priscimon blog

When I bought my Nikon D850, I ordered a 128 GiB CFexpress card to go with it, assuming that the camera’s high-resolution output would demand substantial storage. Yet, because of my approach to digital photography, I rarely fill more than a fraction of the card while I’m shooting. I seem to be as frugal with the shutter button as I am with a film camera.

For example, when these pictures were taken, I shot identical number of frames with my Nikon D850 and my Nikon FM2, resulting in similar digital and film images. Here are the scans from the FM2 for comparison.

With film, I am not only limited by the length of the roll—12, 24, or 36 frames—but also by the actual cost of each exposure. In comparison, with digital I can shoot as many images as will fit on the CFexpress card, only constrained by the time I’m willing to spend on post-processing. Still, I continue to take photos with the same intentionality with both systems.

The picture below is a good example of my intentional approach. On this occasion, I arrived on location 30 minutes before sunset, set up the tripod, and composed the shot. Then, I waited for the light to fall on the barracks. I took only four exposures: f/11 @ 1/30s, f/11 @ 1/60s, f/11 @ 15s, and f/11 @ 30s. These were the only four images I chose to capture on a card with a capacity for more than thousand.

Recently, I found an envelope containing film negatives with candid pictures of P, taken between 2008 and 2010 when I was beginning film photography.

Given the reset brought about by COVID, this discovery feels almost archaelogical—you can even see P holding a Blackberry phone.

The negatives were badly scratched from sitting at the bottom of a pile of junk. I somehow managed to get some decent scans from them.

You’d think that, with more daylight, summer is ideal for outdoor photography, but it really isn’t. Trees turn into green masses dotted with bright reflective spots and put everything in shade. The sun rises too early – four o’clock, really? – and sets too late ­– around dinner time with P. And when I drag myself out of the house for a walk, it turns into a long and hot uncomfortable march.

Last Saturday, I waited until the outside temperature was cool enough to go for a wander in the neighoubood. I took a shortcut through the retail park on to Farnborough IQ business park. Despite my usual duck-and-dive routine, I was spotted on CCTV by security staff, cornered, and told that it was “a private estate” and that Heritage area was not the same as National Heritage. However, I was allowed to do so as long as I didn’t loiter.

I brought the Minolta X-300 loaded with Fomapan 200. It hadn’t been used for a long time, so I wanted to excercise its mechanics. As I took pictures of the disused buildings in the Heritage area, I relied solely on the internal lightmeter.

Back at home, I developed the two rolls with Rodinal 1+50 and was utterly pleased with the results.