Top 10 Film and Digital Pictures of 2024

2024 was a busy year for me (getting a Ph.D.! Moving!) but I still managed to go out and get some good pictures on my Fujifilm X-S10 and Canon AE-1P, plus some sessions with a friend’s Pentax 645. Here are the top ten from my film and digital shooting in 2024.

Film Pictures

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Film #10: Celebration

Canon AE-1P, Cinestill BWXX

I noticed this woman carrying a big bundle of balloons across OSU’s main campus one day and I just had to snap a picture. The balloons were, of course, bright red and silver in color but I still like how the more muted black and white of the film rendered them. It’s got layers.

Film #9: Sun Flowers

Canon AE-1P, Harman Phoenix 200

Harman released an experimental color film this year and I had to try it out. While I was largely happy with the results, it is a fickle film to work with. This one shows off the halation and heavy grain of the film, not to mention the fun color of the greens and yellows. It’s not my favorite film but I did enjoy using it.

Film #8: Chopped

Pentax 645, Kodak Gold 200

I was ever so slightly disappointed with the quality of the scans from my (formerly) local lab when it came to the medium format film I shot on my friend Greg’s Pentax 645. Still, I was able to capture a few pictures I liked quite a bit, including this wash of brown.

Film #7: Snow Storm

Canon AE-1P, Cinestill BWXX

I love shooting snow in black and white, and I love shooting snow with slower shutter speeds to capture the motion of the snow falling. This picture came just as the night began and after about an hour of snowfall right outside my apartment. I knew it was a risk to take this kind of picture on film where I couldn’t check my outcome and adjust on the fly as I could with a digital camera. When I finally saw the developed picture I knew I got it just how I wanted.

Film #6: Horse Head

Pentax 645, Kodak Gold 200

In the same location, an old farm within a public park outside of Columbus, OH, as the previous Pentax pic on this list there was a small collection of beautiful horses. This one definitely thought I might have some food in my pockets, but I was happy to exploit that mistake to get up close and personal. For the second or third time using this camera/lens and trying to take an animal portrait, I’m very happy with the results. Again, Gold hits those browns delightfully.

Film #5: Adjusting Settings

Pentax 645, Ilford HP5

This is a picture of Greg, who got the Pentax from his father who used it for work. We had no idea if it was in working condition so we bought some cheap film and shot a roll. This picture and another one later in this list came from that experimental roll. It was working, obviously, and I really like the way the black and white film cut out some of the noise of the scene (that’s a shallow brook behind him and there was a lot of greenery around) to make for a really nice portrait.

Film #4: Flowers in the Sun

Canon AE-1P, Kodak Portra 400

There is nothing like Portra 400 for nature shots on a bright spring day. I just love the way it renders the greens here, and the backlit flowers feel like they’re glowing on this gorgeous film. I shoot like one roll of it a year during the spring, and damn if it doesn’t snap me out of the drab winter vibes immediately.

Film #3: Old Man on a Bench

Canon AE-1P, Kodak Portra 400

On the same day as the previous picture I saw this old man sitting on a bench at the park. I wanted to capture how the world was beginning to bloom around him and put him within a larger context than I often do. I like taking pictures of people from behind, too, because it somewhat universalizes them. It’s not a single person with a single face, it could be any number of old white men (in this case).

Film #2: There Goes the Sun

Canon AE-1P, Cinestill 400D

Not perfectly focused nor as still as I might have wanted, this picture still intrigues me because of the strange lighting and my friend, Keira, accidentally posing perfectly. This was on the day the total eclipse happened across much of the US including right by my old apartment. We were at a small bar with a lovely outdoor seating area and it was a really fun afternoon.

Film #1: Exploring

Pentax 645, Ilford HP5

This is a picture of the child of my friend Greg. I have many more pictures of them that I love but which show their face too clearly to be comfortable sharing here. Sorry! This one still rocks, I think, with the sun turning the canopy over them into a bright burst of light.

Digital Pictures

Digital #10: Camoflage

I went to a small wetlands research park in the middle of Columbus one day in late summer and happened upon a family of deer. I had a field day with them (and three of them will show up on this top 10 list), including this shot where one of the juveniles was behind a veil of tall grass. I like to experiment with focusing on the “wrong” things and sometimes it works out really well. I think it did in this case.

Digital #9: Some Pig

At the same farm as the horse from the film list there was this big boy who was squealing loudly as my friend and I went into the barn. He was standing on his hind legs with his head sticking up above the edge of the pen. I love the depth of the blacks in this picture contrasted with the bright surroundings and his pink nose. Plus those ears!

