Father's Day on Film
Outer Banks Sunrise ■ Leca M3 ■ Kodak Portra 400
One Roll, One Day - June 2020
Father’s Day 2020! What better day in June to focus on than a day where I get to do whatever Daddy wants?! I’m just kidding.
No I’m not. Daddy was on a mission. The beach has been MISERABLE in 2020, kinda like every other aspect of this year from hell. But the weather on Father’s Day’s was lining up to be perfect and we’d be in the Outer Banks of North Carolina. Spotty clouds, 83°F, and a light breeze. This meant early up for sunrise, followed by a couple hours with the kiddos at the pool and an afternoon at the beach with the fam. Of course I get lucky to stay for a fantastic sunset for the ending of a perfect day.
And it all rolled together perfectly, and that credit goes to the missus.
Father’s Day 2020 (photo by Finnegan, age 7) ■ Leica M3 ■ Kodak Portra 400
Armed with my Leica M3 I aimed to document this day with a roll of Portra 400, my absolute go-to film. Up at 4:16 am (yeah, 16 minutes after 4, not 15 - that’d just be normal), I headed off to Coquina Beach, south of Nags Head, NC, for an incredible sunrise. And let me say, the way I enjoy sunsets is not sitting in the sand, enjoying the sound of the waves watching that sun slowly rise out of a rolling ocean. I’m running. My mind is FREAKING out about each second the light is changing. I ran nearly 3 miles back and forth on the beach that morning. I closed my exercise ring on my apple watch and had more than 1/2 my move ring toasted as well!
As Coquina Beach is right across the main road from my favorite lighthouse, I spent a few moments dashing around this wonderful beacon. The mosquitoes were fierce, so a sprint to a few of my favorite photo locations and back in the car.
Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending how you want to look at it), I burned 26 frames on the beach. So I had a roll of Portra 160 ready for the afternoon. Keeping Baby G up through nap gave us hours at the pool in the AM, followed by some fishing, and then an afternoon at the beach! The Leica didn’t make it to the pool or fishing as both of those equal bad combos. But it certainly made a second trip to the beach that day. I’ve been craving the ocean all year, and it was an amazing afternoon. Some storms just missed us to the south which made for some moody afternoon light. I polished off the roll of Portra 400, and loaded the roll of Portra 160 for the rest of the beach action, and expectations of an amazing sunset.
The rest of the beach action on Portra 160.
I plan to stick with color in the Leica M3 for the remainder of 2020 as scanning 35mm film on a Epson V600 is just miserable. Mediocre results that just take FOREVER. B&W for 2020… it’s not dead, but it needs to make some room for color.
As we packed up the car to head back to Raleigh (3 hour drive) the clouds were setting up perfectly for an amazing sunset. I asked my wonderful wife Blair to hang out for another 30 minutes and let me capture my first sunset of the year, which she happily obliged. And it certainly did not disappoint. Up at 4:16 am and tucked in at 11:58 pm, it’s everything I wanted in a Father’s Day.
Thanks for stopping by this month! With summer in full swing, the beach will be dominating my posts for the next couple of months. Check in next month for a roll through my new-to-me Nikonos V! In the meantime check out what my friend Jolene Redfern is up to on the west coast on her latest One Roll, One Day.
Feel free to follow along on Instagram!
