South Sister Mountain, Film Photography via 15-Year Old Disposable Camera

When you move, you find things. Cool things.

We found a 15-year old disposable camera moving across town ––a cardboard box one time use drug store camera–– and decided to give her a whirl up-down-and-around South Sister Mountain in the Cascade Range south of Bend, Oregon from sunrise ascent to mid-day descent earlier this summer.

A few gems resulted from that one day we blew through the entire roll. You never know with film–– it could have easily been a dud, totally blown out from expiration, heat or light exposure --so we just went for it, snapping away like a kid would. Usually there's more a methodical process in taking film photos but this time was high risk (and, luckily, high return).

We were ear-to-ear to have any frame result ––let alone about ten acceptable shots–– needless to say, we were ecstatic to see the 35mm film negatives full of something more than solid white or solid black!

Enjoy,

Jacq

Photo Series: Horizon Lines

Travel 35mm film photography; minimal design elements play with form, space, and composition.  

by Jacqueline Smith

Most of the time when traveling, I'm inspired by new surroundings and details. I'll take a few (film) shots with a calm sense of peace and walk away with a decent reel. On a recent trip to South Korea and Japan ––my first trip to Asia–– I now realized I was over-stimulated by everything being foreign. I was urgently taking more photos than normal, without thinking or framing –– when will I ever be back here again? 

My photos from that trip were different, busy, some even blurry. Korea and Japan were both really interesting cultures, full of delicious meals, rad vertical hikes, and skiing with great friends! But my photos, I felt pretty disconnected from and eventually started writing instead to document the experience.   

So feeling punk about the photos I walked away with from Asia, I decided to take a few select film photos from past trips and I began to see a pattern: lots of space, negative space. And so, here, I'm playing with that space graphically. It was a successful hours use of Adobe Photoshop for something other than client work that's simple, playful, a fun addition to this photo set, and this one too. 

"Horizon Lines" clockwise: Santa Barbara Palm, Hoodoo Ski Lift Horizon, West Fjords Iceland Horizon, Oregons' Desert Elevated, Big Surs Infinite Sun Set, Glacier National Park On Fire.