taste, but I can dig it a little bit.
I photographed these on my Canon film camera–my Elan 7 that I used back in college.
