Date: April 2025
Cameras: Canon FT-QL with original 50mm/1.8f lens (Me), Kodak EKTAR H35 (Wifey)
Film: Kodak Color Plus 200, Fuji Film 400, Kodak T-Max 400
This was my first time working with black and white and I am very happy with how most of those shots developed. My little light meter from Reflx Lab has made a world of difference, highly recommend. Compared to my Italy shots where I was measuring by gut feeling this little guy saved me so much film and heartbreak.
The weather during all three locales of our trip were very overcasty to sunny, outside of the shots at Dover which was rainy and cold and I thought they were goners but turns out they are some of my favorites.
This was my second time to Paris and London but I still felt like a stranger and could only remember parts of my trip back in the late 2000s. I vividly remember: the Mona Lisa being way smaller so she must’ve grown, no one looking at Nike, putting on costumes at an empty British Museum with my cousin, sitting nearly courtside with my Grandmother during the Juniors tourney at Wimbledon, Notre Dame and climbing all those stairs to the top.
This time felt new but different, I keep thinking about this concept we created during movie night in our household when watching movies that pre-date 9/11. If we don’t know the year of the film we can tell if it’s before or after 9/11/2001 just because of the sheen or glimmer it gives off. Almost like movies before then had this ethereal glow, but, you know, it could be because it’s Meg Ryan, but then you watch 2002 Spider Man and, while a fantastic movie, you can tell something is off everyone feels like we’ve all been affected by something. Maybe it’s just me but that similar feeling striked me during our trip.
A growing theme is playing out on our vacations together. We always choose a place during the trip that gets quiet. And man, Sacy outside of Reims was dang quiet. Our legs were demolished by the 15 miles walking around Paris in 2 days, so we soaked in a Nordic bath overlooking the tiny village. It’s nice to able to have both the environment around you and your own brain get quiet together. My brain is overactive most of the time, and the tinnitus doesn’t help, but it was nice to be able to sit and listen to my own breathing and the sound of vineyards growing to help remind me that while life seems to go by quickly it can really crawl by as well.
W Is For Will 
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