These days, my “camera roll” is how I track my life. When did I meet so and so for coffee? Camera roll. Did I go on tour before or after so and so event? Camera roll. It’s become my timeline, and I highly doubt I’m alone in that.

Adam gifted me my very first film camera at the end of summer, and I’ve already gone through ten rolls. I feel like the photos from the film camera capture my timeline in a more significant way. My camera roll has progress picture of my plants, low quality photos of every animal I’ve ever interacted with and screenshots of books I want to read. My film archives are comprised of only special moments because I don’t take the camera out for just anything.

Reflecting on the year that’s just ended, I was going through my film archives and it made me think about the significance of the first photo of the roll vs. the last photo of the roll. There’s the obvious significance of the time that has passed between the first and the last photos, but there’s something else that attracted me to the idea. I’ve never thought more about exactly why I’m taking a photo as I have since I’ve started shooting film. Sometimes, I’m just trying to finish a roll to get it sent out to the processing lab, and sometimes I sit there waiting for the perfect moment for minutes at a time.

I thought it’d be fun to compare the first photo of the roll to the last photo of the roll for each of my first ten rolls, and explain why each photo was taken. It’s a simple and fun way for me to track my progress as a photographer, but also hopefully demystify the art a little bit for those who might want to give it a try.

Here goes nothin..

first of roll one

Funny how the first photo ever taken on my film camera was not taken by me, but of me, by my favorite person. This was essentially a test shot, because I had just opened the box it came in and the two of us were so excited about our new toy that we just wanted to try it out immediately. Here I am, lookin pretty haggard, in my childhood home. Nothin special, but that’s the point of this, isn’t it?

last of roll one

This was my first experience with taking a photo just to finish the roll. Adam and I were on our phones searching for a 24 hour photo lab in New Jersey to try and get our photos developed before we headed back to California, and I took this of him in a cafe just to finish the roll off. Spoiler alert: never found a photo lab, but we did find a photo lab in Southern California that we just had to mail our roll to. We still use them. Shout out to The Darkroom. Turns out, I actually really love this photo, and I never would have taken it if I were in the middle of the roll of film.

first of roll two

Now, most of the first few rolls I was just so excited to own my camera that I wasn’t truly taking my time with shots. At least not as much time as I take now. It’s of the beach bar we love to go to when we’re down the shore in Jersey. Other than it being a place I have memories attached to, it’s a pretty unextraordinary photo that I really could have just taken a mental snapshot of. But, again, this is all a part of learning a new skill.

last of roll two

I’m pretty much location scouting every time I leave my apartment now. By the end of my second roll, I was looking for any excuse to take a photo, which just means I began focusing more on the beauty around me, which is never a negative thing. I was driving home from a friend’s place at the right time of day. Saw this building with the perfect palm tree shadow on a corner, and literally drove around the block to take this. I took it because I loved where the light was hitting the entire scene. The colors to me are quintessential Los Angeles. And because what I’ve always loved about film photography is its ability to capture mundanity in a striking way. This felt like that to me.

first of roll three

Adam was sick. I was taking care of him. We were cat-sitting for friends of ours. All of this led to a lot of down time around an apartment I’ve always thought was adorable. So, when Adam was taking a midday nap, I walked around the place snapping photos. This was the first of them.

last of roll three

The real reason I took this is because Adam and Reilly had already begun recording “Hurt” in the studio and I had to switch to a black and white roll of film for that project. The fact that Rowan was was jumping trying to reach the tree made figuring out what to use my last exposure on incredibly simple.

first of roll four

Literally moments later. If you want to see more of the photos from this project, there is a whole blog post on it called “flicker.” There wasn’t all that much thought involved with this exposure outside of knowing I wanted to get every angle I could. The plan was two rolls of film in two days. This is simply where I began.

last of roll four

Partly a throwaway exposure since the video shoot was about to begin and I didn’t want to have to switch rolls once they’d started for fear of missing a moment. But also I was just loving the pine cones growing on these burnt trees. I wish you could see this in color.

first of roll five

Jimmy, McKenzie and Reilly headed down the hill to start unloading the car. I just liked their positioning in relation to the background and was trying to make sure I got some variety so it wasn’t just 36 exposures of the video shoot. I ended up really digging this one.

