My Favorite Photo – a One Shot Story

This is the story of how and when I started shooting film again. It wasn’t so much an intentional choice to ditch technology or get back to “my roots” as it was a creative project I was inspired to try. As it goes with a lot of my creative projects, I fumble through it and hope for the best.

I live in Texas, and our summers are hot. From the end of July to the end of September, we get a lot of over 100-degree (Fahrenheit) days, and not much rain. So, to get a break, my wife and I take a summer trip somewhere cooler. In 2021, we decided to go to Portland Oregon. At the time, Portland and the surrounding areas boasted mid-sixties to mid-seventies temperatures during the day, and cooler at night. Perfect for us!

Shortly before heading to the pacific northwest, I decided to buy a pinhole camera. At the time, I was pursuing a graduate degree and one of my professors inspired the decision. Initially I wanted a large format pinhole camera like his, but a smaller format that accepted medium format roll film seemed more practical and affordable. So, I bought a Holga WPC 120… and I had no idea how to use it. If I had to guess, the last time I put film in a camera was 2003. I’d moved over to digital and loved it. But years ago, my beloved Fujifilm FinePix 5600 died and I hadn’t replaced it. I was just using my iPhone for a camera. That’s the entire summary of my digital camera life.

Figuring out the Holga WPC wasn’t difficult. With a little research I learned three things- 100 iso film works best, open the shutter 1 second for sunny skies and 3 seconds for clouds or shade. Use a shutter release cable and mount on a tripod to prevent camera shake (and blurry photos) and tape up the seams to prevent light leaks. Got it. I bought a 5-pack of Kodak T-Max 100, a shutter release cable and a tabletop tripod. I’m set. Off to the pacific northwest.

I was excited about the prospect of taking black and white film pictures, which I hadn’t done since a photography class I’d taken as a college elective in 1991. We drove to Tillamook and up the coast one day, then to Canon Beach the next. We drove all over Portland, and out to the Columbia River gorge. I’d set up the pinhole camera, open the shutter, and wind the film forward. Each time I did this I’d get excited because I’d never made pictures this way. At one overlook on the coast, an older couple saw what I was doing and asked about it. I explained I was taking pinhole pictures. They asked what kind of camera I had, and I replied it was a 120-roll film one. They asked- do they still make film? And I told them- they never stopped. I’ve been asked that question a lot since then.

By the end of the trip, I exposed 4 rolls of film. I’d love to tell you that every one of them was a keeper, but in truth, I had about 5 that were worth keeping. I had several missteps. By now you probably guessed my tripod choice was not great. It fell over more than once in mid exposure. At Canon Beach, I got too close to the water’s edge, and the surf knocked it over mid-exposure, and it got wet. The cable had a locking mechanism that I forgot about a few times, only to have a few very overexposed pictures. Then of course, I’d forget to advance the film and had a few multiple exposures. Lots of underexposed frames, lots of overexposed frames. Lots of very valuable lessons from this trip.

The photograph I’ve submitted with this writing was the best one, and my favorite picture I’ve taken to date. I took it outside of Tillamook, Oregon. I can point out all the things wrong with it- soft focus, some light leakage despite taped up seams, etc. But I want to point out what went right with it- how it made me feel.

This was the first time in a long time I felt that feeling that comes with film: the anticipation and excitement that comes from the tactile experience of loading film in a camera, setting and exposing each frame, and patiently waiting until they were developed to see what I’d made. I loved making images with a digital camera at first, but it wasn’t the same. Each time I set up the camera and took an exposure, that excitement and anticipation grew. Most of the frames were duds but there were enough good ones to encourage me to do it again. I still get that feeling with each roll I shoot. I home develop now so I experience that excited anticipation each time. The best part of the process is getting to develop the film to see what I’ve made. This photo I made at Tillamook reminds me of that. Thanks for reading.

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