The next six rolls or so will come from the spring break trip we took to San Antonio in April. It was a great time — lovely city! — and I was able to go through most of the film I brought. These photos are from the botanical gardens as well as downtown San Antonio. They are Kodak Gold shot with a Mamiya 6. There was a light leak hence the bright marks on each photo. I have since gotten the camera repaired!
My 11th roll of the year was a roll of Kodak Portra 400 that I shot on a long walk up and around Mt. Robidoux in Riverside, California. I was in the area to give a talk, and I gave myself a bit of time to do some exploration. I used my Leica M4-P and the M-Hexanon 50mm lens.
These photos are from a roll of…Kodak Tri-X(?) that I took during a trip down to southern California, partly in Los Angeles and partly in Riverside. One theme of this series is that I have gotten pretty ruthless about what I keep, and so from a roll of 36 frames — and probably 20 separate scenes — I have four photos. I…do not want to think about how much money I spend on this hobby.
In the interest of trying to use the film I have stockpiled, I brought a couple rolls with me to the “No Kings” protest in Charlottesville, Va. earlier this year. I used the Mamiya 6 and a 150mm telephoto lens (equivalent to 90mm on a 35mm camera). Out of 24 frames I had about 4 that were good enough to keep. (Although if I were being exceptionally strict with myself I would have only kept 1 or 2 photos but then, where’s the fun in that?)
These photos are from two rolls of 35mm film that I shot throughout the first few months of the year. The issue is that they weren’t shot sequentially, meaning that I have frames from as early as January and as late as April. But I finished them in April and so that’s where they fall on the list. I shot these on my Leica M4-P using one lens or another from my set of M-Hexanon lenses, produced by Konica for its electronic rangefinder back in the early 2000s. Photos were taken in Charlottesville and New Orleans.
I went through a bit of a rut earlier in the year and so this roll has just three keepers and even these are…not great. But I still have them just to mark where I was in February: Bowdoin College and Miami.
I took these photos during a brief stop in New Orleans for an event. I spent a day wandering and you can more or less trace my route from the scenes I have here.
Seen on US-29 passing through Madison, Va.
Shot with a Panasonic LX10 point and shoot. Edited in Lightroom.
I shot my second roll of the year during a brief stop in Grinnell, Iowa, where I gave a talk at the college. These photos are of Grinnell’s downtown, which is quite charming. You’ll notice that there is no one on the street. That is because it was 10 degrees and I was very committed to taking photos during the 48 hours or so I was in town. Once again, these were taken with the Mamiya 6 using Kodak Gold film.
Doing something a little bit different this year when it comes to sharing photos. Rather than organize by place, I'm going to just share the keepers from each roll, in chronological order. This roll of Kodak Gold is the first roll of film I shot of 2026, in downtown Los Angeles where I was visiting for work. I used my Mamiya 6MF which, unfortunately, has a light leak that I need to fix before I head out for a trip abroad in a few weeks.
