Getting out and pursuing photography goals

Took a little break over the weekend from shooting but also posting, just didn't have much to share and I wasn't getting out all that much to shoot in the first place. I'm still in my phase of preferring film stock over digital and I recently ran out of film, and have been waiting for an expired roll of Kodak Vision2 250D to come in. I think that'll be fun to shoot given the unknown results that comes with shooting expired cine film. The digital instead comes with me outside in the meantime, though my will to be outside has since decreased with the film stock. I have also spent quite a bit of time looking into film to buy elsewhere, looking at stocks that are available now, their prices, and which seems interesting to experiment with. Primarily, that interest is in cine film.

Of course, the price of cine film is not cheap though. Which has also sent me down the rabbithole of searching for various ways to cut some costs with shooting film, especially in Armenia. I've thought about buying a development kit again, my current one sits in the UK and it's unlikely it can all safely be transported here, especially since chemicals were already used in them. This means I have wanted to switch development away from labs and wanting to do it at home. It's a fun process, though a bit more difficult if you don't have storage for chemicals nor the space to develop. But moving soon means that might be an option. The same with scanning my own film, having more control over the final output is important to me, not just with scan quality but also the colours. I think it'd be really fun as well, to have more connection with the whole process itself. An extra side of the hobby to enjoy. Again though, it does cut down the costs of shooting film massively when you develop and scan yourself. Which is very good if Cinestill costs about 16 GBP per roll to shoot excluding the after costs!

All of this comes with some consideration of where I want my photography to go in the future, what I want to do with it and how. The move away from just posting online and instead looking into physical media. Books, prints, and maybe even finding some ways to get into exhibitions. A lot of the current images aren't of that quality, mostly from when I do shoot on digital. But some of the recent film rolls have been getting more to the standard I expect from myself. Maybe I'll share them here soon, but I don't want to get to ahead of myself and share images I do want to use for a project later on. It's all very exciting to think about though, I do feel like I'm going through a period of growth within photography, taking it a bit more seriously and having some goals I want to pursue.

I recently did get the wider lens I was talking about in previous posts though, a Canon FD 28mm 2.8. Which has been an absolute joy to use so far in offering so many more opportunities in how photographs can be shot with a wider view. Suddenly it doesn't feel so limiting to be out with a crop sensor, instead having that full 35mm frame size on a wide angle, allowing me to stand far, close, and in the middle of all kinds of exterior scenes and interiors.