Intro

Welcome to the first-ever blog entry on this website. I have been into photography, so to speak, over the last 10 – 15 years, with the previous year or two a lot more serious. I have had a few websites during those travels, but the names didn't click. Then, one day during a photo/hike trip, the name sort of came to me, the GenX Photo Guy. I did grab the GenX Film Guy, but I didn't want to pigeonhole myself into a particular genre. With that said…

My Current Focus

For the last four months, I have spent much time deep-diving into the film world and exploring my desire to learn all I can about film and its process. A lot of that desire directly reflects my personal feelings about where the photography field has landed and my career choice. As much as I would like photography to pay the bills, that is not currently possible (though I have ideas on resolving that).

My current occupation is dealing with the cloud world, and as much as I enjoy the work (minus the on-call aspect) and the team I am on, the need to feel something tangible is overwhelming. Deep diving into the film world gives me a negative that I can touch/feel. Although I did scan my images at the end of the day, the process up to that point is very in the moment.

I think of film photography as being deliberate vs reactive. Again, this is my opinion and not a reflection of everyone in the photography genre. With some exceptions, digital photography doesn't require many limits other than a memory card. You can take hundreds of pictures without much care knowing that later, you can sift through the images and hope at least a few are good.

With film photography, you are limited to the length of the roll in the camera and how many you have brought on your trip. You can take hundreds of photos with film, but it'll get costly quickly, not only with the film cost but also with the development and printing as desired. So, you tend to be a bit more deliberate with your images.

The Almost 365 Project – Black and White

So, as a challenge, back in October of 2024, I challenged myself to take a photograph every single day. As the title will suggest, that just has happened, of course. I will say that I take pictures almost every day.

By taking a photograph every single day, I have a lot of pictures. As stated before, developing by a film lab can get very expensive and have a slow turnaround. By avoiding a film lab, I needed to push myself to learn how to develop my film. So, all of the pictures you have seen as part of this project have been photographed by me, developed, scanned, and printed (though I am not posting my prints right now).

This project will run for a year, and I will try one or two different film types each month. My long-term goals are to get into medium- and large-format photography, so testing with 35mm cameras will be a bit cheaper in identifying my favorite film stocks.

As for why black and white, this is probably the easiest way to get into film development. Almost every forum post, website, and YouTube video says the same thing: that Black and White film development is very forgiving. No doubt I can learn to develop with color, but getting that base foundation in place is a key fundamental I don't want to skip. On top of that, I also enjoy the challenge of shooting black-and-white film photos for a year and teaching my brain to look for the light and dark areas, to look for those shadows and leading lines.

League of NH Craftsman

I wanted to touch on this since it aligns with some previous statements. The league requires you to own all the phases of anything you make. The NH Craftsman league has been part of the drive to learn all aspects of film photography so I can confidently go in with.

I'm not sure that this will be the project that gets me into the league, but having a good foundation for anything is a great start. The process does require me to be juried by my peers, so we shall see when I feel comfortable.

The first month's details

I have been shooting with a couple of film stocks for the first month of this project. I chose the Kodak TMAX 400 and Kodak P3200, shot at 800 ISO. There is no particular reason for starting here other than I already had some at home. Using these two film stocks pushed me to do more street-style photography due to its higher ISO rating.

I would say that, overall, I was happy with the quality of the images I got. The Kodak TMAX gave me a much higher quality image with minimal grain when compared to the Kodak P3200. The contrast between the light and darks was well done and has been pleasing to at least my eye.

Top Three Images

Stay Bad Ass – Portsmouth, New Hampshire

This image was a nice find and was spotted during my photography trip through Portsmouth, NH. I had wandered out of the city onto some side streets and saw this on someone's stoop. I just couldn't resist grabbing a quick snap. Along with taking the picture, I knew I didn't have long to grab a photo since it was someone's private property.

Dorm Room View – Keene, New Hampshire

The above photograph is a shot from my daughter's dorm room, and frankly, I was surprised at how well it came out. I was mainly trying to remember the stickers she put on the window. However, I was happy with its moodiness once I had developed and scanned the image. Getting the plants and a laptop in the picture helps add to the overall story of the image.

Tootsie Man Door – Milford, New Hampshire

Tootsie Man - Milford, New Hampshire — ***Shot Details***
**Camera:** Nikon F6
**Film:** Kodak P3200 (Shot at 800 ISO)
**Developer:** Kodak Xtol

I have shot this door many times, but this might be my favorite. What I am super impressed with is that the leaves add an element of mystery to the scene. Why does this door exist with the Tootsie man on it? I will not give the exact location of the door, and I need to leave a bit of mystery to where it is. The above photograph is a contender for probably my favorite image of the month and is what I envision as the typical black-and-white image.

The rest

For the rest of the images, you can get to the first months gallery here and see them in all their glory. I still have a lot of other photos that I am happy with, but I did want to call out a few of my favorites. I have a shot of my wife and daughter walking down the hallway during our family day in Keene a couple of street shots while I was in Hampton and Old Orchard Beach.

Parting Thoughts

I think this is it for now. There are two projects I am running, the other being a bit riskier, but more on that in a separate post. I thought about using YouTube for my updates, but I am not sure that is the best platform for me. I have tried to make a channel or two over the years with almost no luck. But as I have seen the changes to the platform, you are beholden to their algorithm but more to their design choices. Sure, I have some of the same problems with a blog, but I'll have more search engines to route me some traffic.

But as I said earlier, I am free to make my own decisions here; frankly, I am a photographer, not a video or sound editor. Anything that distracts me from my travels in photography is just not worth it. I'll never be as big as other photographers, but that is okay. Photography is my enjoyment and I want to focus on creating works of art, not videos for views and clicks.

Till next time,

The GenX Photo Guy

In the Beginning, there was a Photographer