This month’s film diary comes mainly from my brother’s wedding weekend. It’s June in the South, so it was aggressively warm with harsh sunlight throughout each day. I was excited to test out my Contax in these conditions as I’m trying to get some good practice in different settings and light conditions before I take it on our upcoming travels. 

They held their rehearsal earlier in the day, so the sunlight was pretty harsh and direct as evidenced by the third photo above. I was able to tuck myself into the shade, hoping for more of a backlit effect for photos one, seven, and nine above and I love how they turned out. My favorite of the roll though? You probably could guess it. Photos five and six of my newly minted sister-in-law in front of the windows while she was getting ready. The one where her mom is watching while she reaches for her dress… All of the heart eyes. I had to swap rolls right after that moment in the day, so I’m excited to see what wedding moments are left on the next one as well.

While lighting still feels like my biggest learning curve with the black and white film, I’m very happy with how my scans are turning out and even happier with the Contax. As you can see by the last few images where I played with flash and distance, some always come back out of focus or slightly blurred, but I’m finding this doesn’t bother me. I like the imperfection of it all. How the – at times unhealthy – perfectionist in me heals a bit with each beautifully imperfect shot.

* These were all taken using my Contax T2 with Kodak Tri X 400TX film. All linked below along with a more affordable option in the Olympus.