Film Photography Continued

My teacher gave me five of my other photos back, so I decided to scan them in and post them again. There are two that I printed in a rush, so I'm not even going to post those. They're pretty embarrassing. But feel free to judge the rest!

Film Photography - Unfiltered

Usually I try to put a cap on the photos I put up here. I take up to 500 photos, then slowly whittle them down to a very few chosen, aka, "the golden ones." These are the photos I'm most proud of, the ones I'm glad are online for the world to see.

Okay, ignore everything I just said, because these photos are, uhhh, bad.

You know how I'm taking a film photography class? Yeah. Film has a tendency to humble me. It's much trickier than digital (for me). You're limited to 24 or 36 pictures per roll, and you can't see the immediate outcome, delete, and try again.

You take some photos, pray they're not awful. Then you put the film in a canister thing and develop the film, and hope the chemicals aren't bad and you did all the ratios correctly. Then you take the film out to dry, and hallelujah, they turned out! Let's just hope they're not scratched. Then you cut them up and make prints, as long as your paper is still unexposed and the darkroom chemicals are all good. As long as you expose the picture for the right amount of time, then develop it for the right amount of time, you SHOULD be good.

All of that was basically a disclaimer to say, don't judge me for not being artistic. I'm just glad I have photos. So I'm about to show you all the prints I have, going from my best prints, to my worst prints (don't laugh at me- that last one is what I like to call a "disaster"). Here it goes.

Really proud of the first, like, three.
That last one, I just kind of have to laugh at. I haven't learned to dodge and burn yet. Oops.

Bonus Pictures 2

I stumbled across these while looking through my JPEG files from Africa. Somehow, these two didn't make it into the RAW pile, so I had to edit them in JPEG. But I'm pretty happy with these two jewels!

Picture 1: The Great Rift Valley, as viewed from Kenya. This view took my breath away, because it was both a piece of stunning scenery, and it was incredibly high up (can you say fear of heights?). Anyway, despite being scared for my life, I managed to capture this shot. The colors in this landscape...are fantastic. God knew what he was doing when he made the world.

Picture two: Two men standing outside a local store by the viewing area of the Great Rift Valley. I fell in love with this picture because it tells a story. I don't know what that story is, which makes it even more captivating. What were they doing there? What brought them to Kenya, to that spot? What are their joys, their worries, their fears? I find people and their stories so enthralling. 

Saidee, Christy, and Cassidy

Today, I got the wonderful opportunity to work with my fellow photographer and best friend Cassidy (her amazing blog found here). We took a couple of our beautiful friends, Saidee and Christy, and drove down to some docks by Cassidy's house and snapped away.

I adore portrait photography. I love developing my own style of shooting and editing. If you need some portraits, feel free to contact me (if I know you, of course). I would be happy to work with you!

Bonus Picture

And by "Bonus," I mean, I forgot to edit these two pictures. But here they are, sorry for the tardiness.

Hakuna Matata

Two days ago I got back from the most pivotal, life-changing trip I've ever been on. And I took pictures.

I'll just tell the whole story. Back in...October? September? Around that time, I learned about an opportunity to go on a mission trip to Africa. It was going to be a small trip, with only 10 or so students, and I desperately wanted to go. After the usual struggles of convincing my parents, praying, raising money, praying, packing, and praying, the trip was finally here. On December 26, my mom dropped my dad & I off at the airport, said good-bye, and we began our journey. 24 hours of traveling later, and I found myself in Nairobi, Kenya, severely jet-lagged and indescribably happy.

Our team of 8 students and 4 adults spent four days running a kind of "summer" camp for a really awesome group of students, the ages ranging from 11 to 18 years old. Bonding with them was one of the most special times of my life. I definitely didn't expect to love them all so much at the end of four days.

After the camp ended, our team set out on a drive to the Amboseli Safari, where we went "glamping" (glamour camping- we had two beds, a shower, a toilet, and working electricity in our tents). We woke up early, drove around for hours looking at animals, and came back. Those are the times I really got to take some pictures.

This trip had God's hand visible everywhere - in the students we worked with, in the magnificent Kenyan landscapes, in the wildlife. God used this trip to open my eyes to learn more about Him & His character, and also learn more about myself as a person. Overall, it's been incredible. I would go back in a heartbeat. But for now, I'll just relive it by looking through pictures.