Garfield Way

One of my roles in my current journey with 35mm film is that of "film detective". A few weeks or months can elapse between the time I put a roll of 35mm film into my Minolta and when the film roll is developed and returned from the lab. In that time, I may easily forget the “when" and the “how” I exposed each film frame. The where is usually apparent from the film frame itself, but the dates, times, and camera settings are forgotten.

13 February, 2022 | Minolta XD-11 | MD ROKKOR-X 50mm F1.7

With digital photography, the when, how and where are automatically recorded into the EXIF metadata of the digital image file. But with 35mm film, except for the information about the film stock, I have no recorded information about aperture, shutter speed or exposure compensation. A few years ago, I tried a few apps to record each frame's aperture or shutter speed, but I quickly grew tired of doing it. Most of the time, I forgot to record the settings.

13 February, 2022 | Minolta XD-11 | MD ROKKOR-X 50mm F1.7

To compensate, I go on a digital adventure, scrolling through my Adobe Lightroom Catalogue, searching for photographs that I might have made around the same time using my Fuji X-T3 or iPhone 11 Pro.

I’m not sure when these four New Classic EZ 400 film frames were exposed. I think I put the roll of 35mm film into the camera sometime around the beginning of January. I searched Google for a list of snow dates in 2022 and found references to 1 January, 2 January, 3 January, 6 January, 7 January, 16 January, 17 January, 28 January, and 29 January. In the photographs, the roads and sidewalk are ploughed, so these film frames were probably exposed a day or two after one or more of those dates.

13 February, 2022 | Minolta XD-11 | MD ROKKOR-X 50mm F1.7
13 February, 2022 | Minolta XD-11 | MD ROKKOR-X 45mm F2
13 February, 2022 | Minolta XD-11 | MD ROKKOR-X 45mm F2
13 February, 2022 | Minolta XD-11 | MD ROKKOR-X 50mm F1.7

Author: Khürt Williams

A human who works in information security and enjoys photography, Formula 1 and craft ale.

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