In Development: Adventures in Film, Volume Fifteen

It’s odd to be writing posts for images that I took almost a year ago. Yes, I’m that far behind with this In Development series… Reflecting on and writing about these last couple rolls of film have been particularly odd because they were taking in my first few weeks of living in Omaha. I moved here with Christina about a year ago, and when I go on photo walks these days I see the city so differently than I did when I first arrived. Everything was new then, and I soaked up the details of the dumpsters and how the color palettes of the bricks on the road differed from the bricks on the buildings. It’s hard to maintain that beginner’s eye for the details, and after a while your city starts to feel stale. It’s a never-ending battle to fight off this staleness…

Oddly enough, I may not have to fight the staleness in Omaha too much longer. It seems likely that we’ll be moving again in the next few months, and that realization has renewed my vigor for shooting Omaha. I feel a sense of desperation to capture the city as much as I can before I leave. It’s the same feeling of desperation that you get when you’re on vacation and you want to soak up ever little bit of the experience and preserve it in your memories. When I go out to shoot these days, I have the desperation but not the beginner’s eye. It’s difficult to create new images on the streets you’ve walked hundreds of times before…even if you’re looking for that newness. Hopefully looking through my year-old images of the city and reflecting on them will provide the extra spark I need…

All photos were taken with my Mamiya 7 II and the 80mm f/4 lens or the 43mm f/4.5 lens on Ilford HP5+ shot at ISO 800 and pushed one stop. They were developed and scanned by Richard Photo Labs, and I made some contrast and exposure adjustments in Lightroom. Enjoy!