I got my first roll of film back from the lab today! Actually, no, that's not quite right. I guess I mean my first roll of 35mm film in a long time. I haven't shot 35mm in ages. I still have my AE-1 (which actually has a roll of film in it) but I also got a Canon Elan 7E a few months ago. This is a film SLR on which I can use all the lenses that I own for my digital cameras. It also has controls very similar to my digital Canons, which makes (easily confused) Amy's life much easier. It even has eye-controlled focus points (why this isn't on DSLRs from Canon, I'll never know) but I haven't activated that yet because what if it scans my retinas and knows my thoughts???!!! You cannot see your photos on the back of the camera when you shoot film (no...I didn't try to look...why do you ask?) BUT you do have the fun anticipation of waiting for your film to come back! It's like Christmas in August! Of course the first roll I sent out is (a) black and white and (b) is full of photos of Carlos surfing. These are all my favorite things. No lie, I shot this roll of 24 exposures in approximately 8 minutes flat. There's no way I could afford to shoot film full time. However, when I got the negatives and scans back, I was reminded why I loved film, especially black and white film, all those years ago. It's beautiful. It doesn't even have to try. It just comes out perfect. You don't have to convert digital files to black and white. You don't have to add grain. It just IS beautiful. And that makes me think I need to sell a kidney so that I can afford to buy and process lots more film. Check out some shots from the roll below. This was a tiny day in July at Matunuck when Carlos had brought a young friend out to learn to surf. The film is Ilford Delta 400.