rainbow.love - fort collins portrait photographer

{rainbow found in my backyard}

"... and, above all, watch with glittering eyes the whole world around you, 

because the greatest secrets are always hidden in the most unlikely places.  

Those who don't believe in magic will never find it."

{Roald Dahl}

Brenda.on.film - fort collins portrait photographer

{Portra 400 film - Nikon N70; all images overexposed 1 stop}

Life has been all sorts of crazy so I haven't played with film in awhile, but I was able to make time to do just that a few weeks ago and, thankfully, sweet Brenda was up for humoring me.  Here are some of my observations:

1.  Manual focusing is hard ... aaaand awkward.  Choose a kind and patient subject like Brenda for your practicing efforts.  It doesn't hurt if your kind and patient subject also happens to have amazing red hair and to-die-for cheekbones.  

2.  Waiting for film to be developed requires a great deal of patience {apparently something I have in short supply ... shocker!}  I used an out-of-state lab and it was 13 days before  I was able to see the images online {gasp!  choke!}.

3.  Jonathan Canlas was right ... overexposing Portra 400 by one stop makes for gorgeous skin tones.  Like buttah.

4.  Film processing done by a reputable lab can be seriously expensive.  In this case, the film + processing + scans + packaging/shipping = about $80 when all was said and done.  Woah, baby.  Excuse me while I go get another part-time job to pay for my photography habit.

5.  Shooting film definitely slows me down and requires me to really think.  This has it's finer points, to be sure, but not without it's downsides as well.  I feel like I put more thought and energy into the 'math' of it all which ends up simplifying my compositional approach.  Again, not necessarily a bad thing.  Just feels completely different.

6.  Richard Photo Lab delivered BEAUTIFUL scans, as promised.  It cost a pretty penny, but they are obviously very good at what they do.

7.  I like the look of film 100 x's more than the look of digital {sigh}.  Dreamy, right?  Yes, dreamy.

What say you?