Chasing Dreams | First Film Scan | Cooper James | Boutique Film Lab | Gallatin, TN
Last Summer while on our lunch break, we ran into this adorable girl looking for the coffee shop on our local square. We walked + talked with her to the coffee shop, added each other on social media + exchanged numbers. In the midst of conversation I asked what she did and she said "I'm a wedding photographer!" I was super intrigued because what an awesome job, RIGHT?! {{keep in mind, this is before I ever picked up a camera} I still stalk Cassidy {{Cassidy Carson Photography}} on social media because she will simply blow your mind! She is a destination film photographer located in Nashville + she has MAD photog skills.
Fast forward to this past July, I attended The Dream Chasers Workshop with Emma Rose in the sweetest little town right out side of Seattle. There I grew as a photographer, I made some life long friends and I adopted a serious interest in Film Photography. I made one of my 2018 goal to pick up a film camera! Well, a month or so later I see a post in our Dream Chasers Group on Facebook about a girl selling her beloved Pentax 645N. I messaged her and inquired, not super serious but curious. She was beyond amazing, gave me video tutorials of how it worked, etc. I prayed about it over the weekend, Monday rolled around and I did it. I just a feeling that this was going to be a game changer. Something that didn't only help me grow as a photographer but something for me personally.
Our world is so instant.. {{kinda like Ramen Noodles.. why eat the real thing when it take 5mins in the microwave}} everything is right here, right now.. With film you don't have a choice.. There is no winging it! You have to take your time, know your settings, make sure you like your composition because there is no viewing the imaging, deleting it and saying "that sucked, lets up my ISO" it makes you slow down for a change! {{which is actually kinda nice}}
I got my camera in the mail and honestly I was so nervous to mess something up, I just let it sit for a good two weeks. I finally watched a couple youtube videos and subscribed to some blogs and learned how to load my first roll of film. I stripped Coop down to his diaper, set him in the middle of my office day bed and started shooting. Not really sure how to use a meter or even change my ISO, I just took some basic images to see how bad I really did suck! haha I sent them off to Boutique Film Lab in Mount Juliet and prayed they wouldn't make fun of me at the lab for how terrible these might have been.
Getting your email saying "Your film scans are ready" is like waking up on Christmas morning when you were 5. Holy cow, I couldn't get to my computer fast enough. When I got to my computer, they unfortunately were underexposed like 2 stops therefore making my contrast super low + super grainy. Tonight, I finally sat down and imported them into Lightroom to see if there was any bringing them back.. here's what I got not tooooo shabby!
Were these the light + airy / Cassidy Carson like images I was hoping God would bless me with on my first try? Nope, somethings things are just meant to be in black + white.. haha
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