last of roll five

The last photo of the roll and the last photo of the project. And easily my favorite last exposure I’ve taken so far. Sometimes everything just works in your favor. I waited to take this photo for a few moments. I wasn’t sure exactly what I was waiting for until they laughed and I knew and I snapped. There’s a certain magic about this photo to me, and I’m really proud I took it.

first of roll six

Because we were riding a creative high. Because we were at the end of a long day and were feeling celebratory. And because golden hour. And love.

last of roll six

I don’t know. I thought I was going to really love this photo because of the way it looked in real life, but for some reason I’m pretty underwhelmed by it. Maybe because sunsets are really never as beautiful in photographs as they are when you’re experiencing it with your eyeballs.

first of roll seven

My problem here was making the f stop too low, blurring the background too much. Some of the most beautiful parts of this scene were in the background. I was still in the phase where I thought I had to take at least one photo everywhere I went. If I were back in this spot right now I’d probably just take an iPhone photo and call it a day.

last of roll seven

You’ve seen this photo before on my last blog post. This is us in a pawn shop in Oklahoma City. It doesn’t really have anything to do with it being the last exposure; it just happened that way. I was taking at least one photo a day on tour and Oklahoma City just happened to fall on exposure 36 out of 36. If you read the blog about tour you know that I was trying to take a photo that represented the city we were in or at least the vibe of the day. I was sick and we were tired and this pawn shop stop was easily the most exciting part of the day.

first of roll eight

One photo per day on tour was still going on. This was the next day in Houston, Texas. It was my birthday and I was sick and I was trying to distract myself from all of it so I walked around looking for anything to take a photo of. I knew this would probably be underexposed but I wanted to try it out anyway, because you have to be willing to make mistakes to learn!

last of roll eight

San Antonio, Texas. I plowed through this roll on our Texas stops because I knew I had to switch to a black and white roll for when the guys were performing. I had hoped this would be a little less underexposed, but again, I really only took it to finish off the roll. This is Jenika in the production office of the day, right before the start of the show.

first of roll nine

My first time shooting a concert on film. I tried to do as much research as I possibly could about concert photography on film, but in the end, you have to learn from your mistakes. And I made plenty. Glad this is the first of the roll instead of some of the sad attempts that came after. I learned a lot but I don’t think I’ll be rushing to shoot more concerts with my film camera. It’s difficult and not super worth it for me. But I’m glad I gave it a go!

Last of roll nine

The guys at their signing line that same night. I got booked for the night to take photos of the show, and I only took the film camera on tour, so I had to go get film just for this. I planned on using an entire roll for the whole show. On the one hand, this was absolutely taken to finish the roll, but on the other, I planned to save one exposure for this moment. I was unsure if it’d even come out, but then again, I was unsure if any of the roll would even come out. If I could do it all over again, I’d have brought my flash.

First of roll ten

Austin, Texas! One of my favorite cities in the country. We had two days off there. My last two days on tour. This was taken at the Salt Lick BBQ, which is a little outside the city, and worth every second of travel. As soon as I licked the last drop of BBQ off my fingers, I went strolling looking for something to photograph. There was a cute little courtyard, and this fountain seemed like an easy choice.

Last of roll ten

Ahhh. This photo. My first attempt at a double exposure on this camera. And my only chance to get it right seeing as it was the last exposure. I did some research on how to properly meter to get the double exposure you’re going for, and still I failed. In hindsight, I should have made the entire first exposure the rocks instead of having it be half rocks/half sea and sky. If it were all rocks, the details of Adam’s face would have been brought out a little more, which is what I was going for. You live, and you learn!

I’m thinking I might turn this into a series. Every ten rolls, I’ll make a post about the first of the roll vs. the last of the roll.

What do you think? Leave your thoughts on if you enjoyed this format, and if you have a favorite photo.

I enjoy reflecting on my photography this way. Between the first photo of the first roll and the last photo of the last roll, you can see where I started experimenting and honing my eye. Hopefully it gets even more honed and experimental from this point on!

Thank you as always for reading! Have a kickass weekend!

Do something outside your comfort zone today!

xo