Going analog: First film roll

Getting my first film out of the Zenit wasn't an easy job, that's for sure. It somehow resembles taking care of a sick baby while trying to make him sell newspapers as they did in the '30s. I guess you remember my decision to start experimenting with film so that photography won't become boring at one point. There's a lot to experiment there, especially as some classical film rolls are coming back on the market. I couldn't limit myself to going by with only an 16GB SD card. I took it one step forward, to the limited number of shots/film roll.

I destroyed two film rolls before I got a finished product out, I'll have to admit. That is how much it took me (in rolls of film) until I realised I shouldn't rely on the shots counter on the Zenit and especially don't count on the fact that the film is rolled back into its canister. Me, on the other hand, that's what I did. Once I hit the 35th shots, I would start rolling back the film. But the damn film wouldn't roll.

And you know when I discovered it wouldn't roll? When I fucking opened the little back door to take the rolled canister. What can I tell you?

The damn film was still there, staring me in the face and the damn light that was pouring all over it.

TWICE!

I'm already friends with the guys at the photo shop. They started knowing me by the nickname "The Zenit idiot" I'm sure. The weird dude that brings the film at 09:00 o'clock sharp in the morning, today, and expects to pick it up processed the next day, 9 AM, sharp again. Yep, that's me.

For sure I already have at least 6 visits to the shop in one processed film roll. 25 shots worth being scanned by the guy who did the job. No chance for 30 at least. From those 25, I would have 12 that I kept. And in those 12 I'll only show you 4 because that's how much I see as a success. The rest are either out of focus or out of light. Or both.

^{Spying my grandmother's turkeys through the grapevine. Turkeys staring back at me.}

I shot around the place, you know? Common things, daily life, only to consume the film and find out if at least the camera works. When I gave this final film to process (with it inside the camera this time), the guy who brought back the Zenit to me from their dark room, told me that the curtain seems to be a bit slow. Of course that through my mind rushed the fact that everything is ruined because of it but in the end, the gods of photography protected me it seems. Partially at least.

I shot with the Helios 44M attached to it. I had some other options which I used on the first films I ruined but somehow for this film that I hoped to be delivered (finally), I stuck to the "Soviet Solution". Also, I wanted to check out if at least on film I'll manage to get some of the "swirly bokeh" it makes. That cheap lens effect that they nailed it by mistake and then sold its heart out inside the Iron Curtain. I didn't manage to get it on this one. Maybe on the next one.

^{Red roses, communist buildings. Some could say I photographed our socialist, ruling party's essence}

If the light is good, the shot will be good. In decent conditions, the Zenit is like a tank. It just works. For its time it was quite revolutionary I guess though my father was telling me that this type of cameras was still unaffordable to the decent folks back in the communist day. So that's about it when talking about the equality in everything of the communist man eh?

I took the camera pretty much everywhere with me but I'm afraid I had much better shots on the rolls I destroyed. I only miss the strap and the cover. The strap would come in handy and if I wouldn't be keen to experiment with a film version of a Nikon and/or Canon, maybe I would make the effort to find something that suits it. But I guess that I could spend my money and my energy on better cameras from the film age (and when I think about the fact that my daughter will not even know what a damn film roll is).

^{And here, ladies and gentlemen, we have a small squirrel, eating the small, daily cracker}

When the light is generous and the right settings are achieved, the grain that the camera gives is quite pleasant. Though not detailed, it gets the shot soft and somehow "painted" in crude layers of grain that compose the image.

I guess I'm quite out of this century with that camera always in my hands, hearing around me all the time that shutter sound and that clicking wheel when I'm turning it in order to move the film a step forwards.

And the same, I don't care how weird I look like...

^{Eating wallnutsnuts from the tree that belongs to the angry neighbour but it gratefully reaches its branches into my front yard. I get dirty on my hands too, that's how peasant I get}

Posted also on my blog www.ddma.ro, a place on the world wide web where I'm trying to promote Steemit, my writings and my country. In that order. I post through the @steempress-io plugin and I make my life easier (writing and formatting in Wordpress is much easier than on steemit.com or busy.org)