I have been studying digital photography at Tompkins Cortland Community College every year since 2005. This past autumn I expanded my experience by working with film. With a medium format twin-lens reflex camera, borrowed from TC3, I spent the semester making photographs, one twelve-image roll of film at a time. Much of my time was spent remembering the settings I needed to make before taking each picture. First use a light meter (or an iPhone app) to measure the available light. Then set the preferred lens aperture (opening) for the exposure, set the time for an exposure at that aperture, focus the image, cock the shutter, release the shutter, and remember to wind the film before setting up for the next picture. I think I made every possible mistake, but practice helped. I learned how to develop the film, make prints in the darkroom, and scan negatives to edit and print digitally. 

I took the pictures in this collection as a response to our final assignment: twilight photography. I chose places I know well. For a short period of time just after sundown, natural light and artificial light often complement each other. When I look at the photographs during what appears to be another spike of Covid, I see something else. The lights are still on. 

We will keep moving forward.