First Day of School on Film

Finnegan strums his Ukulele ■ Pentax 67 ■ Ilford Delta 400

One Roll, One Day - January 2020

The year 2020 is starting off with a combo of photography projects. The first, and main goal, of 2020 is to shoot mainly black and white film. An entire year of black and white, in my opinion, will help me focus on tones, contrast, and composition with the immeasurable goal of being a better photographer.

The second, is to at least once a month, shoot an entire roll in a day. Now, I’ve been known to rip off multiple rolls in a day, but throw in the black and white challenge, and this can be a bit tricky for me.

This roll was shot in a matter of 20 minutes. It was Finnegan’s first day at his new school, and we had some time to kill. He strummed his baritone ukulele for a bit then took to the yard to play with Cody, our feisty Australian Shepherd.

Finnegan and Cody in a tug-of-war ■ Pentax 67 ■ Ilford Delta 400

Cody ready for the stick launch ■ Pentax 67 ■ Ilford Delta 400

For the film nerds, this was shot on Ilford Delta 400 through my favorite beast: The Pentax 67. Early winter morns aren’t filled with light here in North Carolina, so all the indoor photos were at my minimum 1/30 sec. for handheld shots. I developed this in Kodak xtol 1:1. For fear of underexposed shots, I left it in development for a bit longer. After a night in the shower drying, I scanned on my Epson V600 w/ Silverfast.

This was only my second time ever shooting Ilford Delta 400, with the first time being a burn roll to make sure I mixed my developer right. The tones are amazing with great contrast. I really tried to focus on getting him in good, soft light and well lit from the front. I shoot most my color film backlit, so this certainly challenges how I typically approach a scene.

Not too shabby for 20 minutes, and a great day to document as Finnegan faced the stresses of a new school: new teacher, new friends, new surroundings. I stressed about him throughout the day, but all for naught as he raved his situation (and no homework this year for 1st graders!).