For as nice as Sunday was, the weather on Monday was even nicer. With a high in the low 20s, beautiful sun, and the city’s good mood maintained, I was anxious to get out after work to make some photos and participate in the annual #️⃣FolderWeek on Bluesky. As soon as 3 o’clock hit and my shift was over, I fed the cat, loaded the Konica Pearl with a roll of Fuji Acros, and set out into the bright and beautiful sun.

…you can almost feel it coming…

Not only can you tell whether or not you're in the mood to make photos while you're making them, but you can also tell whether or not you were in the mood after you've developed them too. 😬

— Charlotte ♥ (@lottiejoy.ca) April 29, 2026 at 4:15 PM

…and there was …nothing. No inspiration, no sense of wanting to make photos. Just me with my little Pearl open and ready and there was nothing that inspired me. Nothing that caught my eye. Wanting to participate in this fun little week that celebrates old folding cameras¹, I decided to sort of force myself to make photos.

This is never a recipe for success and, well, the results had a little bit of everything that could go wrong:

• Bad composition? ✅
• Overexposure? ✅
• Overdevelopment? ✅
• Bubbles from development? ✅

So, while I really enjoy participating the various hashtag camera and film weeks online, I don’t know if it is especially advantageous for me to force things.

Especially when I knew almost right away that when I got outside that I must have left whatever inspiration I had at home, had been a little distracted throughout the day thanks to a sharp dose of BadBrain and being a little resentful of the errands I had to run.

…mostly because the weather was lovely, I was wanted to revel in the freedom of a summer dress. I was not at all interested bringing my backpack. Which just meant that as I crossed items from my list, I juggled increasingly weighty tote bags and a camera with no strap.

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1. This particular Pearl was manufactured in 1956, so nearing the end of folding cameras being quite common. I chose not to use my oldest one, a No. 1 Autographic Kodak Jr., which dates from around 1913. ↩︎