My First Film Roll (Titusville & More)

*drops a slide projector^[1] on the table with an audible thunk*

lets begin!

so I picked up film photography recently, mostly on the back of finding and purchasing a Weird Little Guy

This brick of a camera is a Ricoh Mirai^[2] 105, a successor? product line sibling? to the plain Ricoh Mirai, which once popped up in the hands of a henchman in Batman (1989). I picked this up on pure vibes; I had no idea what batteries it needed, if those batteries were still made, and I even managed to overlook the massive crack on the front bezel. I justified it on the lines that it's "viewfinder from a budget science fiction film" looks would earn it a spot as a shelf decoration even if it was a lemon. However, thankfully, it did work! Two comically patriotic batteries and a roll of film later, I was shooting!

Aside from some test shots that mostly didn't turn out and are all of my own house, my first real trial run was while on a trip to Titusville to meet a friend of mine, Lupi.

Going to go over these shots in blocks of four. Basically all of these turned out pretty well, though not all of them make the cut as the 'cream of the crop'. My kinda 'documentarian' photography style is showing through here, all but the Hotpoint shot are technically competent- clear, sharp, good colors, etc, but they lack a certain je nais se quois that makes me happy with them. Though I feel better about the first and last shots the more I look at them, but they're still 'flatter' shots.

The church spire I'm pretty happy with. The colors against the sky turned out pretty great, and it 'pops' pretty well. The pedestrian signal taking a chunk out of the corner isn't ideal, but it doesn't ruin the shot. With similar themes of imperfection, I really love the 2nd shot with the Cuban bakery, but it's marred slightly by some lightening in the corner. Light leak? flaw in the film? not sure, but I'd like to reshoot this sometime. The Sherwin Williams sign- hanging over a former hardware store, and featuring their slightly ominous "Cover The Earth" slogan, came out very well. The shot after it, featuring the finely appointed Walker Apartments (1924), was honestly taken to use the camera's zoom lens to try and get a decent shot of the new faux-neon styled sign, but it actually turned out really nice. 

This first shot is the only one I took inside the museums we visited, and it shows one of the camera's flaws- the flash loves to trigger in anything that isn't direct sunlight, and I think the button to turn it off is busted. The rest of these photos all turned out pretty nicely, featuring buildings around the edges of downtown including the former FEC Railroad Station (1925), the Hill Hotel & Apartments (1926), and the Hill Grocery & Lunch Store (1905)

After splitting paths from my new friend, I drove up to the Titusville (formerly Searstown) Mall, which I wasn't even sure was open, but if it was, figured it's barely touched vintage decor would make good film photography subjects. While I think that's true, the flash issue reared it's ugly head again, and the flash forced itself to fire for every shot except the last one where I was pointed towards the sunny entrance windows (and that one ended up blurred anyways). This camera and my 200 speed film really struggled here, and the flash issues made me feel like an idiot in public, but I think the first two shots are at least salvageable. The last two highlight an issue I also run into with my digital photography- stop being so jumpy, and just hold the camera still for a second. 

I call this set of four "I tried to get kinda pretentious, and it kinda didn't work". Aside from some overexposure in the first shot, and some tilting in the rest, these all came out in focus and all that, but none of them really hit like I wanted. The first photo, I thought that the "PATIO DEPOT" labelscar on the awning, contrasted with the banner for a new vape store, was a nice dichotomy that kinda represented how this area had changed. Moving away from it's traditional retiree, beach life vibe to more young people and more practical stores. But I think the store itself is a little too uninteresting. Weirdly, I like it more as a thumbnail- if I pull up the full photo, I like it less.

The rest are 3 attempts at a similar shot, contrasting the 60s/70s-spec river-rock plyon sign against a background of new construction. Again, I think the subject matter just doesn't quite hit, I think it may have worked better if I waited a bit longer and let the apartments be more built, making for a more striking visual element, rather than just some partial elevator cores in a dirt field. 

The first shot here, of the famous Kissimmee gift shop wizard, was part of a failed photography trip. I intended to photograph more of the gift shops and tourist spots along US-192, but a lack of planning led to me kinda ambling around, and then it started to rain. I'm pretty happy with this shot, aside from the slightly uneven framing.

The 2nd is of a convenience store in Yeehaw Junction, Florida. It's a former branch of Stuckey's, a once-famous chain whose stores blanketed the Southern US, and who once employeed Bucee's esque "<x> miles to Stuckey's" signs along the highways. It stands in a sea of newer, cleaner travel centers and full size gas stations, and I've always liked it. I'm pretty happy with this shot.

The last two are of a former restaurant and plumbers that I featured in my last post about Lake Wales. These shots are nearly identical to my digital ones, and I mostly wanted to see if the "vibes' were better on film. I think I like the first photo slightly more on film, but the second, take it or leave it. It was a worthwhile experiment.

The first shot in this set, I took advantage of the zoom lens and tried for some creative framing. It came out alright, though I did still catch some of the chain link fence at the very bottom of the frame. The rest of the photos are of a honey store on FL-60 on the edge of Lake Wales. It was a very weird store- barely any parking, and what there was, was awkwardly taken up by one car who just barely overlapped into the other, non-disabled spot, so I pulled off to the side (that's my silver nugget at the corner of the frame). Despite the building's size, the retail area is tiny, smaller than my bedroom and quite narrow, holding only one set of shelves with some bottles of honey for sale- cash only. Sparsely stocked, as well, I feel the "Car Load" advertised on the side is no longer an option. It felt very much like a place that was once much nicer, but had fallen from grace a bit. The oddly religious anti-shoplifting sign in the door, shown in the final shot on the roll, didn't help the distinctly Off vibes. 

That wraps my first roll of film! As of writing this, I have 3 more rolls on order, which I'll be taking with me on an upcoming roadtrip, provided I don't burn through them around here first. I'm greatly enjoying my time with film, and I hope my banged up Mirai holds out for a while longer yet. 

[1] the fact these are negatives and not slide film is inconsequential to this narrative device
[2] Japanese for 'Mirai' and a popular choice for naming self-styled 'futuristic' devices (see also: Toyota Mirai)