This is a little boat called the Hornblower. How do I know it’s called the Hornblower? Well, it happens to be written right there on the stern. I know that because I’m looking at this on a big monitor rather than a little phone screen. I also know this because it’s a medium format photo shot with a Mamiya 7 and scanned by me on an ancient black magic machine.
Here you go, take a closer look. This is a crop of a 100% zoom. What else do you see? A bunch of cold Canadians braving the mist that blows off of the thundering Niagra falls? Yeah there’s that, but there’s also something else. Grain. Delicious, tasty film grain. And seagulls. Holy shit, there’s little tiny seagull right there in the middle of the foreground.
It’s sort of tacky and worn out to wax poetic about the beauty of film but it’s also just really really beautiful stuff. It looks like life looks or at least how I want life to look or how I want my memory of it to look. It’s expensive and finicky and a little try hard sure, but I just can’t quit it and I hope it never goes away.
