I stared at the screen for almost five minutes before writing these words. A dear friend of mine is sitting in front of the fire, keeping it alive as I type, trying to keep us both warm in this cold winter weather in the mountains of Clanwilliam. Swan Lake by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky is playing in the background, making this experience intense. I am trying to figure out what have I learned from my recent experience of shooting thirty-six blank shots of a roll that wasn’t loaded properly on my Pentax ME Super. 

I loaded my second roll of film, Kodak Portra 800, and decided to take a walk in the Newlands Forest. Something didn’t feel right every time I winded the shutter to get the next shot. Learning from my previous mistakes, every composition was chosen carefully. 

“Sorry mate, it happens”, said the friendly voice from Cape Film Supply in Cape Town.

“No worries, yes, it happens”, I replied.

Honestly, I wasn’t upset. Even though there were no photos, I felt that the experience was real. I had thirty-six precious moments of learning. I normally choose an aperture value on a digital camera, take a test shot, and then check the results to verify the depth of field, composition and exposure. For these thirty-six blank shots, I chose an aperture, imagined what the depth of field would look like, verified the shutter speed, checked the corners of my composition for any unwanted objects in the frame, carefully focused and then pressed the button that gives an awesome tactile feeling of a photo being taken with a satisfactory sound effect. There’s nothing that can replicate that.

It’s money wasted, that’s true, but it’s not time squandered. I am more passionate about film than before, and I can’t wait to get out and try my next roll of film. I am imagining all those compositions and more with improvements this time around, and if everything goes as per my new plan, you will see a video on my YouTube channel about it too.  Life moves on, you gather experiences, learn, become stronger and repeat the process. Learn, Make and Repeat is what Matti Haapoja would have said.

I will chat with you again next week. Do let me know in the blog comments, or drop me an email, to let me know how you would feel if you shot a blank roll of film.

kind regards

Muji