keeping promises to myself

when i decided to do a 365 project for the second year in a row, i promised myself that i'd dare to take more shots only on film and that there would be days where i didn't shoot digital at all. i'm now over halfway and i think there have only been 3-4 days where i took just film shots. not good, at least in terms of keeping that film promise to myself.

i can feel the stagnation setting in. on friday, i very nearly forgot to take a photo for the first time in a year and a half. it's so ingrained in me now that it's like breathing, but on friday, i almost forgot. thank goodness for the iPhone and Instagram, or i wouldn't have a shot from that day and i would have missed my first photo of the day in a year and a half. and despite feeling a bit blah (i blame the clouds), i would feel pretty badly about that, because taking a shot every day for a year and a half is something of an accomplishment.

today, despite an utter lack of photo mojo (again with the clouds), i got out the rolleiflex and halfheartedly dusted it off. and still, what you get a through the viewfinder digital shot. do you think i took a picture with the actual film that's languishing in the camera? if you say no, you would be right.

i do hope the sun comes back soon. it's much easier to keep those promises to myself when the sun is shining.

experiments in film

the year is winding down on my 365 photo-a-day project. i'm sure now that i will make it. but my thoughts now are turning to what to do photographically in 2011. i was in awe of kristina's fearlessness - walking around berlin with just a single film camera on her person. trusting her abilities that much. i want to do that more often in the coming year. i did it one day this past week. i took only film shots, not even a single iPhone photo as a backup. but i'll admit it makes me very nervous. the instant gratification of digital is reassuring - i know immediately whether i got the shot or if i need to take another (or twelve).

i have done some photo experiments already this year...here are a few of a roll of intentional double exposures i shot last summer (finally got them developed and scanned...that's a drawback of film, i tend to let them luxuriate on my desk until they are a shocking pile).  this was a roll of fuji sensia 200 slide film that i sent through my old canon (yes, a canon!) AE-1 program twice - once here at home in denmark and once at my childhood home in south dakota.  then i had it cross-processed in the C41 chemicals (hence the red tones).

a happy accident - double-exposed, cross-processed and half frame all in one.
that's the corn palace in mitchell, SD on the left

rosemary and the corn palace

missouri river bokeh

the bench by our lake + a beautiful old SD windmill in half frame.

quite possibly proof that husband's home planet does try to contact him.

i did a lot of scanning today, so there will be more film to come as the week goes on...

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things i'm enjoying...char's grateful series and poet's wardrobe refashions on seamstress stories.

365 photo project: only three months to go!

i made it through another month of my 365 photo project. it doesn't seem that hard anymore, it's just part of my everyday to take photos. they've become more documentary than they were in the beginning and they're generally better, which is ironic because i'm not trying so hard anymore. i process more now and it's just a part of my routine. i use my iPhone without angst.

i'd like to be more like kristina and dare to just go around with a film camera and not have the digital as a backup and not feel an obsessive need to take the photo i just took in film with the digital as well, just in case. i made myself take a couple of pictures of a bridge in berlin with just the film camera, so i'm taking baby steps in that direction. i do know that digital has made me more comfortable with film, so maybe it's a matter of, once again, just daring. daring to see what happens only on the film and risking not having the photo later if it doesn't turn out. but i guess that's another thing i don't dare at the moment. baby steps, i tell you, baby steps.

speaking of daring, read lynne's wonderful posted response to my angst over not daring.

maybe tomorrow will be a film only day...