Film Log: Roll 006 | Long Island and Portraits

Roll 006 was shot in October with a Nikon FG on Kodak Gold 200. This roll was developed and scanned by PhotoLounge, my exclusive photo lab and film processing sponsor. ⚡️

In early October, my partner and I took a trip up to Farmingdale, New York with my best friend and her partner to see Twenty One Pilots during their Breach Tour. I've never been to Long Island and loved walking around the small town, filled with fun restaurants, thrift stores, and coffee shops. On the day of the concert, we visited Oyster Bay and Theodore Roosevelt Memorial Park.

I was surprised at how warm the photos came out. This was my first time shooting in Autumn (with a lot of warm colors thanks to the pumpkins and decorations) and at the beach, and they feel like sweet, nostalgic memories.

I didn't get a photo but we also stopped by Flux Coffee which also acts as a second space for the Long Island Film Club. At Flux, you can buy film, drop off your film orders, and view a gallery while sipping on your coffee.

The second half of this roll was used for my first paid photoshoot with Tiko! She wanted new headshots for her LinkedIn profile—something that was professional but still had some life in it. We chose to take the photos outdoors and play around with the lighting at golden hour on Penn's campus. I tried to replicate the portraits from a few rolls ago but couldn't quite match the lighting.

I've never done a paid shoot on film before and it was pretty nerve-wracking, especially considering that I'd shot a blank roll at the end of September. Just in case of error, I brought two cameras: my Nikon FG and my partner's Nikon F65 which is an automatic SLR. To no one's surprise, my favorite shots came from the FG. There's something about being fully in control of the camera, the exposure, the focus. I know how easy it is to get it wrong, to be slightly out of focus, to choose the wrong aperture, so that when I get my scans back and they actually turned out right, it feels like magic.

It's really cool to see how a single roll can look so different depending on the environment. The earlier shots in Long Island feel dreamy, warm and whimsical, like a memory deep in my mind. Maybe it's the shot of the pink bicycles that make me nostalgic for a childhood of bare feet and sand. My happy memories of childhood are always damp with golden hour sunlight. The other half of the roll, shot with the same Kodak Gold, feel more rooted present-day. While the warmth is still there, it is more restricted, softly sitting in the background. It does not beg to be noticed.

My previous rolls have been strictly shot on Kodak Gold (200 ISO) or UltraMax (400 ISO) but I've picked up my first roll of Portra 400 which I'll be bringing with me to California at the end of October and I'm excited to see how they'll come together.