Wanderlust Finds Rest

I wrote my last post with so much excitement and anticipation and then just let it drop. I'm truly sorry. Those emotions and more were true, and they continued to play through me over the next week as I got to open up a padded manila envelope full of film and applicable notes and then load each roll into my camera, shoot over it, and send it to the photo center while anxiously drumming my fingertips against the closest surface.



I received one roll that had been shot on in Hawaii, New Zealand, and Seattle. The other three were single-exposed rolls that I turned into interplays between me and each individual person. (I almost used the word "conversation" here, but "interplay" seems to work a lot better. If this process were to be simulated into a conversation it would be unpredictable and inconsiderate as voices continually overlapped each other. I'm glad these photos didn't take on such an abrasive attitude.)

Here are a couple results between my dad in Hawaii, my friends in New Zealand, my aunt in Seattle, and me in Texas:







These are between Hawaii and Texas:





New Zealand and Texas:



Seattle and Texas:







There are many more results on Flickr, if you are interested.

Fighting homesickness

This picture has nothing to do with this project, but it does have to do with Seattle and that is where my growing parcel has landed.

My aunt called to let me know she'd received the rolls of film (I've lost track of how many!) on Friday evening, and I told her to shoot away as soon as she has a chance. They won't be making their way up to Bellingham for time's sake, but that's okay. This project is not all about me and my life timeline. Having said that, Seattle nevertheless has a sweet place in my heart. I lived in Lynnwood before New Zealand and moved to Bellingham afterward, but now that I'm in Texas, I find myself explaining that I'm from "Seattle area" to make things easier.

The next post you read will hopefully be an exhibit of the developed prints!

Thank you so much for your help, Aunt Kris.

[The above photograph was taken at a favorite little spot in Ballard that I frequented as much as possible last summer. It's called Cupcake Royale and that particular day, as the sun was shining in the shop's windows, I was sharing a vanilla cupcake with lavender frosting with my friend while sipping a strong, smooth americano. Yes, it's true, coffee budgets are mandatory in the Northwest.]

The Next Chapter

I'm starting to feel like a "real" photographer. I packed up a suitcase and laptop case on Friday afternoon to head out of town for my spring break and walked out the door with a camera slung over each shoulder and another one in my purse. I was even contemplating bringing my new Polaroid along but figured three cameras might just be enough.

So, leaving behind my little identity crisis with being loaned a digital SLR and struggling to operate the basics, my desire to broaden and challenge myself in the realm of photography is only growing. I could get used to this life.

In the meantime, we have a pair of film rolls that still need an ending to their story.

One chapter closer to the back cover, a third roll joined the duo this past week and was shipped from a New Plymouth, NZ, post shop on Tuesday the 11th (as kindly and precisely reported by Helen).

Thank you P & H!

Now it's on to Seattle, Washington, where my aunt Kris and her 35mm Pentax analog camera are waiting. Oh, how I wish I was getting to hand deliver this package from place to place!

Thanks, again, to all of you who are participating in this journey and to those who are caring to follow along.

Here's for Hoping

Yesterday I received the news that two Hawaii-born rolls of film completed their first journey. They are safe and sound at the home of Peter and Helen in New Plymouth, NZ.

The next step, then, is for Peter and Helen to reload this film into their camera (they're only going to use one) and take 24 shots. I'm not giving them set rules on locations or subjects, so it will be a surprise when this all comes together.

I want this to be about their voices, not just me orchestrating a complicated project in locations I hold dear that I can control from afar. It's a glimpse at journey and time and place, integral parts of the human experience.

Having said that, I am still bombarding the two of them with emails about the finer details of analog/film photography and the lost concepts of aperture, shutter speed, etc. that average Joe's digital point-and-shoot doesn't address. I've said before that it is essential in this project that the negative is underexposed with each shot. Because the camera my dad was using in Hawaii did not have much manual control of settings, I'm a little nervous that by the time the film gets to me the negative will have been too exposed. To increase likelihood that something display-worthy will come out of this project, I'm asking Peter and Helen to pick up another roll of film and shoot over one of my dad's and then on the new one. That way, if the Hawaii film doesn't work, we'll at least have a story of New Zealand, Bellingham, and Abilene.

At least I'm hoping.

