Summertime at Bethany Beach

In dreamy film…

Some of these images were taken the evening I saw the boys whispering to each other. I asked what the secret was, and they very slowly came out with it: they wanted to stay at the beach forever and ever.

Bethany Beach is lovely, especially when to crowds dwindle, the air gets a bit cooler, and golden hour sets in.

Keep reading for more information about these photos after the images.

All images © Susannah Allen 2018

There is nothing better than bringing your beloved camera and all your pricey camera gear to the beach! All that sand, the wind, the humidity, the changing tide, leaving your bag unattended while you swim…I love mixing this with photography equipment!

Of course, I am kidding. But I still usually lug photo gear with me to the beach, and this trip to Bethany Beach was no different.

Except this time I only brought along my Canon Elan 7 and a few rolls of 35mm film during the day. At dusk, when I was only at the beach for an hour tops, I brought along the Canon as well as a Pentax 645N medium format camera.

You can see the differences in the film stock–the slightly garish color images were taken with on Kodak Gold color negative film. The ISO rating was either 200 or 400. I love the colors and grain in the sand dunes photo! YUMMY!

The other film stock that I brought along was Kodak Portra 400. Those images show a little more gold and a slightly softer color palette.

The Kodak Portra 400 costs a bit more per roll than the Kodak Gold does, so I prefer to use it for professional work or when I really want to capture beautiful true-to-life colors (like during golden hour at the beach). But I love the Kodak Gold saturated colors for the daytime beach photos–those neon shirts! The blue sky! It is fun and happy to me.

I had the Find Lab develop the film rolls and scan the negatives for me. And Ziplock provided the extra camera protection from sand and salt water–I wrap my camera in a gallon Ziplock bag and place it in my small camera bag (a canvas Ona tote) and then place the Ona in a bigger beach bag. Nothing fancy, but it works for me.

And lastly, I have big dreams of an East Coast photo tour next summer. If you like my work (and you can see more beach photography here) and would like to book a beach photography session, pretty please reach out! (At this point, Bethany Beach, Ocean City, Fire Island…I am open to all locations!)