First roll of film // Baraboo family photographer

One of my goals for this winter is to start shooting film again for my personal work. And I have to say, when I loaded that roll of Kodak Portra and head that first ker-chunk of the frame advancing, I got a little tear in my eye and a big grin on my face.

It transported me to my days as a middle schooler, putting rolls of black and white film in my dad’s 35mm and taking photos of the flowers on our dining room table, or my cats, or my mom, or whoever would tolerate me as their photographer.

It took me back to the times I brought my own film camera to Europe, and rediscovered Montmartre in Paris or the Greek Isles in 4×6 glossy form — a bittersweet surprise as I sat on the bench in front of Ritz Camera in the mall, not able to wait until I got home to rifle through the envelope of prints.

And it reminded me of the many, many rolls of film I used to capture my boys when they were young.

Digital photography is great — perfect in many ways.

A little too perfect at times. Too sharp. Too refined. Oftentimes too retouched and recolored and re-imagined to try to make  people — and life itself — something they’re not.

There’s an authenticity to film, which is what I strive for when photographing my own family.

Anyway, I’m pretty excited to be starting this journey again — challenging myself to get better at my craft and finding a new way to find joy in photography.

And for the record, I’ll take credit for the first three of these kiddos. The fourth is my friend Kate’s darling chubby bebe Lincoln. If he ever gets babynapped you should probably question me first, because I love me some Lincoln.