Film and Loathing in Oceanside, OR
This post was supposed to be about driving and enjoying the Oregon Coast in dumb old cars. But instead, I’m going to focus on my decision to bring a Nikon F4 and film instead of a digital camera.
A camera from 1988, an ’85 BMW, a Porsche from 1980, and a rental beach house from the 70s: if you ignored the smartphones, it could have been a postcard image of yuppies enjoying success in 1989.
Last month, on a trip-within-a-trip, some friends and I headed to the Oregon coast. Daniel Sloan brought his BMW 325 E30, Chris Nguyen joined as a co-driver, and I had my 911SC (currently stored at Daniel’s house).
This post could have been about this mini-vacation, about driving and enjoying a beautiful region of the Pacific Northwest in dumb old cars. But instead I’m going to focus on my decision to bring my Nikon F4 along, instead of a modern digital camera.
I am once again humbled by my lack of control and skill with film (Kodak Portra 400, in this case). None of these photos are offensively bad, but everything is just a bit duller than I was hoping for. When you develop a roll, you always hope to find a ‘good surprise’ somewhere — something you couldn’t have achieved without film. It’s a letdown when every image is, instead, a bit disappointing compared to what you had envisioned weeks earlier when shooting the roll.
Some locations didn’t work at all, so I left them out — such as under trees on a sunny afternoon. Weird, dull colors, spotty shadows. I don’t know what I was expecting, but not this.
In the sunny scenes, where I think the colors came out best, the chromatic aberration — that magenta fringing effect — is really noticeable.
The film grain isn’t …nice… or creamy. Instead, it looks like the Noise filter in Photoshop.
A lot of times, the thing I thought I was focusing on isn’t in focus. On previous rolls I shot in Egypt, I thought the lens on my Nikon F4 was soft, but this is a different lens, and it isn’t any better. 🤷♂️
I fault myself and my expectations, not the film. I’m completely spoiled by digital — being able to see, and adjust, and know what I’m capturing in the moment. I’m not panning the entire medium of film here, I realize the problem is me.
I complained a bunch, but it was nice to bring the F4 on a short vacation trip and leave everything else behind. I’m sure someday, looking back, I’ll be happy I have these unique images, which will stand out from all the endless digital stuff I’ve taken in 2023.
Some of the rejects that didn’t make my Instagram post:
