Things I got wrong about shooting film
Scanning is tedious, but it is where the series takes shape. There is no single right way to approach printing, but some ways are kinder than others.
The middle part
This is less a guide and more a record of what worked for me. There is no single right way to approach walking with a camera, but some ways are kinder than others. Film forces a pause between seeing and pressing the shutter. The trick, if there is one, is to leave sufficient room for missteps. If something here is unclear, that is on me, not you.
Some of this will be obvious; some of it took me years. The still part is seldom the hard part; consistency is. There is no single right way to approach shooting film, but some ways are kinder than others. It is not glamorous, but it holds up.
Before and after
I print small first, then decide what deserves to be larger. A film scanner helps, but it is not the point. In May the light changes, and so does the work. It took me four attempts to see the pattern.
I keep coming back to overcast days, chiefly because it rewards time. The best advice I got was plainly to slow down. What surprised me most was how little equipment it needed.
Most of what I know about overcast days came from getting it wrong first. Overcast days are underrated; the light wraps around all of it. If you only take one thing from this, make it the part about light.
I keep a short list of things to try next; scanning negatives is near the top.