Fast Love

Photographed on 10/3/2023-10/5/2023

Published on 10/11/2023

I'm in a long distance relationship with my girlfriend. We went from practically living together for a whole year while I finished my final year of college, and then I moved to the big city a whole three hours away. I won't lie, it's hard. Before the trip depicted in these photos, I had not gotten to see Janis for over a whole month! So when my boss called me up to ask if I could assist the team back up in the mountains I was overjoyed.

I got to surprise her. Well, I sort of got to surprise her. She assumed I was coming because I'm not very good at being sneaky. On the way up to the mountains I stopped in a grocery store to buy flowers and blueberry red bull. The red bull would be for tomorrow morning as I had a long day of work ahead of me. I dropped the flowers off at her doorstep and hid in her bushes to surprise her when she got home from work. Unfortunately, I made the poor decision to park my car right next to the main entrance for her apartment complex so she immediately clocked I was there lol.

But I got to spend half a week hanging out with her and going back to some of my favorite spots in town and on the parkway. After work one day I actually drove down my favorite length of the parkway. I went back to some of my favorite sites I originally captured for the final project of photography class less than a year ago. While here I decided to recreate a few of the original shots. Some of them turned out well, but others needed more contrast and a wider angle than I had access to with my film camera.

One thing I sort of realized with this collection is that I really enjoy the grainy look that film offers. Color also looks muted and distorted especially when compared to how clean digital photography turns out. The early autumn landscapes have a beautiful, dull, hazy look to them that digital could achieve, but only through proper editing and camera settings. On film, this look is achieved effortlessly as it is inherent to the medium.

A downside of using film for this set however is that I did not recognize my focus and aperture were off, especially for the pictures of Janis, until the photos were developed. I'm still learning my way around film photography and all its quirks, so I appreciate moments like these as a learning curve. With each mistake or success I learn the settings and compositions that most excite me. Ultimately, I think that's what I want to do with my photography; I want to make images that excite me and stick with me long after they have been captured. If others happen to enjoy them, well, that's a wonderful side effect.

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