Looking Back at my First Roll of Film

It was June 2015, the first month of Melbourne’s winter, and I had tired of digital photography. I had bought an entry level Nikon DSLR in January of 2015 as a move up from the Sony Cybershot I had been using until that point. So many buttons and dials. So many functions. So easy to just put it into automatic and just snap a thousand pictures. But they didn’t look like the photographs I remembered from photography in high school. The was something flat about the images (probably linked to my limited understanding of Lightroom post production editing). I decided then and there that I wanted to get into film photography and I wanted to learn apartue, shutter speed and ISO via a totally manual camera. So I did some research looking for an all mechanical SLR that I could use to learn the fundamentals of photography and settled on a Nikon FM2n. Then I found a person selling one on line at the then bargain rate of $150 AUD for a Nikon FM2n body.

I met him on the steps of Melbourne’s General Post Office at the bottom of Burke Street Mall. I gave him cash. He gave me the camera. I walked into Michael’s and bought a Nikkor 50mm f/1.8D and two rolls of Ilford HP5+ and was on my way. It was hands down one of the best purchases of my life. Almost a decade later, I still use the FM2n and 50mm lens as my main set up.

My first film photo walk was in Carlton and Brunswick. I didn’t nail the focus or the exposure every time. Those reflective backgrounds fool the TTL light meter in the camera from time to time which took time for me to learn and resulted in some under exposed subjects in a number of photographs; but, I also got some photographs that I still enjoy looking at today despite my repeated failure to properly nail the focus.

This roll of film has lots of street life in it and street photography is something I continue to practice to this day (never as much as I would like but, you know, life, kids, mortgage…). The world is full of humans doing all sorts of things and I’ve always enjoyed people watching. I’ve got a roll of film waiting to be developed from a recent street photography session and some developed rolls hanging around waiting to be scanned.

Has my film photography improved since then? Yes and no. I have good days and bad days. Recently I went out and thought I shot a roll but actually took no photos because the film had not properly engaged with the winder and was not winding on even though it felt like it was from the outside. Film has a way of keeping you humble that digital just cannot match. You don’t catch the error until it is too late. Every roll I make mistakes and learn another lesson in photographic humility. On a great day, 1 in 3 is a decent photo. On a good day 1 in 6 is a decent photo. On a bad day, well, you can imagine.

But, what keeps me coming back to film is the magic of it: the way in which it focuses your attention on the world around you and drags you from the future or the past into the eternal moment; the joy of being in the world and a witness to it at the same time; the thrill of seeing the negatives come out of the developing tank with actual images in it; the anticipation of the email from the lab with a link to scans that I can download; the highs and lows of looking at the scans and deciding what worked and what didn’t; the warmth and beauty of film grain as compared to pixels and digital noise.

Since I bought that FM2n and my first roll of film I have expanded my photographic horizons into landscapes, seascapes and portraits. I have also learnt to develop my own black and white film at home in a Patterson tank and to bulk role 35mm film. I’ve started a small photography book collection. Held an exhibition as part of the Melbourne Fringe Festival and I’m almost finished making my first zine. It’s been an adventure and one that I hope continues for a long time.

A version of this post was originally shared on my substack here, and you can find me on Instagram at @sutton_foto

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