Roll with it #1
Ilford HP5, 36 exposures, and we're back in the eighties
I have always liked to record an image, take a picture, tell a story; its called photography and for as long as I can remember, I’ve had a camera in my hand, probably five decades since that first Kodak instamatic…
Instant cameras, polaroids, plastic disposable cameras, my dad’s old camera, you name it, I had a go with it, up until getting my first proper camera as a teenager; there is a whole lifetime of albums, negatives, wrecked overexposed rolls of film, snapshots and attempts at being art-y.
The history is for another post, the point here is that back in 2020 I thought returning to a fixed 28mm Leica Q2 camera as my one and only eye on the world would help me to tell beautiful stories without constantly worrying about photographic kit and my dwindling bank balance; the camera would go everywhere with me and coupled to a decent iPhone, every situation could be covered, catalogued and reported back on.
And it worked, thousands of images on my MacBook and in Lightroom folders, joining the tens of thousands from previous years, camera, lenses and assorted phones; right back to the first digital image around twenty years ago now.
But as I said at the start of the month (and year); 2026 isn’t about tech and complexity, apps and data; no, it’s about going back to basics, back to manual, taking control, using your imagination with less screens, more grey matter, more calibration, more experimental, more analogue.
So I bought a manual 35mm film camera.
The same one made between 1979-81, that I used to own around er…. 1981.
Of course that exact one was stolen from me while I was asleep at Athens airport in the early hours of an august day in the summer of 1987, so unless the chap I bought this one off on Vinted is the same guy, I guess it’s the same model but not exactly THE same one.
Well today I loaded up a film and walked backwards out into the fog of the 1980’s; as an experience, I honestly don’t know where to start…
The feel of a film camera, the knowledge that inside it, a thin strip of something is storing your images; well thats pretty terrifying.
The near one kilo weight (only slightly more than the Q2) strangely weighing far more than it looks it should; a house-brick of glass and metal, ponderously swinging around the neck.
The focusing ring goes the other way to the Leica; its not an apple product, it’s not intuitive
How to load a film in?
Once it’s done, the excitement and utter dread as to how to wind it back in and get it back out of the camera (I had to watch a YouTube video before daring to open the camera back)
Striding out into a foggy wet field with film winder cocked, shutter release under the finger; so quick, so ready.
That first image captured; the sound, a reassuring clunk, there is no sound like it
The visceral wind on of the film, the feeling of the lever, the excitement of the next image and what is to come; be prepared.
The lightness of the focus, the coming together of converging lines on the focus screen as shapes become real objects sliding together to make an image; there must be dust and dirt in the camera body as the focus screens seem so speckled with bits and pieces.
Markedly darker than the digital viewfinder I am used to but also so pure and honest; I guess we will see what can and can’t be done to clean up some prints when I get this first roll of film processed and some negatives and possibly scans to look at.
Back to the act itself; being out for the morning with a forty plus year old manual film camera with a 28mm f2 lens.
The requirement to steady the weighty camera and lens; compose the image, think about exposure and depth of field required; working within the limitations of 400 ASA film and a fastest shutter speed of 1,000th of a second; it sound easy but it certainly wasn’t after a 30+ year holiday.
I found that actually concentrating on focusing, even though I normally have my digital camera on manual focus, was a big effort; I am used to moving around to make the content fit the window with a fixed lens, but adding exposure and all of it’s combinations to check before pressing the shutter, well, that’s something I now need to think about with the price of film and the limit of 24/36 exposures in the camera; the pressure mounts, but so does the excitement
Shooting my first roll of film has been so much more time consuming but also more enjoyable than what I thought was normal creative photography; this is thought requiring photography, as it used to be, the camera purely a lightbox recorder for the story in my head.
And I love it.
Noting the exposure, thinking about what I am looking at and occasionally, for the first few images at least, making a note of the detail so I can later hopefully compare similar digital images taken at the same spot
The covering lines of the hedgerow in the mist
The trees sweeping up into the grey sky at the side of the river Ure
The West Tanfield fishing society sign and the empty damp bench
The cobweb with dew and the fenced off henge.
All will be revealed.
I’m going to start with the basics, Eleanor bought me a gift voucher for those lovely people at Take it Easy film lab in Leeds; I’m enrolled in a workshop next month and I bought some film; more importantly, before I even clicked the shutter this week I popped there on Monday night for their monthly Leeds Photo Social; fantastic.
A room full of photographers, mainly significantly younger than me (and my kids); nobody talking gear, everybody sharing and caring about each other’s work; this is what it should be like, real validation, genuine interest and support; so many fantastic artists in the room, led by the excellent Daniel Wheeler, an inspiration to all as the Education and Community lead curating the chatter.
I will be back with developed fils and hopefully some prints to look at; I hope you will come with me.
Thanks for reading You Can Do Anything.
Roll with it #
This is my first roll of film for 30 years; I’m going to to keep with the roll with it # theme and with each roll/story I will be writing a new post as part of You Can Do Anything; I therefore apologise to many readers who are perhaps not interested in photography; it’s the journey and the story rather than the technical stuff and the gear; but I do understand if you roll your eyes and choose not to roll with the story when you see roll with it #17 as the next post on my substack.
All that I ask is that you enjoy and share my many other stories as the unconventional flock, rejoicing in all things You Can Do Anything.