Digital #8: Clean and Repair

I’ve enjoyed walking around my former campus and taking pictures of the less academic things happening around. I happened to spot these two working on the roof of a nearby building and had to snap a few shots to see if I could make it into something. I think the various rectangles in the image contrasted with their organic non-straight-line forms and the tree branches sticking out at the bottom work really nicely together.

Digital #7: Casting About

I saw this guy fishing out in the ocean (I guess it’s really a large bay?) on the Connecticut shore in the late fall. The timing was just right for this fun shimmery reflection with the fisher in the middle of it and the rocks forming a small leading line out to him. Hope he caught something good.

Digital 6: Double Vision

I might never return to the Honda Wetland Research Area again now that I’ve moved away from Columbus but I really loved going there and seeing the wildlife like this white egret (crane? whatever) who was fishing in the small pond. The bright white contrasting with the dark foliage is amplified by the doubling of the bird in the reflection.

Digital #5: Papa Can You Ear Me?

The dad of the family of deer I saw in the research park was hidden for the first 3/4ths of my time with them. Eventually he stood and walked away from the small watering hole the family was walking around and I was able to capture this fun picture of him backlit to emphasize the fuzz of his horns and the thinness of his ears.

Digital #4: Historic Chester/Hadlyme Ferry

I went to Gillette Castle in early winter just a few weeks back and the best picture I took was this one. The ferry has been in operation since 1769 (nice) and can carry up to 9 cars! It was nearing sunset and the sky had this kind of cloud cover that usually annoys me because it cuts the light when I’m trying to shoot vivid colors but it really pops in black and white, I think.

Digital #3: Bad Fence

This fence was supposed to keep people out of the private part of the beach but somebody had clearly pried it open so it looked like more of an invitation to explore the cool inlet beyond. I love these colors, the majority of them feel like they could be at home in the summer but the deep background browns betray that the picture was captured in late fall.

Digital #2: Opening Night

This deer wasn’t actually part of the other family I saw in the same park. I saw this one first as I was walking on the path around the small pond. We saw each other and the deer kept walking slowly away from me, though it didn’t leave the path which allowed me the opportunity to capture this picture. I could complain about the deer not facing me or being more separated from the foliage on the side of the path which would create a nicer frame in the dark part in the center. But also, who cares. I had a very nice time taking these pictures and I’m happy with the outcomes.

Digital #1: Take Flight

You may have been able to notice that I like using silhouettes in my pictures. This one is the best such picture I took this year. Some kind of bird took flight at just the right moment from this big old tree at blue hour just after the sun had set. I love the stillness of the tree, all perfectly in focus, with the slight blur of the bird in flight. And the sky having two beautiful colors in the background just makes everything pop.

Top 10 Film and Digital Pictures of 2023

If 2022 was the year I got back into photography, 2023 was the year I got into film photography for the first time. Outside some barely-remembered experience with disposable cameras back in high school, I hadn’t really dabbled in the film world until I got a Kodak Ektar H35 for Christmas and then purchased a Canon AE-1 for myself in early 2023. From there I played around with different film stocks and enjoyed the opportunity to scan almost all of my film from the year after getting a light box for this Christmas.

Of course I also continued to take digital pictures, though those were primarily of animals since I still only have a 50mm lens for my film camera while I use a 70-230mm lens for my Fuji XS-10. So if you want some more animal shots, scroll down to that list.

As always, some of my best shots this year won’t make this list because they’re of my friends’ kid, and they don’t want them to be put out on the internet like that. Just trust me, they’re great pictures.

Film Pictures

Film # 10:

Spring Bloom

Canon AE-1, Cinestill 400D

As you will be able to tell throughout this list, I really love the colors and light halation that the highlights can sometimes have on Cinestill 400D film. I’ve tried to take dozens of pictures of this general scene but this is the most successful I think for that bit of red bloom on the flower and the curves in the foreground and background.

Film # 9: Spiky

Kodak Ektar H35, Cinestill BWXX

The only picture from my Ektar H35, which is a half-frame camera with a plastic lens that doesn’t exactly provide sharp images. But I’ve grown to really love the ease of use (no settings) and the somewhat dreamy vibes that come from the pictures you can get with it. I’ve since “relegated” it to using the cheapest film I can get for it and just carrying it around most places for snapshots of friends and daily stuff, but back during the brief moment when it was my only option I really dug what I could get out of such a simple machine.

