After a few rolls of muddy successes…I moved on to different stocks. After shooting my first roll, my next assignment was to try out different brands and speeds of film. There are so many brands – Kodak, Fuji, Ilford, etc – and each speed corresponds to the ISO they should be shot at. The first that I tried was Kodak Portra 400. This film has a yellow base, which means it accentuates golden tones. It sounds like me, right? Gold and yellow are my favorite colors (after sparkles, of course).

I have now shot two rolls of Portra 400 and I have to say, I’m tempted to not even try anything else! I know that I should continue exploring, but I’m pretty sure I’ve found my forever film. The first roll of Portra 400 I shot was with John and Megan-Drew during their engagement session. They were so patient as I tried to figure out metering light and making sure I was getting things in focus with my manual lens. In the end they were a little darker than I wanted, but a few of them turned out really well!

Two weeks ago I shot another roll of Portra, exclusively of Jack. My goal was just to capture the little things about him that I want to tuck away into my heart forever – the look of concentration on his face when he’s trying something new, the blond in his eyelashes, how crazy his hair is…always, and his deep curiosity about the world around him. I’ve captured some of these things with my DSLR, but I figured this was something I could try with my film camera. Even if the results weren’t “portfolio worthy”, they would still be images that I’d love forever.

The results were amazing. The colors were everything I’ve ever hoped for. The grain is so dreamy. I want to print out each of these images and just stare at them forever! I know I still have a lot to learn (like nailing focus with a manual lens…), but I’m so happy with the direction I’m heading. I’m so glad I decided to embrace failure and learn from it!