Beautiful photographs! I love the imperfections of expired film. Always a surprise...
Funny that you ask, because I just remembered a time period of my life of which I don't have any photos at all. It was when I was around twenty and just had moved into my very first apartment. I looked up the house on Google Street View last weekend and was shocked that I didn't remember anymore that it was next to a school. I wonder what else of that time I had forgotten. The first parties in my very own home, the time with friends and my boyfriend. It was a time where I didn't take any photos at all (except on vacation). I wish I had photos of that time...
What a great article! I’m currently shooting an expired roll of 120 Ilford Delta 3200. I have no idea how old it is and I’m shooting it at box speed. If your article had come out before I loaded, I might have rated it differently. Oh well!
As for your question, I’d love to go back and photograph my grandparents doing everyday things. I only have a few photos of them, and those are all posed. I’d love to take photos of my grandfather playing at his weekly dominos game, or my grandmother brewing Cuban coffee (stovetop espresso) for anyone who popped in. Those images live in my mind, but I’d love to be able to hold them in my hands.
Thank you for prompting me to take a sweet nostalgic trip.
Definitely something from my youth, my teenage days where I’d take my dad’s Yashica and shoot blindly at my friends while they worked at their part time jobs, under gas station fluorescent light or washing dishes and just goofing off, I’d sneak in the back door at the restaurant which was always fun.
The pictures I do have from that time are everything to me but they are few and I’d always wished I’d taken so many more. In fact I can’t even imagine how I’d even gotten film at that age (14-15) as I was still under an allowance of 5 bucks a week so I’d imagine my dad always had a roll around but I can’t recall haha.
First of all, thanks for a great read, Wesley, and for including technical specs & simple explanations!
In my childhood home, we have a box of black & white photos my uncle & my mom developed together in a tiny bathroom, illuminated by a red-painted bulb, surrounded by cotton diapers (since I was a baby then) and arguing about the negatives until the early hours. Probably drunk, too, half the time. I'd give ANYTHING to have actual photos of them at the time😂.
If I could capture memories from the past, I’d photograph my (now 102-year-old) grandfather as I remember him growing up. Maybe replicate portraits that I have seen of him during WWII that lived in my mind with his stories. I feel the faded imperfections of expired film match the unknown passage of time
In the summer's of my early childhood, my friends and I would explore the orchards behind our apartment complex. Each of us would be armed with a homemade rubber band rifle. We were hunters. Awful hunters but hunters nonetheless. I'd set up a tripod, focus the wide angle, engage the self-timer, then pose menacingly with my dirty-faced, Toughskins wearing, stinky friends. Some expired Kodak TX400 should do the trick.
for many, many years i didn't have a camera and i couldn't afford one either. even tho there were tears along, those were also joyful years. the memories of those years are somewhere in a corner of my mind. now i realise the importance of a camera and the importance of capturing simple but precious moments. it's getting harder to recall some memories but that's life.
Lovely newsletter once again Wesley. If I could capture moments past I would go back to document the migration of my great great grandparents from mainland China into Malaysia/Sarawak and Singapore. I have a lot of the family history back to the childhood of my great grandmother who grew up in Singapore but nothing in detail further back than that. I think images can help us feel closer to the past and imagine the experiences of those in them.
I adore shooting expired film! I’d love to have some moments from when me and my wife first met - we did a play together and went on tour with it so I have some really special memories from then.
I think like Martha it would be a personal experience from my childhood, or a special occasion, a trip to Disney or Christmas, but from my perspective. I have plenty from my father's perspective and his camera, I am always looking up and smiling lol.
Not really expired (maybe a month or two) but here's what happened when I didn't wait for some Fujifilm Instax to warm up ... Straight from freezer to camera.
This is such a great reminder. After years of leaning on the RZ67 for the huge negative and dialed-in predictability, I think I'll take you up on this challenge!
Beautiful photographs! I love the imperfections of expired film. Always a surprise...
Funny that you ask, because I just remembered a time period of my life of which I don't have any photos at all. It was when I was around twenty and just had moved into my very first apartment. I looked up the house on Google Street View last weekend and was shocked that I didn't remember anymore that it was next to a school. I wonder what else of that time I had forgotten. The first parties in my very own home, the time with friends and my boyfriend. It was a time where I didn't take any photos at all (except on vacation). I wish I had photos of that time...
Oh love this notion Susanne!
