A few years ago I was given expired 35mm stock as a gift, I was given several rolls of Kodak Pro Image 100 for the most part, a film stock I had heard of but hadn't actually used before. I also had never even shot expired film stock before! So the experience was one I was excited for, but ultimately was met with a plethora of hurdles.
Shortly after receiving the film stock, the pandemic happened. I was a student at the time, and the dream of travelling took an immediate halt. The film stock ended up decaying more and more as it sad in some form of protection in the fridge. If you didn't know before: film stock has an expiration date, and film stock has a slower rate of decay at a cooler temperature, so for long-term storage it's ideal to store the film stock in a fridge. It's not that weird!
I don't usually shoot much film when I'm not travelling, since I find much of the typical environments I traverse through on a day-to-day basis are ones that aren't all that compelling, or that I've already shot to death in the past. It doesn't really help that the cost of film is forever rising, as is the development of it. While I do develop film rolls myself, sometimes I don't quite have the confidence that they'll turn out decently. To mess up would with good images on a pricey roll of film would be a disappointment!
Though, at some point in the prior year, the UK saw a snow day that was worthy of grabbing the film stock and venturing outside for. I shoot film on my 35mm Canon AE-1 from 1976, alongside its Canon FD 50mm 1.8 lens. 50mm can be quite limiting for a focal length at times, especially in open areas where you just won't capture as much of the environment as you'd like. Though the 1.8 aperture allows for lots of room in low light conditions.
This was my first time shooting film in the snow, and my first time shooting expired film, so I really had no idea what to expect from the images. The fact that it took me more than a year to get them developed makes their outcome much more surprising to me. I expected better, but I also expected much worse!
When it comes to shooting film, I have a ridiculous standard for myself. I love composition, I love lighting -- two things that stem from my work in the film industry, as well as passion for arthouse cinema and films shot on the 35mm film format -- and these two aspects of photography constantly play in my mind as I roam environments with a camera. Given each roll of film holds the ability to capture 36 photographs, you're more aware of that limitation, as well as the fact that it costs quite a bit of money!
Typically winter is the worst time to take photographs of the English countryside: the farmers are no longer growing their crops. The fields are mostly empty, void of colour and very much void of light given the strong overcast weather that coats the English land. This results in a very diffused lighting environment that's quite dull; though the snow serves as a light counter as it bounces the light back from the ground.
This made the experience much more enjoyable. I found there was some nice compositions appearing as I walked through small roads with snow glazed trees arched above, void of leaves. Where the river that run through the land had a silvery skin of ice above. It was very still, and incredibly peaceful to walk alongside.
Walking along the river after what feels like quite a while takes you to a main road deep in the countryside, where you're met with signs that leads to large farms and orchards and vineyards. Though these orchards and vineyards are on private land, you're not supposed to walk through them for obvious reasons. So, I kept close to the road, which had no pathways and was only capable of holding one car on it at a time. Though no cars passed by during the time I was there.
From here you can either choose to continue to follow the river deeper into the countryside, or take a different turn and walk towards an old woods which sits in the middle of more farmland. There's no roads in that area, and no homes either. At this point there's not really anyone else around for quite a large stretch of land. It's quiet, and it's very isolate. The snow covered all the surroundings, leaving just an endless horizon of white where it met the sky, with a similar tone of blue and white. It'd be difficult to distinguish which is which without the odd set of trees that stood tall in the middle.
If you go in the other direction, you're walking more back into civilisation, where large farmhouses and barns take up much of the space. There was a frozen pond that held my attention, where it was fenced off in private land but stood out significantly among the rest of the surroundings, particularly since it was kept at a higher ground and didn't have any relevance to the river just a short number of steps away.
I imagined it would be incredibly beautiful to look out into this land from one of the farmhouses in the morning, especially on such a snowy day.
