This year’s annual camp trip was at San Josef Bay on Vancouver Island for two nights in the backcountry. Since this was named one of the world’s 50 best beaches I had to bring my camera along.

These photos were taken on my Canon EOS Rebel SII on 35 mm. The first set of photos is Fujifilm 400, the second is Vibe Max 400. Fujifilm is probably my favourite everyday film at the moment – I haven’t tried out many Kodak films but they look too orange/yellow for my taste.

We had a long drive up (9 hours including the ferry ride) so we stopped lots along the way and stayed the first night in Port Hardy. We tried to stop at a waterfall and, after driving for a while in a privately owned road, our map was trying to send us down a locked gated logging road but it took us right to the prettiest river so we pulled over and got some photos.

Ever since my Japan trip I’ve had issues with the autofocus on this camera and I had some issues with it again this time. I didn’t always catch it in time and switch to manual in time to save some shots that would’ve been great. I think the overcastness on the first day especially made it a bigger struggle to get all the details sharply.

I had some issues with light leaks for the Vibe Max film (probably reloading it in the middle of the afternoon only shielded by a tent wasn’t a good idea oops). Some shots I thought would be so cool didn’t turn out so well because of it but it also turned into a really cool effect for others.

I also discovered a love for self timer photos (and a rope swing) when I had like 5 minutes until I had to wake everyone up in the tent so we would have enough time to pack up and drive to catch our ferry. It gave me a ton of ideas so I’m excited to shoot another roll (and hopefully will get to hike to some good views for it).

So my takeaways from these two rolls: I’ve discovered a pet peeve for people just smiling and standing for photos. Even though I thought I was over the top for hiding under big blankets to reload my film when everyone films themselves reloading in bright daylight I will never not be under a thick blanket to reload my film again. I need to find a telephoto lens (or at least one with more zoom than mine right now). And finally, I think I need to learn and use manual focus with this camera/lens.