This is a session of a different nature.

To begin with, Thao and Dan were my first “real” clients, i.e., strangers that hired me. I remember their engagement session as one where I totally had no idea what I was doing, but we rolled with it, tried different things, and came up with some great photos (some shots from their session are still in my portfolio!). They’ll always hold a special place in my heart for taking a chance on me, so when I heard they were coming to town for a weekend this summer, I thought I’d see if they were up for taking another chance.

Which brings me to this shoot.

I love film. I love the mystery of not knowing what photos you took until weeks after a shoot. I love the colors, and maybe most of all, I adore the feel of old, heavy cameras. The problem is that when I shoot film, I strongly gravitate toward vintage cameras and expired film. Most of my cameras have something wrong with them, or no light meter, or even no manual controls. As such, shooting film for an actual shoot, as opposed to just purely personal photos, terrifies me because it’s so unpredictable. But, I have been dying to do a low-pressure session with film, so I was thrilled when Thao and Dan took me up on my offer to do a mainly film shoot. I brought along a bunch of random old cameras and film, as well as one digital camera, and we shot away until the sun went down.

And it was a blast, as I knew it would be. I’m definitely not winning any awards as a film photographer, but it was nice to push myself to do something I was scared to do.

So, in summary, hooray for doing something different, and a high-five to Thao and Dan for once again believing in me. Oh, and another round of high-fives for them always being freakin’ adorable in front of my camera.