Film: Philly + DC + Wedding

When I first got back into film photography, I would fly through a roll, eager to see the results and seeing enough potential images that I wanted to create. Now, it's starting to take a little longer to work my way through, as I think about the probable result of each shot and then think "Do I REALLY want to take this photo?" 

I couldn't remember when I loaded the latest roll of 120mm film into the Seagull twin lens reflex camera. I couldn't even remember what film it was, honestly. I seemed to remember it being B&W and maybe ISO 200 so I metered accordingly. I wasn't too far off when I unloaded the exposed roll yesterday to find it was expired Ilford FP4 (ISO 125). So no real push processing required, but as you see below the result of shooting both indoors in low light and outside in ample light resulted in varying tones and contrast. I love it. I love that film can surprise you with the results. And that you have to wait to see those results (although let's be real, I have tried to look at the viewfinder to see what I've gotten from time to time). 

It turns out this roll was started in Philadelphia back in September. The camera actually went back to Philly with me on this last trip in March and then concluded here in DC at the wedding of two of my favorite people ever: Jim Darling & Amy Martin. I think between that wedding's jackpot of sweet moments at an incredible venue (Josephine Butler Parks Center) and my slowing down with this roll, I actually got results that I like as a whole...the entire roll. That doesn't happen too often.

I am also glad that I decided to bring along the Seagull to the wedding. I have been wanting to incorporate film photography into wedding photography and know of some photographers who either do a hybrid approach or even shoot the entire wedding just using film! I attended Jim & Amy's wedding as a guest, so I figured it was the perfect opportunity. Plus, Jim is an amazing photographer and dear friend, so I figured he might appreciate the film photos as well. :)