Pushing the Limits.
I recently acquired a new (to me) old film camera. The Nikon FE2. This camera is a camera that I have often heard great things about, but… did I NEED another camera? No, the answer is no.
Fast forward to a day when I was chatting with a friend, only to discover she was selling one of her FE2’s! Before I knew it, payment was in her account and my newly acquired baby was on its way to Colorado! When the opportunity presents itself…
The camera showed up and I thought of bringing absolutely everything with me to work, so that as SOON as it arrived, I could load up a roll and pop outside to shoot a few frames! Well, I thought of everything except one major piece of the puzzle, a lens lol, so I was destined to have it stare at me ALLLL day before I could get home, attach a lens, and fire some shots!!
Day 2…film was loaded and my day was at a good breaking point, so I headed out for a walk with my trusty buddy in my hand. I was pumped! I had loaded color film into the Nikon, one, because I had a roll of 24 shots versus 36 shots, and secondly, because the world is starting to come alive again with green and other colors popping out every day! I took a walk in an area I’m quite used to, and was able to get some images of those sights I see literally all the time. I even tried a couple double exposures, a feature that is made pretty simple on this camera!!
I walked, shooting, and having a grand old time, when I realized….I don’ think my meter is working right!! I didn’t even look how I had it set, and when I realized this, I saw that MOST likely, all the images I had just made, would be grossly overexposed, to the point that I didn’t even know if there would be images visible on my negative when I developed the roll. Ugh…but honestly, it happens to the best of us.
A few days later, I took my roll to the darkroom and developed the negatives. On thing that NEVER fails to excite me, is when I pull a freshly developed roll from the tank, and SEE that there are visible frames! There WERE!! My hope was renewed and the anticipation was intense! I wanted those babies DRY, so I could scan and see just where I sat with them all!
Turns out, I did indeed overexposed the entire roll No shock there…but what DID shock me, is that with a little exposure adjustment in Lightroom, I feel head over heals in love with the images that I thought I irreversibly destroyed!
The joys of shooting film I suppose!! I couldn’t tell the damage until I developed, but then the film had such latitude that saved my efforts!
Here are a few of my favorites from the day!
I definitely learned a lesson this trip out! Film has a versatility that I that I had never fully tested, AND, I was able to learn a ton more about my camera when I was forced to really learn how to get the meter working correctly!! :-)
Thanks for stopping by! I know it’s not adorable babies or kids, but hopefully still as enjoyable for you as it was for me!!
Until next time… love and health!
<3