Thoughts on Color Film and Pics from before Christmas

Well, here we are over a week in to 2026 already. However the hell that happened. I recently got an order from B&H with a Cinestill C41 development kit and 10 rolls of Kodak color film (5 rolls of Gold 200 and 5 of Ultramax 400). Apparently in 2026 I’ve decided to undertake the masochistic act of home developing color film. Maybe it won’t be that bad, I’ve watched enough YouTube videos about how to do it and it honestly doesn’t seem like it’s that bad. I am, however, ambivalent about my feelings toward color film. I’ve shot it in the past and my general feeling has been that it’s more work than necessary when modern digital sensors can do color so well, and not only do they do color really well for less work but you have so much more control over the color processing than you do with the baked-in look of any given film stock.

But truth be told, I like shooting film cameras more than digital cameras. I like the simplicity of the tools and the restrictions of the medium. Something about simplicity and scarcity focusing your practice, I guess. And for black and white I’m not entirely convinced that film isn’t still a superior medium in terms of its capacity to render the world in monochrome in a uniquely beautiful way. Or maybe I’ve just been looking at my catalog of film scans and waxing nostalgic for too long… But, given how much I shoot color these days the idea of using a film camera and being able to make images in color was pretty appealing to me, so here we are.

The pictures you’re seeing here are out of the venerable old Canon 5D Mk1, and my goodness does it output some beautiful colors. It’s kind of “filmic” without all the hassle of home developing your own C41. It’s probably also a hell of a lot sharper than 35mm film scans. But, uh, we should still shoot the film because, reasons… Magic of the process… Also it’s all already in the fridge and the chemicals are under the sink so I gotta put ‘em to use, you know?

What else is there to say? Oh yeah, I’ve been reading through Stephen Shores Modern Instances. I decided to pick it up after reading his earlier book, The Nature of Photographs. It’s a cool book, and Stephen Shore is the beautiful combination of a careful and insightful thinker as well as a good writer. It’s a potent combination so I’ve been enjoying working my way through that book as he skips around from reflection to reflection. It’s a little haphazard but I think it’s more enjoyable that way. Check both of those books out if you get a chance.

But anyways, that about sums it up. Just some updates on where I’ve been and where I’m going. We’ll see how this little venture goes when I inevitably end up posting the results here. Will it be awesome? Mediocre? Idk.