Nelson🇺🇸/Roberto🇸🇻
One of the interesting things about shooting film in 2025 is how long it takes before you get to see the results. Part of the delay is due to processing times taking much longer, probably because there are fewer people shooting film, and fewer people who know how to process it. The other reason for the delay is that I haven’t been taking as many pictures, which means it takes longer for me to finish a role.
Point and case, most of the photos below were taken last summer, 2024, during a trip to Europe, while visiting my younger sister who was finishing dentistry school in Barcelona, Spain. Since we were going to be in Europe for her graduation, my wife and I decided to turn the trip into a proper vacation and visit Scotland and London as well.
Color: Scotland, London, and Barcelona
We started the trip by meeting up with some friends from the New Castle area. We crammed into a rented “SUV” and set out on a road trip through Scotland, where we stayed at a lighthouse, visited a castle, and explored the city of Edinburgh. From Scotland, we took the train down to London, where we stayed for a few days before heading to Barcelona to meet my sister. There, we visited the iconic Sagrada Família.
This first group of photographs was taken using Kodak Pro 400, which turned out to be a little more unforgiving than other films I’ve used. Unlike my black and white film, where I have a lot more leeway, with the Pro 400, it was a lot harder to get great-looking shots, especially under difficult lighting conditions.
That’s not to say I didn’t get any nice-looking photographs with this film, for example, the featured image of this post came out amazing! The challenge was that the subject matter needed to be in ideal lighting conditions. If the light was too harsh or if the subject matter was backlit, then it was a lot more challenging to get a usable picture.
Black & White: Barcelona and Tepoztlan
This second group of photos starts with a couple taken atop Sagrada Família from one of its world-renowned spires. The rest were taken during a writing residency I attended in January 2025, located in Tepoztlan, Mexico. The residency was an incredible experience, and these pictures hardly do it justice. If you are curious, you can read more about that trip in my January 2025 Author Update.
These pictures were shot on Ilford Delta 400, which is my go-to black-and-white film. It works well in a wide range of lighting conditions, and when I get my light metering right, the results can be absolutely stunning. Maybe the only downside of Black and White is that once you’ve adopted it, you can’t switch to color when needed. Other than that, it’s my favorite film to shoot with.
📝 The remaining photos are for “members only” because they are photographs of people, and I’d like to protect the privacy of the subjects. So if you are a subscribing member and you’d like to see the last group of photos, all you have to do is sign in.
If you're not a member, you can sign up and receive updates about my upcoming projects!