Walking alongside the pond, the barns grow in more frequency: huge structures of black as high as the tres and a stark contrast to the white snow that is found below. I quite liked the look of this area, where the road just bends and disappears in a slight arch into the distance; where it heads, I have no idea. Since I soon turned around after taking the photograph and went in the prior mentioned direction of more fields and trees.
As you head towards the trees, you're met with a small opening that leads to a forest. You'll see the inside of that soon, but I took one last photography of the entrance, where the sun was just starting to set and the horizon produced a light orange glow alongside the white and blue.
The forest was vastly untouched, coated in snow, its pathways marked with what looked like a battlefield from the large number of boots that had stepped through from the days prior. I was smart enough to wear some boots that day, and saved myself from a pair of utterly destroyed white Converse shoes!
From the entrance, there's two routes you can choose: one takes you through one side of the forest, and another takes you through the other.
I can't recall which side I chose, though I have a feeling I chose the left side. I didn't take any additional images from inside this forest sadly, but I did take one just at the exit, by a small sign and a set of chopped logs.
The people that maintain this forest often cut down certain areas where the trees have grown a little too much. This means that the forest floor sees very little light and few other plants and growths can flourish given the lack of sunlight and nutrients on the forest floor, stolen mostly by the trees.
The exit takes you to a large hilltop that overlooks more of the countryside. Where the fields bend and look stitched together by small lines of trees in the distance. At this point it was growing darker by the minute, and I was concerned that these images wouldn't produce anything given the lack of lighting; the film stock has an ASA of 100, which equates to a 100 ISO. This is pretty low!
Though this is where the 50mm 1.8 lens comes in: the open aperture at 1.8 allowed for me to adjust both shutter speed and aperture enough to maintain decent lighting conditions in the photographs. At the expense of needing much steadier hands in the cold!
This began my walk back into civilisation and out of the depths of the countryside. Back into bendy countryside roads and composition.
Eventually there were more aspects of human life present. Small buildings, though mostly unused and coated in snow. Powerlines hanging above that I felt ruined my framing! As well as little treehouses that overlooked the farmer's fields where they'd typically grow large amounts of crops during the warmer months.
You could see just how dead the fields were, void of life. Only the small, frail twigs managed to stick through the snow. Mostly bristles and bushes that had been trimmed; lost their leaves, or had died. Usually, in the spring and summer, these areas are so dense in life and colour that looking into the horizon is often a difficulty. The contrast was quite interesting.
Eventually after following the roads which grow more in size and appearance, it's evident you're getting closer to homes and a busier area. The trees by the sides of the roads are more tamed, shorted in size, as are the bushes. There's more noise in the distance as cars can be heard. The roads and pathways are void of snow, and it seems less like a wilderness. A very different environment to the earlier destination in which nothing could be heard, and pathways were narrow and coated in mud and snow.
The homes, while still quite isolated, are unique in size. But very clearly countryside places. Where their build is old, somewhat crooked, and tucked away by narrow roads and small brick walls coated in growth.
Next thing you know, you're back in a populated area. The most obvious sign being an old English pub that sits by the side of a pond, kept company by an old willow tree. Though this was back in the height of the pandemic, where everything was closed and people were meant to be in lockdown. A beer certainly wouldn't have helped after being in the cold for so long!
Here, the snow decreases in depth, and colour. It has mostly been melted and dealt with for the purpose of creating safer roads. The little areas of snow left are merely ice and sludge bundled by the side of the roads and above rooftops. I much preferred the locations deeper in the Essex countryside.
And, well, ultimately I'm really happy that these photographs turned out well! They aren't anything incredible, but I'm happy they're images and not just ruined from being expired and left to essentially decay after a few years. I usually don't enjoy parts of the Essex countryside, but under a coating of snow it certainly managed to open up to me. I highly recommend grabbing some expired 35mm film and going on a sudden adventure through the empty countryside areas of Essex!
Though I can safely guarantee that your time doing so will be much more fun with a dog.