The joy of an old film camera

So, I’ve been back from Australia for quite a while, and have gone back to a full-time job. Any signs of creativity seem long gone, but that’s something I want to try and work on. Creative outlets are meant to be good for you, right?

A few months ago I was at my Mum’s for a long weekend and she suggested we have a clear out. What she likely meant was, that I’ve taken over a few wardrobes, despite having not lived there for about seven years. While creating the “charity shop pile” I did stumble upon a film camera. A Yashica T3 if anyone is into that sorta thing. I remember this camera from my childhood. It was my Dad’s, so I instantly found myself very protective of it. I had wanted to play with film photography for a little while, so I figured I’d take it back to London and try and get it working. Also Google suggested the Yashica had grown a cult following so this wasn’t going on eBay…

Getting it working, was incredibly easy. It needed a new battery from Amazon and 35mm film. When I went to put film in the camera, I realised there was still a roll of film in there. Oh mystery! Whatever was on this roll of film, had potentially been sat there since 2006. I figured I’d give it a go, but I did mean that I wasn’t convinced any of the pictures would come out. Googling told me that film starts to degrade, and anything over ten years would be a bonus if it developed.

I dragged the camera to Canterbury, Basingstoke, and around Notting Hill. I won’t spoil the locations of each photo. But hey - the film developed, and this is the best of what came out!

What mysteries were on the film? A family trip to Dubai, from 2006. It makes complete sense, (the photos are pretty bad!) I have a vague memory of my Dad giving me this camera while he played with (what was then) his new digital camera. What is wild, is I’d never believe that fourteen year old me, would be snapping away terrible photos of the Burj Al Arab, to then pick the same camera up, and snap her boyfriend in her kitchen, eighteen years later. Yep - the film kept for 18 years! You can see it’s aged, but still - it’s pretty cool.