Expired Film Day

There is a cool opportunity to use expired film. All film photographers have some, and you know you want to use it.  I learned about Expired Film Day (EFD) through my film photography contacts on Twitter. Cool, this will be fun.  It was scheduled for March 15^th. Guess what; because I’m newly retired from corporate life I had time to do the event. Also one of the sponsors is Used Photo Pro, which is my local camera store, Robert Camera’s used camera business.

I had quite a few rolls of expired film.  All types, including Ilford HP5+, Kodak Max, Kodak Ektachrome, Tri-X, etc.  Mainly 35mm but a few rolls of 120.  I was ready to go, but I still purchased about a dozen rolls of expired film from Roberts Camera.  They were selling it for $3/roll.

On EFD the weather was pretty bad.  It was very cold and it was fairly overcast at the beginning of the day.  I normally shoot street photography style using lots of shadows when not in the studio. I figured the weather would not be conducive to this style.  Also, the weather combined with being in the middle of the week meant there weren’t many people on the city streets.  No problems I did mainly architectural / urban landscape styled photography.

I used the following cameras:

• Yashica MAT 124G, a classic 120 TLR
• Canon AE-1
• Canon EOS Elan II, my most contemporary SLR
• Ricoh FF-1s, a stealthy rangefinder

I shot the following film:

• Ektachrome 160T, expired 1992
• Ektachrome 160T, expired 1991
• Kodak Gold 200, expired 2002 (4 rolls)
• Kodak TMax 400 Pro, expired 2003
• Fujicolor Superia X-TRA, expired 2007
• Ilford HP5+ 400, expired 2004
• Kodacolor II C120 ASA80, expired 1997
• Kodak Tri-X pan 120, expired 1989

Shoot day was fun.  Cold and overcast during the morning and then cold & bright in the afternoon.  I spent about 6-7 hours in and around city parks and then downtown.  Basically, just walking around after parking my car.  I used one camera at a time.  Most of my shots were of urban landscapes and buildings / architecture.  Closer to 5pm I was able to photograph some people in the street, which is what I enjoy most.  At one point I sat by a window in Starbucks and photographed people walking by outside.

Next step is to develop the film and post online.  Can’t wait to see the photos and do it again next year.

Videos from the day: