Much like my late entry for #BIFscale16, I am late turning in my Expired Film Day (EFD) photos. To explain what that is, here’s a quote from the EFD website:
Expired Film Day celebrates the joys of using film whose Use-By date has (preferably long-since) passed. One of the particular pleasures of being a film-using photographer in these modern times is the abundance of expired-but-still-probably-pretty-good film on the market, found in grandparents’ attics or at thrift stores, or sourced from the freezers of pros who’ve gone digital.
Expired film can be unpredictable: if you know how it was stored, it might be easy to compensate for its age, if that’s even necessary. If you don’t, your results could range from dark, to flat, to color-shifted and beyond. Many people today say the potential unpredictability of using film is part of what draws them to it over digital; using expired film takes the existing unpredictability of using film and compounds it.
I am no stranger to expired film. I probably like using it more than I should. I didn’t have to purposely buy out-of-date film in order to participate in Expired Film Day, because my fridge’s crisper drawer is usually well-stocked with several varieties. I was actually surprised I was able to take part in EFD, which took place on March 15, because I worked 9 hours that day. I thought my best chance of finishing a roll would be to shoot a roll of 120 in my Yashica-Mat, because that way I would only need to mange to take 12 photos instead of the 24-36 photos I’d have to take if I were using 35mm instead.
The film I chose was a roll of Fujichrome 64T slide film, which I would have cross-processed by the photo lab. I don’t know what the expiration date on it is, but judging from the results I got the previous time I shot a roll from the same batch of 64T, I figured it was WELL expired and probably not stored in good conditions. The results did not disappoint, since my expectations were that the results wouldn’t be predictable!
A 1959 Ford I photographed a couple of times for my daily photo project
Child’s chair
My dog Dilly, taking a nap
Mother’s things
“Lookin’ out my back door” (sorry, had to do it)
Heels (my fave shot from this batch)
Yashica-Mat • Fujichrome 64T, expiration date unknown • Cross-processed
And there ya have it! I hope Expired Film Day is an annual occurrence from now on and that I’ll be able to participate in it in a more timely manner next time!