More Than Just Alright

Before I get started with my day, I have to sit down here briefly and show you some of my pictures from my trial roll. Out of the 24 developed, only 6 or so were keepers (i.e. the kind that get me really excited about this project).

I got some great lighting in the four below that makes me wonder if the combination of indoor and outdoor do this. If I were already planning on putting together a series, these four would be it. For more, go take a look at my flickr site.

I'm breathing a sigh of relief as I realize this might work out more than just alright.

On Its Way

I listened to a wonderful voicemail on my windy walk home from painting class yesterday. It was my dad saying that he mailed his rolls of film off to New Zealand! They should get to Peter and Helen in five-ish days.

Tracking the journey of this film, it was first exposed in Kukuihaele, Hawaii, dropped in the mail in Oceanside, California, and is on its way to New Plymouth, New Zealand.

That's approximately 9145 miles/14715 kilometers!



View Larger Map

Here and Over There

Oh, it's hard to be at this end and let my little project run, but it's also a lot of fun knowing a roll has already been shot on the beautiful (big) island of Hawaii.

At this point I'm still doing some trial runs with rolls loaded and reloaded into my own camera, so it turns out I do have some work to do on this end too.

Just tonight I finished a quadruple exposure on a roll. I broke the whole thing down to 8 double exposed, 8 triple, and 8 quadruple. I probably lost a picture or two at the beginning while cautiously rewinding it just enough to have an end still hanging out to reload. In fact, I stopped by the photo center at the grocery store today to have that little tail pulled back out of the roll so I could continue.

I haven't figured out a sure way to know when to open the back of the camera up, but fortunately this was easy enough. I may have the others rewind the roll entirely and have a "professional" extract the end so that as few images as possible are lost.

So where is the film today?

Well, my father purchased two rolls of (400 ASA speed, 24 exposure, color) film in Hawaii and is hopefully going to mail them off to New Zealand in the next day or two. (I know it's going to be soon because he is moving back to the mainland tonight!)

My roll will be developed by tomorrow, and I'll share the results as soon as I have time.

My Cohorts

Let's make some introductions, shall we?

There are specific reasons why I have selected the people and places I have.

Grant in Hawaii. Grant is better known to me as "Dad," and his recent return to the Big Island of Hawaii proved quite convenient for me. I was born in Kona and like to think that my early exposure to the sun (spending most days in just a diaper and baby-size rhinestone earrings) conditioned my skin to tan easily and burn rarely.

Peter and Helen in New Zealand. Peter and I spent part of our childhood years together in Auckland, New Zealand, and since then he has met a lovely girl named Helen and gotten married. My family moved away from New Zealand when I was eight years old, and though I lost my tinge of a Kiwi accent, my love of vegemite, pavlova, and New Year's Eve in midsummer has not waivered.

Kris in Washington. Kris is my aunt, and she lives in Seattle. She's going to take a trip up to Bellingham (a two hour drive north) to take these pictures, and I'm glad to include her in this wandering film saga. Apart from being family, we share a sweet bond over coffee, baking, photography, and our Norwegian blood.

About Bellingham: It was my next home after Hawaii and New Zealand (with Wisconsin and Lynnwood, Washington, briefly squeezed in there too). After four years had come and gone in Bellingham, I remember wondering if we were going to pick up and move again because I didn't know what it looked like to stay in one spot for an extended amount of time. Now I'm very grateful for the ten years spent there. They spoiled me, really, being cozily tucked between the Cascade Mountains and Puget Sound and within reach of good espresso.

So, these are the people I'll be talking about and uttering endless thank you's to throughout this blog.

Thank you!

What It's All About

Hello. Kia ora. And let's not forget: Aloha.

This is the story of a roll of film that I intend to send through the above lands, finally to arrive in my own. "Hello" is a bit too broadly used to be a clue as to where it will be traveling, so I'll go ahead and dive into what this blog is all about.

I am doing an independent study in film photography this semester (my final semester of college...just felt like that needed to be mentioned) and am coordinating the shooting and shipping of a single roll of film from New Zealand to Hawaii to Washington State to Abilene, Texas, making for a multiply exposed negative.

My personal process in this project as well as the postal journey of the film will be documented here.

Bon voyage.