Film # 8: Late Summer Growth

Canon AE-1, Kodak Gold 200

Film has me looking for the light much more than I did with digital photography, and this is a great example of what that can produce if the conditions are right. In this case, late afternoon in late summer which brings out the ahem gold in this shot. I also love how you can see the holes eaten through the leafs. Good stuff.

Film # 7: Dinner Time

Canon AE-1, Cinestill 400D

I drive by this wide open grazing space for these University-owned cows every day and finally the conditions were right for the shot I wanted to get of them. There’s just enough in the sky for it to not be entirely bland, and I really love the browns here. If you look closely the cows do have some definition to them, but I also like them being largely silhouettes. I have a couple other shots where the cows fill the frame more, but again I like the empty space on the left of the frame.

Film # 6: Roofing

Canon AE-1, Kodak Gold 200

This is the ceiling of the Columbus Museum of Art on a late winter afternoon. There’s so much I love here. The greens, the blues, the lines, the deep shadows in the bottom right corner. I know some people are against cropping film images, but I’m still in love with the 6x7 aspect ratio and I don’t nearly have the cash to buy a camera with that native aspect ratio, so I’m gonna fake it. Sue me.

Film # 5: Spectators

Canon AE-1, Cinestill 400D

Happened to have a roll of one of my favorite stocks in on the first nice day of the spring and caught this beautiful moment on camera. The back end of the ‘Shoe is really great and has a lot of geometry going on. Then there’s the pickup game happening (more on that later), but what really makes this one work are the two people sitting on the grass alternately watching the game and looking at their phones. It’s campus life in a moment.

Film # 4: Turn Around

Canon AE-1, Cinestill 400D

This is the hottest place on campus, literally. The stairwell gets all the afternoon sun and it’s 5 stories tall so there’s a lot of light baking it in the warmer months. I braved the heat for this picture, which has so much fun line stuff going on. There’s a hint of red to the bricks from Cinestill’s halation and I like that I was able to get the railing itself out of focus in the foreground even as it looks like it could be the subject. I also really love the shape of the metal twisting to keep going down the stairs.

Film # 3: Sunlit

Canon AE-1, Kodak Portra 400

Took me a while to get comfortable with using a film camera enough to start using some more expensive stocks. This was the very end of a roll of Portra 400 that I used during an afternoon stroll through the botany area of OSU’s main campus. I don’t exactly know what kinds of plants these are, but I do know that I love the small sliver of late afternoon sunlight illuminating the flowers and a strip of the big tree behind them. I also love how my home scanning setup can allow me to keep as much detail of the shadows as I did here. It’s a picture that rewards deeper looks, if I may be so bold as to say so.

Film # 2: Jump Shot

Canon AE-1, Cinestill 400D

Sometimes you plan stuff out and sometimes you get lucky. This was definitely the latter. On the same day as the other basketball shot I tried out some action shots. You don’t have the time to plan things out or take bajillions of pictures when working with film, so I feel incredibly lucky that I got this picture out of my experimentation. Who cares if the horizon isn’t level? Who cares if the ball isn’t in the shot? Who cares if it might have been better if I was a few steps to the left so I could get the guy contesting the shot? I still love this. It feels so urgent to me.

Film # 1: Walking By

Canon AE-1, Cinestill 400D

Ok, I know I have a lot of shots of OSU’s campus this year but since I am (hopefully) leaving here soon, you’ll have to indulge me. Three people looking in different directions, the three pillars holding up the jutting top flor of the architecture building, the bright light and shadows, the slight red halation of the white building elements and walkway. This picture has everything.

Digital Pictures

Digital # 10: Chillin’

Cropped this one to emulate a widescreen film aspect ratio because there was so much information in the middle of the photo that I wanted to focus on. I like all the people out on a nice spring day, enjoying the weather and each other. Spot the person relaxing the most!

Digital # 9: On the Prowl

Went to the Columbus Zoo when a friend visited in the fall, and the rarely-active tigers had at least one representative who you could hear all the way across the park calling for other tigers. She’s beautiful, I love the colors and the shadows on her face and body as well. Absolutely terrifying, but beautiful nevertheless.

Digital # 8: Fun Guys

On one of my trips out to the incredible Columbus Metro Parks I spotted this rotting wood filled with life. There’s the obvious fungi, but also the moss in the background and then a little red friend almost exactly in the center if you look close enough.

