260 Rolls in 2022
You may ask yourself, "What is that beautiful house?"
You may ask yourself, "Where does that highway go to?"
And you may ask yourself, "Am I right, am I wrong?"
And you may say to yourself, "My God, what have I done?"
—The Talking Heads
I shot and developed 260 rolls of film in 2022. That works out to 5 rolls per week.
5 rolls per week. Yes. FIVE.
How did this happen?
Was this some insane quest like Don Quixote and his windmills?
At the start of 2022 this wasn’t in my plans, but let me explain how I got here.
In late 2021 I joined a Facebook group entitled “The Photo Game”, which was ran by photographer Kenneth Wajda. The premise of the group was that Kenneth gave a theme or “assignment” on Saturday morning at 8am, and you had until 8am the next Saturday to shoot, develop, and submit your film photo(s) that satisfied the theme.
This was a great source of inspiration for me as it made me get out there and shoot even if I didn’t want to, and shoot for themes that I wouldn’t think of on my own. I was still shooting for myself every week on top of the challenge, so shooting 2-3 rolls a week for the challenge, plus whatever I was shooting anyway, meant my # of rolls per week went up quite a bit.
To be perfectly honest, I really didn’t notice the uptick in quantity at first. I was developing film every week anyway so adding in a few rolls after set-up and sleeving/scanning them didn’t seem like THAT much more effort.
Winter turned into early Spring, and I started getting out even more. Including a trip to Hocking Hills where I hiked several miles a day with my Hasselblad 500C/M, coming home with over a dozen rolls to process.
Then the Photo Game challenge in early April was “Stepping Out, into the Night”, which caused me to be out and about in downtown Dayton during some very early morning hours when no one was out and about. This isn’t new territory for me at all, being something that I really enjoy but sort of dropped it due to Covid 19. Being out in the city and observing the way light told a story somehow really clicked with me. Pun intended.
At that time I was looking for a project, but had not quite formulated what that would be. I knew that I enjoyed being out in the city and suburbs when few people were stirring, and observing some quiet moments that otherwise go un-noticed. Things finally came into place for me when out shooting for the “Light” challenge at the end of April. I started just specifically looking for light, its sources, and stories that it told.
After that, I started moving into the suburbs and shooting several times a week in the very early morning hours., with my Mamiya C220 and Kodak Ektar film. This is when the “Light at the Edge” project was born.
Light at the Edge turned into a major project for me this year, and is ongoing into 2023. I applied for a solo show at Sinclair College for 2023, and should hear back about that later this month. As it is, several images from this project have been featured in local shows, the most current one being the “Here and Now “ show at Pyramid Hill Sculpture Museum.
So by mid-Summer, I was shooting film for the Photo Challenge, the Light at the Edge project, and also while out and about - hiking, shooting with friends, etc. I was also shooting digital for my wildlife and theater/musical work.
Cincinnati Skyline - Fuji GX617, Kodak Ektar film
Something had to give unfortunately. The Photo Challenge had done what it was intended to do - motivate me to eventually start a full-blown project. So at the end of June I had to drop out from the challenge. I’m not good at being a quitter.
Fall this year saw me make two trips to Hocking Hills. One with some fellow photographers, and one with Renee to hike and just escape for a while in a cabin. That was another 15 rolls worth of images shot on my Hasselblad 500C/M and Nikon F80.
I typically shoot about 100-150 rolls per year, but this year seemed to be a lot more. I don’t keep track of the rolls I shoot usually, but I noticed my 2022 negative binder starting to get really full in October, and realized I had ordered a bit more developing chemicals this year. I have a ton of film stockpiled in its own specific refrigerator so I didn’t really purchase a lot more film this year. So I counted the sleeved rolls of film in the binder and realized I was on track to probably shoot 250+ rolls of film for the year.
I didn’t really change my shooting habits after that. I kept shooting film for my personal projects and digital for theater/events/wildlife. And before I knew it, it was late December and I was at 258 rolls, with only 2 more to go to get to 260 and the magic “5 rolls per week” average.
The last two rolls are drying right now in my bathroom.
So, what does 260 rolls in a year mean? Other than I am crazy and also maybe not good at realizing a trend?
Not a lot, really. It’s quality over quantity after all. But I can tell you that shooting so much on film this year, especially with only 3 cameras for the most part, meant that I really came to know my tools and my craft at a level where things just seemed second nature to me.
What does that mean for 2023? I’m not really certain if I want to set a goal higher than 260 as it just doesn’t make sense. Stay tuned.
Thanks for reading! If you have any thoughts or questions, or maybe your own story regarding how many rolls you shot in 2022, I’d love to hear it.
Jeremy