One of my New Year’s resolutions this year was to take more film images throughout the year. I had not picked up my Contax 645 in quite a while, not since a couple of years before the pandemic, in fact. I am not quite sure why, but I somehow fell out of love with the 645 and decided to concentrate on my smaller (and considerably lighter) film and digital cameras.

When I was talking with Tom about maybe resurrecting the camera, he made a simple suggestion. Why not try to shoot three rolls of film on it this year? That felt like an easily achievable goal. And now, seven months into the year, I have taken five rolls, or maybe six. I have lost count.

So far I have only had one roll processed. And it was filled with images from 2018, back when I did not know it would be the last time I would pick up this camera for a while. Our daughter was about to go to university and most of that roll is portraits of her. I am hoping that somewhere in the more recent rolls will be an image that makes me fall back in love with 120 film in general, and this camera in particular.

Both of our children have commented that they find its characteristic shutter sound nostalgic. And I have to agree; it does take me back. I may even have bought a slightly bigger rucksack to make carrying it around a little more feasible. Because as they say, the best camera is the one you have with you. And surely carrying this beast of a camera counts as weight training?

I’m not taking it everywhere. But I am taking it out from time to time. I don’t have any images from this year to include in this post. But stay tuned. It’s looking as though this might be the year my Contax 645 comes back into focus. 

Kirstin