My first roll of film

So here it is....my first roll of film shot with an SLR.  I loaded a roll of Fujifilm Superia X-TRA 400 into my Nikon F100 and had it developed and scanned by Richard Photo Lab in Hollywood, CA using their Noritsu scanner.  These are straight scans, no editing at all except adding my watermark.  The moments I captured were just every day moments that occurred over the course of two weeks.

If you can believe it, I shot these two photos of Havi and Madeline together in the grass as the sun was dropping in the sky.  With an ISO of only 400, I had to drop my shutter speed to 1/60.  You can see Havi's hand moving in the second shot.  But still, I was proud of myself for pulling off a reasonable exposure with so little light. 

Of the twenty-four exposures I shot, I had to toss 4 of them due to blinking or soft focus, things of that nature.  I love the grain and softness of the images I captured.  I'm tickled with how my first roll turned out.  Nothing fancy.  Just simple, every day moments shot on film.  I will be sending my second roll out soon, same film, but then I might throw a professional roll in after that.

Well, Caleb had a great weekend of tennis.  I'm sorry I'm just now getting this blog post up.  After my internet issue was resolved last week, I ended up hurting my left wrist.  I am STILL in a lot of pain, one week later.  Grrr.  Typing hurts but I'm tolerating it just for the sake of catching up with my blog posts.  I will try to share about Caleb's tennis happenings soon.  This afternoon Madeline has her dress rehearsal for her dance recital.  I can't wait to capture the rehearsal and recital with my new lens.  And a certain little dancer I know will be sporting a new smile for said recital.  Hopefully my wrist feels better soon, too!

A little daily

I'm giving you fair warning...I've been a little snap happy lately.  This can be attributed to two factors: 1. my new telephoto lens and film SLR 2. new Lightroom presets/editing.  I promise not to share all the photos I have taken, but I will share some of my favorites.  Okay, maybe I have more favorites than I care to admit.

I took these photos with my trusty Nikon D700 and 35mm f/1.4 and 85mm f/1.4 lenses.  I tinkered around with these new Lightroom presets from Get Totally Rad called Replichrome which simulate particular professional films scanned on either a Fuji Frontier scanner or Noritsu scanner.  Since I have never shot professional film before (though that's changing), I don't have a particular preference for one film or scanner over another.  So this is a bit of trial and error to see what I like. For the color images, I used the Fuji Pro 160S on the Noritsu scanner preset, and for the black and whites I used the Kodak T-Max 3200 -- with the grain adjusted for all images.  I realize that only a few of you who follow my blog will be interested in this kind of information.  So I won't delve into it too much.  Now for the photos...

On this particular afternoon/evening, Patrick and Caleb were at church.  So it was just mama with the girls.  We went for a short walk in the garden wagon and then for a longer walk around the neighborhood.  Then it was time for baths.

 Havi was clearly done with my camera/s.  I attempted to also use my new film SLR, a Nikon F100. And I do think I manged a photo or two with that camera.  But seeing that I have no LCD screen on the back and a memory card to check, I have to simply go on my own memory.  And since it was a few days ago, I just can't recall.  I guess getting this roll back from the lab will be a bit of fun and a surprise. lol

Now the film that I currently have in my film SLR is not professional quality.  It's just Fujifilm Superia-Xtra 400 that I picked up at Walgreens.  But I can't wait to finish up the roll, which I will do this week, and send it out to get developed.  I've been "nervous" about clicking the shutter because I can't check for blinking eyes or smiles or anything like that.  And developing film these days isn't cheap.  But I think I need to get over it and just start snapping away.  I actually can't wait to run through this roll and put some quality film in there.  After some research on the web, I have found a few labs that I am considering sending my film out to because I'm learning that using the right lab is pretty important.  Same goes for digital.

Anyway, we are gearing up for a visit from Bammy this week.  The dumplings CANNOT wait to see her; the feeling is mutual.  We're looking forward to lots of swimming and splashing in the pool and, of course, tennis!  We can't wait to see you, Bammy!