so consistently inconsistent!

Hey there loves! If theres one thing you can rely on, its that I’ll be inconsistent with blogging but I am back - for a while at least. I had a nice break though - for one, I finished my masters, with a distrinction! Woop woop. And two, I enjoyed the summer and tried to relax as much as possible.

I have been waiting to post though and I’ve been waiting because I had to get films developed. Double woop woop! Funny how I spend ages researching a digital camera and finally buying one, to then take a film camera out with me too. I’ll be sharing a mixture of film and digital photos here for a while though and its going to be so fun!

These photos were taken about two years ago on trips to the beach - one visit to Great Yarmouth and one to Skegness - the funny thing is that I actually couldn’t tell you which photo is of which place - they really are very similar. So this post is a little celebration of the British seaside resort.

Although I think its safe to say that the last photo is Great Yarmouth haha, it is ‘great’ there.

These were taken with a new Kodak Ektar H35 half frame camera which I thought would be perfect to carry around with a digital camera - and it was. I can’t decide how I feel about the fuzzy camera focus on some of these photos though - its meant to look like that I imagine but I moved away from the toy camera look a while ago and I haven’t really missed it that much. What do you guys think? Perhaps I’ll dig out my Yashica half frame camera again.

Camera: Kodak Ektar H35 half frame camera
Film: Agfa Vista 200 (with its tell tale green shift ha!)
Locations: Great Yarmouth and Skegness, two classic British seaside locations!

Sandilands, Lincolnshire

Even though I grew up in Norfolk we never ventured to the Lincolnshire coast line, so I was pleasantly surprised that it was really lovely, similar to Norfolk (which you would expect) but with its own certain charm to it. I mentioned before loving the beach huts in Sandilands and you can see them here with the front and back windows - totally delightful!

We didn’t have much time here, so I’m hoping if I do go back again soon to keep my eye out for more little details and colours that catch my eye!

Camera: Olympus OM-10
Film: Fuji Superia 200
Location: Sandilands, Lincolnshire

Gorgeous Textures

I’m not going to lie - these might be some of my favourite recent photos. I just LOVE textures like this and old things and photos that fill the frame and little details of things others might just glance over without a second thought. Oh these photos make me giddy!

They were taken in Sandilands on the Lincolnshire coast, which doesn’t look like much when you first arrive but I had the best time looking at all the old beach huts, they had windows on the front and the back and were honestly just delightful.

Camera: Olympus OM-10
Film: Fuji Superia 200
Location: Sandilands, Lincolnshire

Falling back in love with film

I’ve been overthinking - like I do - about why I’ve struggled with film so much recently. One is the weight of equipment physically, I just can’t carry as much for as long anymore thanks to chronic illness (anyone have any tips for light film cameras they looooove?). So I’ve been using my phone and then not sharing photos anywhere (second question - would people mind me sharing digital phone photos here..? Would I mind, I used to… Hmm, I’ll over think on it) But the other thing - the thing I couldn’t figure out wasn’t as obvious until I found the right photo that highlighted the issue and here it is…

Looking at this photo, my first thought was ‘Eeep!! Look at the colours on that!’ and then my second was ‘there is no way I could have got those colours scanning this film myself’. And I realised, that I hadn’t fallen out of love with film photography but instead with all the other ‘stuff’ that goes with it. I got caught up in the ‘internet prestige’ (for lack of a better term) of developing and scanning photos myself… and I didnt realise how much I really chuffing disliked it haha.

There is something so infruitating about scanning colour film that honestly makes me ragey to my gut, everytime something is too green, or too purple, I want to punch a wall. And there is something about dust particles on a scanned film that you’ve wiped a million times with the right kind of cloth and blown on the scanner with the stupid puffer thing that makes me want to scream. Perhaps if I had the time, money and effort to dedicate to a better scanner and scanning programme I would do it better. But then again, probably not… I am a perfectionist and in doing a process and not getting it 100% as I wanted, I just wasn’t enjoying myself anymore.

Thankfully - Take It Easy Lab opened in Leeds around the same time that I had a crack at developing film myself and ended up loosing two films to the chemicals - and suddenly I had a local film business to support that I was more than happy to send my money to! And here we are, I have a photo that I’m absolutely thrilled with, a process that is a lot easier, less stressful and a much happier sense of self for it.

Camera: Olympus OM-10
Film: Fuji Superia 200
Location: Sandilands, Lincolnshire
Developed by: Take it Easy lab (not an ad, just a very grateful nod to them for saving my sanity)

p.s. I hope my prestige isn’t too damaged by this revelation… eep