What a great article! I’m currently shooting an expired roll of 120 Ilford Delta 3200. I have no idea how old it is and I’m shooting it at box speed. If your article had come out before I loaded, I might have rated it differently. Oh well!
As for your question, I’d love to go back and photograph my grandparents doing everyday things. I only have a few photos of them, and those are all posed. I’d love to take photos of my grandfather playing at his weekly dominos game, or my grandmother brewing Cuban coffee (stovetop espresso) for anyone who popped in. Those images live in my mind, but I’d love to be able to hold them in my hands.
Thank you for prompting me to take a sweet nostalgic trip.
Love this answer Alicia! And thanks for the kind words!
Definitely something from my youth, my teenage days where I’d take my dad’s Yashica and shoot blindly at my friends while they worked at their part time jobs, under gas station fluorescent light or washing dishes and just goofing off, I’d sneak in the back door at the restaurant which was always fun.
The pictures I do have from that time are everything to me but they are few and I’d always wished I’d taken so many more. In fact I can’t even imagine how I’d even gotten film at that age (14-15) as I was still under an allowance of 5 bucks a week so I’d imagine my dad always had a roll around but I can’t recall haha.
Ahhh I love this
First of all, thanks for a great read, Wesley, and for including technical specs & simple explanations!
In my childhood home, we have a box of black & white photos my uncle & my mom developed together in a tiny bathroom, illuminated by a red-painted bulb, surrounded by cotton diapers (since I was a baby then) and arguing about the negatives until the early hours. Probably drunk, too, half the time. I'd give ANYTHING to have actual photos of them at the time😂.
Oh wow that sounds like such a moment! Thanks for sharing Suzy!
I’d love if expired film could capture my childhood beach days before I had my own camera!
That sounds beautifully nostalgic!
If I could capture memories from the past, I’d photograph my (now 102-year-old) grandfather as I remember him growing up. Maybe replicate portraits that I have seen of him during WWII that lived in my mind with his stories. I feel the faded imperfections of expired film match the unknown passage of time
Amazing, I wonder if you could record him telling stories from those days
That’s an amazing idea
I would want to capture my grandparent’s childhood moments in an attempt to understand why I am who I am
wow I love that
In the summer's of my early childhood, my friends and I would explore the orchards behind our apartment complex. Each of us would be armed with a homemade rubber band rifle. We were hunters. Awful hunters but hunters nonetheless. I'd set up a tripod, focus the wide angle, engage the self-timer, then pose menacingly with my dirty-faced, Toughskins wearing, stinky friends. Some expired Kodak TX400 should do the trick.
wow James, you really paint a picture here. I was right there with yall!
for many, many years i didn't have a camera and i couldn't afford one either. even tho there were tears along, those were also joyful years. the memories of those years are somewhere in a corner of my mind. now i realise the importance of a camera and the importance of capturing simple but precious moments. it's getting harder to recall some memories but that's life.
you could make an audio recording for yourself telling those stories perhaps
not a bad idea. thank you!
I enjoyed the idea of this...you've shown me how film like food gains something complex and more interesting as it ferments
Love that comparison! And I love fermented foods!
Lovely newsletter once again Wesley. If I could capture moments past I would go back to document the migration of my great great grandparents from mainland China into Malaysia/Sarawak and Singapore. I have a lot of the family history back to the childhood of my great grandmother who grew up in Singapore but nothing in detail further back than that. I think images can help us feel closer to the past and imagine the experiences of those in them.
Thanks for the kind words, Sam! And for sharing that!
I love expired film! It adds so much to the photos. I have boxes of film that expired in my fridge still that I like to use for personal work.
I'd love to use expired film to take photos of my grandma when she was young in Korea before she got married.
Love this answer Hannah!
I adore shooting expired film! I’d love to have some moments from when me and my wife first met - we did a play together and went on tour with it so I have some really special memories from then.
That’s so cool! Was that in Vancouver?
I think like Martha it would be a personal experience from my childhood, or a special occasion, a trip to Disney or Christmas, but from my perspective. I have plenty from my father's perspective and his camera, I am always looking up and smiling lol.
So nice to read that Paul!
Not really expired (maybe a month or two) but here's what happened when I didn't wait for some Fujifilm Instax to warm up ... Straight from freezer to camera.
https://www.instagram.com/p/DFB6GoETXFK/?igsh=MWIwZWI3MTcyZzF0bA==
Whoa super cool!!
This is such a great reminder. After years of leaning on the RZ67 for the huge negative and dialed-in predictability, I think I'll take you up on this challenge!
yessss