Small fixes for patient film stock
A film scanner helps, but it is not the point. I shifted my mind about street corners twice while writing this. I print small first, then decide what deserves to be larger.
First steps
What surprised me most was how little equipment it needed. Overcast days are underrated; the light wraps around all of it. Thanks for reading, and for the gentle observations that keep arriving. None of this is new, and that is partly why it works.
Lessons
Half of the work is deciding what to leave out. Film forces a pause between seeing and pressing the shutter. Most of what I know about shadows came from getting it wrong first.
Most of what I know about film stock came from getting it wrong first. The best frame on the sheet was the one I almost did not take. I shot most of this series on a single roll, half of it in fading light. The first two weeks were chiefly about unlearning. You can get remarkably far with a light meter and some time.
If you only take one thing from this, make it the part about long exposures. You can get remarkably far with a film scanner and some time. There is a version of this that is much more complicated. This is not that version. For a long time I treated grain as an afterthought.
What changed
Scanning is tedious, but it is where the series takes shape. Small, repeatable steps beat big plans almost every time. It is not glamorous, but it holds up. Looking back, the still approach was the right call.