Digital # 7: Body Guards

These three were having fun splashing around in the little water area of their exhibit but soon enough it was time to go, and the little 2(ish) year old elephant was nicely but firmly guided back into the indoor part of their territory. More on that later.

Digital # 6: Naptus Interruptus

The big kitty just wanted to sleep but some jerks were being loud nearby. So it lifted its heavy head and stared their way. Determining they weren’t worth the bother of killing, it soon rested its head again and went back to sleep. This is a true story.

Digital # 5: Sneaky

The Columbus Zoo has a clever set up for their large African Plains area. The lions can’t get over to the area where the herbivores live but it sure looks like one continuous space from the zoo goer’s perspective. It kinda makes the lions look lazy, but I wouldn’t tell him that, would you?

Digital # 4: Fall Train

Franklin Park Conservatory and Botanical Gardens has a really cool, quite large outdoor model train setup designed by Paul Busse which I’ve enjoyed exploring the times I’ve gone there in good weather. This time, though, was the best, as the leaves had turned but not yet fallen and so, with the help of an elevated track that connects the smaller sections of the exhibit, I was able to get this picture that I love so much.

Digital # 3: Lookout

It was a pretty hot day and there weren’t many animals outdoors who could have gone inside a more temperate enclosure as this guy could have. In fact, the Gibbon came out only briefly while I was hanging out in the shade. It swung around the outdoor area until it landed here, at the top spot. I got a few great pics of it here, but this one is my favorite. The backlighting really emphasizes how fluffy it is!

Digital # 2: Move Along

Sometimes kids need a little push in the butt to get where they need to go.

Digital # 1: Playtime

One of my favorite things about animals is seeing behavior that is common across species. Here this young gorilla plays with a cardboard box like my cat might, or like a small human child. It was playing in a spot that was hard to see, so I had to crouch down and shoot through a tunnel in a hill to get this moment, but it was worth it.

My Favorite 2022 Pics

2022 was the year I got back into photography in a big way. I had gotten a Fujifilm X-S10 in the previous year but didn’t really use it too much until a few months into this year. Then I got really into it. I got a few more lenses for it (a Viltrox 13mm, a Fuji 33mm, a Fuji 55-230mm, and recently a TTArtisans 40mm macro in addition to the Fuji 18-55mm it came with) and started taking it everywhere. It has been really fun to get back in the habit of thinking like a photographer, and even the days when I don’t get a shot I like are good because I tried.

I decided to share some of my favorite pictures here with a little detail on why I like them and maybe what was going on when I took them. There’s probably a shot or two that won’t make it here because they are of friends’ kids or animals and I only share those with those friends, just know I’m pretty ok at that kind of thing. Ok, here goes.

Number 10: Deer in Tall Weeds

This picture came from a trip to the Honda Wetland Education Area in Plain City, OH. I think it was my second trip there, the first where I went up into the observation deck they have overlooking the titular wetlands. I was hoping for sunset pics, which I did get in the wide open sky, but I was also lucky enough to catch a mother and child pair of deer walking through the field, then the wetland, then up into the shrubs where I snapped this pic of the child deer.

I gave this photo a square crop, which I thought emphasized the tallness of the weeds and gave the deer our fullest attention. I’ve stopped doing straight square crops but have gotten really into 6x7 crops, and I think this pic was a large part of my penchant for that in the back half of the year.

Number 9: Late Fall Roots

I can’t quite put my finger on it but there’s something special about the lighting here. Like the title says, it was late fall at Highbanks Metro Park in Lewis Center, OH, and I think the exposed tree roots caught the near-sunset haze really nicely. The reflections on the water in the background add to that hazy feeling. If I had to change something about this pic it’d probably be the slightly out of focus plants springing up behind the roots in the middle of the photo but whatever, they don’t hurt it too much. Love the little green sprouts in the foreground, kinda wish there were more of those too.

Number 8: Barbaric Yawp

I wrote above about getting into 6x7 crops, but I have also gotten really into “cinematic” aspect ratios, either 1.85:1 (like this one) or even wider 2.35:1. I like to use them for either things that feel “epic” in the Larry of Arabia way or, conversely, everyday things. This one fits somewhere in between, I think.

On our last day of a brief vacation to Rochester NY, my mom, aunt, and I went to Onterio Beach Park and I went down a long pier to see the small lighthouse at the end of it. On my way I saw this seagull squawking over and over again. I knew I had to get a pick of it mid-yell, and I followed my instincts to get my camera lower than the waist-high pillar it was standing on. Smart move, I think. I like the faint gradient of the sky in the background and the small depth of field you get at the extreme right and left sides of the frame. But the best part is the red of the inside of its mouth.

