The whole roll #26

Expired film 35 years out of date! I was given this older-than-me roll of film by a mum from the kids' school. I LOVE the results. The secret was ISO 12, direct sunlight and direct flash. Gorgeous.

The whole roll #1 can be found here (where you can read about the origins of this project). Other “Whole Rolls” are here. I’ve put the details of the film stock, camera dev and scanning under the images so those who don’t care don’t have to read about it.

Here is something that I have been talking to friends and acquaintances about lately: vulnerability. Vulnerability in friendships, online presence, communities, photographs - that’s what I think we should be working on. Thats’s where connection is really made.

I practise vulnerability even when I don’t mean to. I share details about my emotions and my life at the drop of a hat. All you have to do is sneeze near me and I’ll tell you all about my latest personal interrogations and philosophies.

“How was your weekend?” a school mum asked me a few weeks ago. “Amazing. I was away on an all-women film photography retreat,” I told her. “It was life-changing. I’ve never experienced anything like it and I’m still floating on a cloud. We need more time to play, as mothers, I think.”

She told me about her days shooting film and the digital photography she still does. That she’d like to do more of it. Our kids ran out of school and we were distracted from the conversation.

But the next day she brought me a bag of old film stuff. There are a couple of lenses that fit a nice old camera I’ve been given by a different friend, and a few rolls of expired film. VERY expired film (35 years!). One of the rolls is the one I present here.

A rule of thumb is to overexpose a roll of expired film by a stop for every decade it’s out of date. The easiest way to do this on the Nikon FM (and plenty of other cameras) is to lower the ISO. This will tell the camera it needs more light which will then allow you to shoot according to the light meter. To “go down” a stop in ISO terms, you need to halve the number (sorry to everyone who already knows this, but in the interest of vulnerability, I did not know this until recently, so there). So 100 goes to 50, then 25, then 12, which is the lowest my camera goes. I did the first several shots at 12, and then raised it to 25 on the advice of a friend who said, “At least then you’ll know which is better for the next couple of rolls.”

The 12 was better and I’ve got a couple of rolls left, so I will go with 12 for those. Another good tip (which I learned from my last roll of expired film that you can find here) is to use nice bright sunshine! Or a direct flash. See what you think of these.

(Disclaimer: I WILL NEVER use AI to write my posts (including alt text and captions), edit my images or reply to your comments or emails.)

The box of the film in question, shot on the film in question.

My handbag, sunhat and rumpled… sheets!

You can see it performs beautifully in bright sunlight.

This was shade and I think I put the direct flash on at this point. We were going on a walk to the nearby duckpond and my daughter wanted to pose with the flowers in the front yard.

Then my son wanted in as well. I think these flowers are red in real life, so you can see how crazy the colours are.

The flash didn’t go off (low batteries) so I used the double exposure button and did a second exposure with the flash.

Flash in the bush.

Direct flash on the back of my daughter, walking through the new estate (it’s probably at least 20 years old now but I will always call it the new estate) area of my childhood neighbourhood where we live at the moment.

A nice little double exposure of my daughter and flowers. Such a nice combination.

And she wanted to pose with this too, to which I said YES!

Somehow I think I prefer this one, though both are nice.

A double exposure.

Another double exposure I think, of the bush and the pond.

Just the pond.

My husband, waiting patiently at the playground, being eaten by mosquitoes.

The kids on the walk home.

My old Underwood typewriter surrounded by lenses and cameras (as it should be).

My mother-in-law and children brush their teeth. The flash did not fire.

Bathroom! The flash did fire. Why did I take this photo? I’m not sure, but I love it somehow. A snapshot of time, the products we’re currently using.

Yes, that’s my torso. This time, the flash did fire.

The couch. Unsure how this one happened or what I was going for here.

Somehow giving 70s teen vibes as a five-year-old boy in the back seat? (Flash fired.)

I’ve been doing more flash in sublight lately just for fun and learning purposes and I’m finding that it is pretty amazing when it works out. Elsie at Bar Beach.

Helene at the beach, Otto seconds away from soaking his pants in the surf.

Felix by the water.

Felix and his mum with Otto frolicking in between.

Elsie splashing water.

And again.

And again!

Merewether Ocean Baths.

Otto’s constantly-growing swimming top sleeve.

Direct flash on seashell. I like this one far more than the next.

Further away, shifted focus, more attention on the crocs. I also like the framing much more in the first.

There was nice light on me and I thought it would be nice to have the moment immortalised on film. Little did I know, my face would look like this.

I’ll blame the sun in my eyes but it’s not great.

Does this even need an explanation? I think not.

Completely forget what it was that caused the black marks. Maybe my camera strap. Maybe a low-flying, skinny, black seabird.

I love love love this one. No notes.

This was a roll of Fujicolor Super HR 100. 36 frames stretched to 38. I shot this on my dad’s old Nikon FM with a 50mm 1.8 Nikkor lens and occasionally this Hanimex hotshoe flash.

The roll was developed by Pro-Am in Newcastle. The film was scanned by my dad on an Epson flatbed.