An Essay & Some Film Scans

Looking up at a pale sky, with green leafy branches at top left and a dark red roof edge at bottom left. On the right, the ribbed, curved wall of a brown building sweeps up toward the corner.

Hello hello,

Thank you to everyone who replied to last month’s edition of C’Mon C’Mon and confirmed that you received the newsletter. Things seem to be working as expected. I’ve officially cancelled my Buttondown sub. I still love the service and wholeheartedly recommend it to anyone who wants to start a newsletter. For me, self-hosting CC makes more sense. It gives me much more control over how the newsletter works in the background. It also lets me dial in the look and feel of these emails much more easily. I’m excited to mess around with the styling for CC in the coming months!

How’s everyone been? It’s been another intense work month but things seem to be calming down now. I have a week off coming soon that I’m really looking forward to. I’ll be disconnecting from work and spending time catching up with some friends, reading, watching movies, spinning vinyl, and having delicious coffee. What are you looking forward to in the coming weeks?

The Joy of Finiteness

I’ve had a blog post simmering inside me for a few months. I finally sat down and got it out of my system. The post explores how the finiteness of things can be a source of joy. I talk more about this by examining my YouTube consumption habits.

An except:

I now open YouTube and land directly on my subscriptions page. I pick a recently uploaded video to watch. Once the video finishes, nothing autoplays. The video player just goes black. That’s my cue to go back and pick another video. I repeat this a few times to catch up on new uploads. Then, I close the website and I’m done. If I get the urge to open YouTube again, I return to the subscriptions page and more often than not, I am already caught up on everything. I close the website and get on with my day.

Go read the whole thing and then come back to continue reading.

Less is More

Another place where I’ve found finiteness sparks joy is in film photography. Ever since I got my GR1 back in June, I shot almost exclusively on film. While many love film for its dreamy imperfections, what I love most is the limited number of shots you get on each roll.

You load up a new roll. You get 36 to 40 shots. There is no burst mode. You can’t hold the shutter button down and fire off ten photos of the same pose. You have to instead be thoughtful and choose your shot wisely. You take your time with each shot. You slow down. I love this slowness.

A bonus benefit of this is that during post-processing you have a limited number of photos to work with. This is in stark contrast to what shooting digital is like. I’ve had many instances where I took my digital camera out for a day and came back with a crap ton of photos to sift through. With the GR1, it is nearly impossible to do this.

I recently got back three rolls of film back from the lab. I did something new this time. I asked them to scan the rolls with two different scanners. The lab recently acquired a Fuji Frontier and I wanted to see how it compares to the Noritsu (what I usually use).

Some of my favorite shots from the recent set of scans:

A quiet paved courtyard in daylight, bordered by dense green trees and shrubs. Two large terracotta jars stand against the foliage. The edge of a curved, slatted building wall cuts in at the top right, and the corner of a cushioned chair shows at bottom left.

A cobblestone plaza at night, dark apart from a glowing bollard light in the foreground. A white hatchback is parked on the left, and street lamps and a pale open pavilion glow in the background.

A man in a black graphic T-shirt and white trousers stands barefoot in a shoe store, looking down at a sneaker in his hand. Shelves of white and colorful sneakers line the wall beside him, lit by warm strips of light. A yellow-and-black pair sits on the floor near a red tufted bench, and a shoebox lies open on the ground.

Few shots comparing the two scanners:

Film photo of a large cumulus cloud rising behind a stone-clad building, with a few birds in flight. Noritsu scan: deeper, cooler blue-grey sky with crisp white clouds, more contrast, and grainy, moody tones. — Noritsu

Film photo of a large cumulus cloud rising behind a stone-clad building, with a few birds in flight. Frontier scan: pale, hazy sky with a yellow-green cast in the cloud and a soft, washed-out, dreamy feel. — Frontier

Film photo of a cluster of glowing white paper lantern lights hanging from a ceiling, with hanging plants and a green leaf-print curtain. Noritsu scan: darker, amber-orange glow with heavier, muted shadows and a grainy, dusky feel. — Noritsu

Film photo of a cluster of glowing white paper lantern lights hanging from a ceiling, with hanging plants and a green leaf-print curtain. Frontier scan: luminous, punchy yellow-gold light with vivid deep-green leaves and clean shadows. — Frontier

Film photo of an empty glass and a small floral plate with two spoons on a round table, with carved wooden doors and sunlit windows behind. Noritsu scan: darker and moodier, with warm olive-brown shadows, a greyer, more muted tablecloth print, and visible grain. — Noritsu

Film photo of an empty glass and a small floral plate with two spoons on a round table, with carved wooden doors and sunlit windows behind. Frontier scan: bright and airy, with clean cream tones, blue-green leaf prints on the tablecloth, and glowing, slightly blown-out windows. — Frontier

Fascinating to see how the same shot, scanned differently, produces different vibes. I thought I’d prefer one scanner over the other but I like them both! My wallet said ouch as I typed that.

That’s all for this month. My work break is around the corner and I’m looking forward to some much needed rest and recovery. Hope you are doing well too. See you next time!

More soon,