Virginia Beach on Film--January 2026
My friends and I try to take a group trip to Virginia Beach each winter. It's one of my favorite times of year and this year I got to photograph it.
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One of my friends is in med school right now and sometimes she practices patient examination techniques on us. When I sent my friends this photo she joked that it looks like she's praying. While it's not actually a prayer, I do consider these moments of casual platonic intimacy to be sacred.
Two of my friends in the midst of some impromptu roughhousing. Probably the least interesting pose I could have captured during this brawl since it looks like they're both falling down.
We had a competition to see who could find the most interesting thing on the beach. The lobster looking shell won, but the general consensus was that none of the finds were very interesting.
The house across from my friend's beach house has this lamp that I can see through the window. I always think it looks like it's staring forlornly out at the ocean. My lens couldn't get it fully in focus, but I'm still glad to have captured it.
Same concept. The beach in winter generally looks very lonely I think.
I knew that I'd be happy with this photo because of the sweet expressions on my friends' faces through the windshield (which I wish I had focused better), but it was a nice surprise when I realized how sharply film captures reflections, showing my other friend waving hello from the balcony above.
These are the only photos I took where I intentionally posed people.
In the first one I meant for Keely to be sulking against the backdrop of that nicely textured awning, but when our other friend popped up behind her with a goofy smile, I of course did not object.
In the second, the focus (or lack thereof) on Keely's face bothers me. It's still a great hat though.
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That concludes my first roll of film! Obviously there are things I would've done differently. Mostly I wish I had taken more photos, but I'm very grateful to have gotten the photos I did. I think going forward I'd want to try out film with a higher ISO and maybe eventually get another lens so I can have a greater depth of field. I haven't quite gotten a handle on this lens yet.
That said, the tangible aspect of fully mechanical film photography caused me to pay more attention to the act of taking a photo and the subjects I chose, in a way that made the whole process very enjoyable. I hope to shoot many more rolls of film in the coming months!