Slump

 There are only three photos so far in my September folder. I made them on a walk early in the month with the Nikon D850 and they are just variations on photos I've made before. Though, dare I say, they are slightly better than previous versions.

Other than a couple of iPhone snapshots I took to send to friends, that's all I have on the computer right now. I have five rolls of film waiting to be sent off after the harvest festival holiday, but I'm pretty sure there's not much on them. Snapshots, mostly. Underexposed photos of the cat, shaky photos from when I didn't have much light, and so on. Maybe I'll be surprised. Maybe I will weep for the wasted film and money.

The reason I've made so few photos is that I'm in a bit of a slump. I'm tired of all the places within bicycle range, I'm dissatisfied with digital photos, and a new semester of online classes has sapped my energy. I think there are solutions to these problems - buy a car, think of a new way to photograph the same things, use more film (which I did, but not well or seriously), and create a better schedule for work that will give me more energy for the things I enjoy. However, I don't want to buy a car and maybe I'm not creative enough to have new perspectives on old subjects.

But I decided that I can work on my photography skills during this down time. I could do that on a digital camera, but the most challenging and satisfying way to improve my skills might be slide film. There's no room for mistakes in exposure and the cost will make me careful. My plan for forcing myself to compose carefully is to have photos printed straight from the film with no cropping or levelling by me in computer. Iron-man photography.

But.

I have a roll of Ektachrome in the camera now and it's about half used. I enjoy setting up the camera on a tripod and being very careful about everything, but every time I press the shutter release button I think about how expensive it's going to be to have the film developed. And how much the film itself costs. A roll of Ektachrome costs about 28,000 Won and development is 6,000 Won. Compare to a roll of Ektar negative film which costs 19,000 Won, but is easy to find on sale for about 15,000 or a bit lower. Development costs 3,000 Won. Half the price of slide film. Slide film is lovely stuff, but next year I will very likely be unemployed and won't have much money for luxuries (the missus is working, so I won't starve).  After I use up my two rolls of Ektachrome I think I will try some Ektar to see how it compares. And I'll be careful with exposure and framing, just as I would with the Ektar. I've used it in the past with poor results, but that may have been my fault. Or the lab's fault? Maybe I can also start comparing labs. Well, we'll see. Whatever film I choose, I can probably afford one roll a week. And there's always digital if I can't afford that . . . .

Although I'm tired of going to the same places over and over, yesterday I found a new location with some potential. I took a taxi to the Obong Reservoir, but it turned out to be very un-photogenic.  Not only that, the weather forecast said the afternoon would be cloudy, but almost as soon as I arrived the clouds parted and the sun came out in full force. Bugger. I decided to go home so I walked to a bus stop. The first bus that showed up wasn't going straight back to Gangneung. It was going out into the countryside and then returning. Not having anything else to do, I decided to have a little bus tour of Wangsan Township. Well! What a lovely place up in the mountains it is. It's an alpine valley with mountains, houses, fields, and a stream. The last bus stop is near a temple. When the weather is decent again, I plan to take the bus to the last stop and then walk back towards Gangneung. Maybe I'll find some good scenes to photograph, and even if I don't, I'll have had a pleasant walk. And maybe it'll take me out of my slump.

Here's hoping.