Birmingham Botanical Gardens on Film

One of my first cameras was a Canon AE-1 film camera I borrowed from my uncle when I was a kid. Since then I’ve not shot film except instant film with my Polaroid Land Camera and Fuji Instax mini. After reading this post by Elise, I thought, “Why not give it a go and see what comes out of it.” I bought the same camera she used, the Canon Rebel XSN, for about $19 and used some film I had lying around. Thankful, since it was a canon camera, I could use the lenses I already owned.

Over the first half of 2015 I shot five and half rolls of film and left them sitting on my desk, forgotten until a couple weeks ago when Richard Photo Lab made an announcement that they’d be processing and scanning film for anyone at Field Trip, a photography conference/retreat/adventure/experience I attended last week. I dropped off five rolls with them, not expecting anything. After all I had no real experience with film and didn’t know anything about how to shoot film except for the Jose Villa book’s, Fine Art Wedding Photography (which is an amazing read, btw).

But let me tell you, when I picked up my film and went through the proofs I was amazed. Seriously amazed. I couldn’t tell you how the images turned out so well. Was it the film type? Was is Richard Photo Lab’s magic? I couldn’t say. But whatever happened, I was so happy with the pictures! Here’s a few of them!