Forever Ektar | Autumn in the city

I don’t think I’ll ever get over the joy that is shooting Kodak Ektar on a glorious, blue sky day. One Saturday morning in September we had coffee near the university in Sheffield, and then took a brief wander round the nearby streets and alleyways. With the sun smacking down on bold red brick, shiny tile and hulking concrete, it’s easy to rush things from the thrill of having the perfect, mouth-watering light in front of me and the perfect tools in my hands – potentially – to capture it in all its glory.  But I have learnt from shooting film to take the time to calm the excitement just a little; to move this way and that to assess my composition; to focus, re-focus…pin sharpness suits bold light and primary colours so well.

Ektar is so incredibly versatile, and another reason I love shooting it so much is that I know – just as long as I get my end of things right – that it will never disappoint me. It captures an unbelievable range of detail from dark, delicious shadows to bright highlights, and it renders light and colour so accurately, so naturally, yet with an extra special something. There was a couple of months between me shooting this film and scanning it, but the images are so real and evocative, that I’m back there instantly.

It is this versatility and subtlety – the way it captures the delightful nuances of light and shade – that keep me always in love with film. From the hard autumnal light of a Sheffield street to the soft, dreamlike glow of an early summer’s day in Greece, I can’t imagine a better way to capture it than with film.