When I was girl, as young as 7 or 8 years old, I would tinker with my parents' old film camera. I recall going to Yosemite in the 3rd grade and taking pictures of the squirrels and blue jays that I was feeding. My family had a storage ottoman full of photo albums, which I treasured dearly, so the process of taking these pictures and developing them to add to the albums was truly a treat.
As the digital age began to rise and film development faded out of most stores, I lost touch with my interest in film. That is, until recently, when I picked up a couple of disposable Fujifilm cameras in the winter of 2022 and was tasked to use the Kodak Ektar H35 half-frame camera a few months later for my anthropology class in the summer of 2023. And so, my love of film has been revived, and I find much joy in the surprise and the happy accidents that come from this media that is reminiscent of my youth.
