Málaga on film

I meant to send off the films for the trips to Spain and Iceland at the same time but because I never manage to take a full roll (36 photos in a week, far too hard!), the Iceland won’t be ready to go for another month or so and I didn’t want to wait another month for the Málaga pictures I took in May, so off it went. I don’t always take a rattly plastic film camera with me but I often do, it’s something I enjoy. I like the novelty, I like that I need to think about the pictures and not just snap away like I do with my digital camera and I enjoy getting a new set of photos a few days or weeks later like it’s still the 90s, even if they’re distinctly 90s quality.

The Málaga set is very hit and miss but let’s take a look at them.

Malaga cathedral from the west end. There's a lot of light leaking onto the trees on the right hand side.

The frontage of the cathedral, also with light leaking.

Right. So these first two are early enough in the roll to be contaminated by light from where I had to pull it out to load it into the camera. Chances are there are a couple more photos that I took before this which were completely obliterated by light.

The amphiteatre, a bit dark and a bit green-tinted but otherwise ok.

Catherine standing in the amphitheatre. I'm not entirely sure whether she's posing for the camera or not.

These two are neither terrible nor terribly good. The amphitheatre is a bit dark and the shadows are a bit green-tinted and it definitely looks better at thumbnail size than full size. The one with Catherine in isn’t too bad.

Malaga cathedral from the east side, with a great round side and a tower.

The dry river flowing, or not flowing, through the town and down to the sea.

Esther & Catherine sitting on the edge of the fountain in Plaza de la Constitucion, with two palm trees framing them.

Another middling batch from around Málaga. I deliberately chose to use up my last roll of ISO 200 instead of ordering some more ISO 400 because I thought 200 + the sunshine of the Costa del Sol would result in beautiful golden photos and instead they’re all pretty dark and the shadows are slightly greenish and I forget what a wide field of view this camera has – you have to get right back to get everything in and then if you take pictures of people, they’re always further away and smaller than you think.

A view from partway up the Alcazaba, over purple trees and across to the cathedral.

Another view from higher up, this time above the purple trees and getting a hint of mountain in the distance.

A rose garden with a fountain in it, very dark. I knew it was a bit shady but I hadn't realised it was going to turn out so badly.

A view from the east of the Alcazaba over Malaga's rooftops.

The path leading up the mountain to the Gibralfaro from the walls of the Alcazaba.

A view which just hints at the harbour from the same wall at the Alcazaba.

A selfie at the Alczaba in a yellow t-shirt and a denim bucket hat with a daisy on it.

The pool in the upper courtyard at the Alczaba. It was quite green anyway but this picture makes it look almost apple green.

A last view from the Alcazaba, this time looking north over the city. This is where we stopped for a very late lunch.

Well, I made use of that camera at the Alcazaba! Again, a mixed bunch. There’s a hint of purple in the jacaranda trees but it’s making the sky look like a massive storm is ten minutes from descending on us when it was a reasonably sunny, if slightly cloudy, day. The picture of the rose garden is the number one worst fail in the entire roll. I knew it was a little shady but I thought it was ISO 200 and it wasn’t actually dark and the picture should come out ok. But it didn’t!

A view north over the city from the Gibralfaro. If I can look past the noise and the distorted colours, you might even see our apartment in it.

A view of the harbour, a bit overexposed, as seen from the Gibralfaro.

Another picture of the harbour, this time with some of the Gibralfaro walls.

The walls of the Gibralfaro, meandering over the hill.

The Gibralfaro ones aren’t so bad. With that bright sky overhead, I’ve actually got some that aren’t dark and green but the colours are still a long way from what they should be.

A selfie on the beach in a pale pink t-shirt with a turquoise sea behind me.

A second beach selfie, very similar to the first.

And now look! Half-decent pictures! That big blue sky, that big blue sea reflecting it and we’re actually getting some good colours! No idea why I needed two selfies on the beach but they’re among the best of the batch!

The beach, with a big blue-turquoise sea swooping up onto a golden beach with something industrial on an arm sticking out into the beautiful water.

The sunloungers under their thatched umbrellas on the beach. This is also well lit and half-decent in colour!

Well, we should have spent more time on the beach! It may have been cursed by a freezing and strong breeze but the sun was out, the sky was blue and the camera liked it! You’d hardly think this was the same camera, let alone the same roll of film!

Me sitting on a towel on the beach. In traditional 90s style, there's a bit of thumb blocking off the right hand side.

And let’s finish with a reasonably good one – me sitting on the beach in the sunshine and with the nice beachy colours but in traditional 90s film style, there’s a thumb partly blocking the right hand side of the photo. Not me – I can crop that out for Instagram but the blog gets the full version, complete with thumb.