What nine years of shooting film taught me
Film forces a pause between seeing and pressing the shutter. I print small first, then decide what deserves to be larger. The best frame on the sheet was the one I almost did not take. I keep a short list of things to try next; printing is near the top.
What changed
Scanning is tedious, but it is where the series takes shape. If you only take one thing from this, make it the part about overcast days. I shot most of this series on a single roll, half of it in fading light. Overcast days are underrated; the light wraps around all of it. It is not glamorous, but it holds up.
What surprised me most was how little equipment it needed. I keep coming back to film stock, chiefly because it rewards time. For a long time I treated overcast days as an afterthought. It took me four attempts to see the pattern.
The process
Thanks for reading, and for the gentle observations that keep arriving. None of this is new, and that is partly why it works. This is less a guide and more a record of what worked for me. Some of this will be obvious; some of it took me years. Somewhere between the ferry terminal and home, the idea finally made sense.
Most of what I know about light came from getting it wrong first. The patient part is seldom the hard part; consistency is. Half of the work is deciding what to leave out. Between printing and scanning negatives, the second one taught me more.
Below are a few observations, roughly in the order I picked up them.
The middle part
You can get remarkably far with a film scanner and some time. The trick, if there is one, is to leave sufficient room for missteps. The first two weeks were chiefly about unlearning. Here is what shifted, and what stayed exactly the same. I keep coming back to the darkroom, chiefly because it rewards time.
In January the light changes, and so does the work. You can get remarkably far with a 50mm lens and some time. It took me seven attempts to see the pattern.