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I had planned a trip to Chattanooga, TN for the end of May. Ava was getting out of school and my birthday is May 28th, so it seemed like a good time for a little getaway. As the departure date approached, I realized instead of being excited about a trip I was actually stressing out over the 6 hour drive for just four nights. I was just generally exhausted and decided I was going to do something easier and faster that was more focused on relaxation than sight-seeing, so I cancelled Chattanooga and went with a tried and true destination – Hot Springs, Arkansas.
Hot Springs is a little resort town a little under 3 hours away from Memphis. It’s a very easy drive, generally pretty cheap and reasonable, and the hotel we generally stay at, Embassy Suites, has an indoor pool, so you never have to worry about planning around weather if your kid REALLY wants to spend a lot of time swimming.
I decided while we were there, my main thing was going to be film photography. I took my Olympus OM2n with the 50mm f.14 lens. I took absolutely way too much film, but what I ended up using was a roll of Cinestill 400D and a roll of Aurora 800.
I also took my Fuji X100VI and took some pictures with it when it wasn’t a situation film excelled at.
Anyway, enough talking, let’s look at some pictures. I went for a little walk around the hotel one day and shot the rest of the roll of Cinestill 400 I had in the camera before the trip. This is my first roll of Cinestill, and I’ve since learned that the company kinda sucks so it will likely be the last roll I shoot, but hey, I already owned it. I get why people like the film stock and apparently reflx labs has a film that’s made with the same stock, so I’ve ordered some of that to try it out. I get the appeal, the blooming and halation is a unique look.
Cinestill 400D Pictures
The one daisy drinking coffee in bed is honestly one of my favorite pictures of her ever, hopefully the reflx labs film is awesome too.
Next up I loaded up a roll of Aurora 800 and went out for to walk around and find somewhere to eat for my birthday.
FlicFlims Aurora 800 Pictures
I literally cannot say enough good things about this film stock, it’s one of my favorites. For my birthday Daisy bought me like a dozen rolls of it and I think it’s going to pretty much be my default film for when I want to break out a 35mm camera. The colors are very pleasing and it seems to have a lot of exposure latitude, because all of my pictures are pretty damn correctly exposed and I’m not particularly good at film photography.
Since it was my birthday, we stopped at Fat Bottomed Girl’s Cupcakes to grab some cupcakes. Definitely stop in, they have a ton of different flavors and I’ve never had anything that wasn’t good there.
After another stop at the Arlington Hotel Lobby Bar for a drink (That’s where the chandelier picture is from), we ended up at Rolando’s for dinner. They have an EXCELLENT patio, so if you’re in Hot Springs and the weather is nice, try to make it by for dinner. At this point I had put the Olympus up and broke out the X100VI to get some digital pictures.
Fuji X100VI Pictures
Ava befriended that similarly aged little girl from the next table over, she just randomly starts talking to anyone around her, it’s pretty fun.
We tried to get a ride-share back to the hotel but they’re apparently very spotty in Hot Springs, so we just started walking. I kept the X100VI out and just took some pictures of the walk back. All of these X100VI pictures are using the excellent Cinesoft Subtle filter, which I really need to make a dedicated post about, because it’s absolutely perfect. Very subtle softening and a little bit of bloom/halation but it’s not obvious or overbearing.
How does the Cinesoft Subtle filter compare to actual film?
One thing I really liked is that I managed to take a near identical picture, one with the Olympus OM2n and Aurora 800, and one with the X100VI and the cinesoft subtle. Check it out.
That gives you a pretty good idea of how well the cinesoft filter emulates the bloom and halation of actual film.
Anyway, I guess that’s it for now. I’ll be back with another deluge of pictures soon I’m sure.