Number 7: Campus in the Fall

Shot on OSU’s main campus in Columbus Ohio right outside of the 18th Avenue Library. I was sitting at a table waiting to teach and noticed that this tree still had a bunch of leaves on it while there was also a hefty coating on the ground (other than the walkways, which I think give the ground some structure). It was also windy as hell that day, which you might be able to see in the leaves still on the tree. I took a few pics here but was mostly waiting for somebody to walk right where this guy ended up being, in the middle of an intersection. I think he balances out the shot nicely enough, and even though the scene is a bit more chaotic than I have been into of late, it has just enough structure to work pretty darn well.

Number 6: A Burst of Orange

Also from that Rochester trip, this one was captured in Lamberton Conservatory within Highland Park. I really loved spotting this cluster of orange plants (ferns of some sort?) within what felt like a jungle of green. Luckily they were right next to the window and were lit perfectly. I love the curve of the window too, it adds a nice frame within a frame.

I’ve started to crush (meaning make more of the image pure black) and lift (meaning brighten the parts that are pure black) the blacks in a lot of my pictures recently, and you can really see that here. I tend to do very little editing of my photography because that is not what I care about anymore, but I do usually do this minor change in Lightroom. It gives my digital pics a film vibe, I think. Everything becomes a bit moodier and less perfect, which I like a lot.

Number 5: Windmilling It

If you follow my Instagram you might be tired of seeing this freaking windmill, found at Glacier Ridge Metro Park in Grove City, OH. For that I apologize, but I won’t stop photographing it. It’s a fun subject! My early pics of it were kinda rote, but by the time fall rolled around I started getting more fun with it, putting stuff in the foreground way out of focus and picking more fun angles. This has both, I think. But more importantly it has that killer late-fall sunlight and a really great gradient in the sky behind the windmill.

Number 4: Under Construction

As you might have noticed, I’m not super interested in doing people photography, and when I do take pictures of people, their backs are often to the camera. But you never really know when something cool will drop in your lap and that definitely happened here. There’s always construction of some sort or another on OSU’s campus, and this pic came from some guys laying a new sidewalk down somewhere. I love the layers of caution tape in the foreground and background, and the tree on the left framing the bright middle ground. But the best part is the dude’s stance. You can see the strain of the work in his stance and face, and I think it’s a pretty relatable look. Hope he got a nice cold glass of water soon after this.

Number 3: Curlicue

Once again, this photo is from the Rochester trip, specifically the Eastman Museum. Though not shot on Kodak film, I think I was using a Kodak Royal Gold recipe in my Fujifilm camera for this one so it almost counts. Anyways, this trellis in the garden really caught my eye with its wonderful mix of painted and varnished wood, and the excellent plant growing above it really added some nice natural chaos to the square structure. The perfectly clouded sky in the background is just icing on the cake.

Number 2: Accidental Wedding

Sometimes you plan stuff out and sometimes you get lucky. This was definitely the latter. Taken at Inniswood Metro Gardens in Westerville, OH, I happened upon a woman doing what seemed like a wedding shoot in this lovely soft pink gown. Inniswood is a popular spot for photo shoots, for reasons that should be obvious in this pic, and usually I’m dodging them so I don’t happen to end up in the background of something somebody paid a lot of money for. But I kept crossing paths with this woman on this day, and I got a few good shots of her candidly. This is the best one, and one of the best I’ve ever taken. The tree, the blue structure, these greens! And her pose (I think looking down at one of her young daughters hidden behind her dress here) seems like I did it on purpose. I definitely didn’t, but I’ll take credit for it anyways.

Number 1: Everything Is Triangles

Bookending this list with pics from the Honda Wetlands Education Area because it’s my favorite photo spot just makes sense, I think. This one from deep summer captures the everpresent Ohio humidity nicely. While it could probably work quite well in monochrome, the blue of the sky gives it some depth and warmth. And these power lines/structures! I was trying to get some pics of a few small birds that were flying around until I happened to sweep my camera across this scene, at which point I had to get a shot of it. I like that they go off into the distance but not entirely out of frame, it feels like the photo is almost infinitely deep. And the clarity of that first structure is really something. I love how they start to look less and less complex as you go deeper into the picture, too.