Charlotte Makes Photos

Since the festivities we were planning on taking in on Saturday weren’t scheduled to begin until noon, Kathleen and I took the opportunity in the mid-morning to get our weekend errands done.

Notwithstanding the disappointment I knew I was going to be developing with the photos from the Trans March on Friday evening, in a fit of what I can only describe as hubris — or perhaps destructive insouciance — that morning, I loaded a twenty-years expired 220 roll of Agfa Optima 400 into my Mamiya C220, intending to use it to make photos at that afternoon’s Dyke March.

…and almost as soon as I had it loaded¹, I thought better of using it for those purposes. A heavy and not-so-quick to focus camera while in the midst of a sea of other women seeking out clever signs and interesting moments felt like a bit of a bad idea. I decided to bring it out on our little chore loop instead and am glad that I did.

Instead, I would leave recording the March to the spritely and unobtrusive Canon EOS Kiss Lite.

1. Incorrectly. Agfa thoughtfully provided two loading lines on their 220 film: one for normal cameras and one for “specialized equipment.” Of course, for most of us, cameras that support 220 at all are somewhat uncommon. I chose the “specialized equipment” line, which was wrong, and I lost two frames of the 24 I would have had. Live and learn! I have one more roll, so will know to load it to the regular camera line, whether it goes into the Mamiya for Fuji G690BL. ↩︎