wanting to be creative during the last two and a half months has been a challenge. being without so much is discouraging and draining, especially for a busy-minded creative like me. i struggled with how to express this for several weeks and kept myself entertained by re-editing old photos, but i finally settled on starting a new project: something I had never done before, but had wanted to learn for a long time.

i’ve always heard about how shooting film is an experience that makes a photographer in the age of digital cameras into a better, more analytic shooter. i wanted to try this for myself and see if film could stand up to digital photography, and as an added challenge, i wanted to develop my own work.

so, i dumped some money into supplies and i started shooting…and i haven’t really stopped for the last month or so. shooting film has been exciting, new and inspirational. it’s refreshed my creative energy more than i thought, and it’s been a challenge that’s been fun to learn how to navigate.

developing the rolls i shot created an even more special connection to this art for me—it became my project and my work from start to finish.

for my first major project, i decided to express the ways i’ve been feeling for the last few months in a moody roll of black and white Kodak Tri-X 400. i pushed the ISO +1 stop to 800 because i heard the contrast and shadows deepened, and i couldn’t have been more pleased with the results.

i hope you enjoy these photos of the places i usually visit often being empty and still find the beauty in them, just like i did.