I have been anxiously awaiting this response from our lab and cannot wait to get the scans back from my first two rolls of film. I have to admit, I am also expecting some sort of email that says "Mr. Neumayr, please call us about your most recent order," then I call them and they tell me how everything is overexposed or not in focus or just total junk.

Ideally, I think my photos will look like this...

But I am fully prepared for them to look like this...

Either too dark or way overexposed.

I almost just took the film to a local drugstore to get it developed, so I wouldn't have big time professionals that see amazing art come through every day and then be taken back by my "approach" to film photography.

Even if the pictures are less than ideal, I have still learned so much by just shooting two rolls of film. First, it was very hard and took a lot of time for me to shoot those two rolls. Since I couldn't see a digital display on the back of my camera with instant results, I focused and refocused, I metered and re-metered. Then I took one single image and instinctively looked at the back of my camera to see what the image looked like, just to see a black back cover to the camera with no display.

My only idea of what the film scans are going to look like comes from the fact that I also took one of our digital cameras with me and shot an image digitally with the same settings of my film camera. I know that film and digital capture images slightly different, but since the images on the digital camera were inline with our style, I do have high hopes for my film images. The wait is what is killing me! 15 business days and I will know a little more :)

Just like when I learned how to shoot digitally, with my first two rolls of film I walked around our house and took pictures of everything around me. Trees, flowers, people, cattle, etc. It was a fun trip down memory lane, because I started to remember how I would shoot a series of images and then run to the computer to look at them. Then Cat and I would critique the images and go out for more trying to adjust certain elements to make sure that we were consistant and the images matched our style.

I have also noticed that after spending just a few hours with my 1V, I have slowed down a lot and have started to study how everything looks, both in my eyes and through the viewfinder. Now I am also much more particular when I shoot digitally which I am SO excited about! I know that sometimes I get in a groove and forget to just stand back and look at what is right infront of me.

So stay tuned! I will be sure to share updates as I can. For now, we just have to wait and hope that everything comes together like we hope it will!

Yesterday was a day of highs and lows. It seemed that each high got higher and each low was lower.

In all honesty, I have been thinking of the correct way to write the post for a day and a half. While I was sitting at the dining room table, watching Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives, and again while watering plants on the porch this morning.

Labeling yesterday as an emotional roller coaster is quite fitting. When the day ended it left Cat and I saying "What a day." What a day, indeed. Maybe it was just a typical Monday, maybe the moon and sun were out of alignment, regardless of the cause, I am glad that yesterday is behind us and we can wipe the slate clean for today.

While trying to think of how I wanted to describe our day, I curled up on the couch with the following quilt and started watching the DVR'd episode of Political Animals.

Towards the end, the Secretary of State said a quote that summed up our day beautifully. She said "People disappoint, hearts break, and dreams die, but you won't get to the next great moment if you don't keep going."

I watched that part over a few times and really let what she said sink in. Then I got to thinking that I am sure there is another high around the corner and if I kept focusing on the lows, I wouldn't get to enjoy our next "big thing."

I feel a little guilty that this post comes right after one that talks about how much we love our life. Truth be told, Cat and I would not change anything in our life, we think it is perfect. It is us. It is wonderful. It is ours. However, it does include ups and downs and it is how we deal with those times that makes us who we are.

So, if anyone who reads this had a Monday like we did, lets all meet at the refrigerator, grab a roll of chocolate chip cookie dough, and agree not to let it beat us down and charge forward to find out what awaits us down the road.

Off to find our next adventure!
Luke

We love our life. We truly do.

We always mention how we live "the good life." Sure, there are certain aspects we want to change, like our laundry piles, or the fact that we regularly wait so long to load the dishwasher that we run out of spoons , but in general we are pretty blessed.

We're going to try to blog more regularly about our life - just our life. Before we were wedding photographers, we had a blog that we posted in that was nothing but stories about our life. Now, our blog is mostly stuff about our business, whether it be telling wedding stories, mentorships, engagements, etc.

But I know that I connect most when I read blogs about people... not just pictures. Sooooo.... here's our first blog about 'the good life.'

"But I don't even know how to load film."

Can we admit that? Here we are, photographers. Yesterday, I couldn't wait any longer so I gave Luke his birthday present a whole month early. He was just like a kid on Christmas as he opened his gift and saw a black box with gold lettering that said, "Canon EOS 1V."

But then, doubts took their place.

"But I don't even know how to load film."

Thank goodness for instruction manuals and YouTube! A few minutes later, we were loaded up with Fuji 400H and were headed out the door with the new film camera.

I knew getting a film camera would be a great present for my partner in crime, because some of his favorite photographers to follow shoot on film. We have always shot on digital in our business, so as strange as it might sound, while film is an older medium, for us, it is brand new.

Luckily, I did quite a bit of research before choosing this camera (Canon's flagship film camera - first produced 10 years ago) and knew that a few things would be in our favor. First, it can use the same lenses as our other cameras we have (Canon 5D Mark II) and second, it looks almost the same.

Well.... almost. There's no viewfinder. After the first couple of shutter clicks, Luke had to stop himself from immediately turning and looking at the back of the camera to check how things looked.

Luckily, shooting a film camera in manual isn't much different at all than shooting a digital camera in manual. It took us quite a while to fill up that roll of 36 exposures, because each picture felt so *important.* It's not like our digital cameras where we take a test shot, make slight adjustments, reshoot, and throw away any test shots. Each shot has a heavy weight to it, each shot, takes concentration, thinking, double-checking exposure and focus, and finally, clicking the shutter.

We love it.

Now the hard part. Today we will ship off our 1 roll of film to Montgomery, Alabama to be processed by Indie Film Lab. It will be about 3 weeks until we receive the 'scans' from the lab. They will make a custom profile to use when they develop our images so that they will look like 'our images.'

That being said, we're very aware that the pictures on this film will be seen by whoever is processing them... and when you work with a lab like Indie Film Lab, they're going to get to know us on a personal basis. So basically, no film pictures of our outside cat Buttons Neumayr digging in the flowerbed and pooping.

Last night to celebrate the fact that I was wearing makeup and that Luke got his birthday present, we went out to dinner. Over dinner we were rehashing all of our film shooting experience (~75 minutes, at that point) and realized that probably most photos of us that are from our childhood were taken on film. Whoever shot our parents' weddings shot those on film. Film is such a big part of our life, even though, right now, it feels really new.

We can't wait to keep shooting on film! Stay tuned for the photos. And happy {early} birthday, Luke!