I had read about this sort of thing happening to photographers.

A forgotten roll of film, re-discovered years later.

I didn’t think it would happen to me, because I’m usually quick to develop anything I shoot.  Yet there it was, a roll of Kodak Portra 800 mysteriously sitting at the bottom of a drawer I had just finished clearing out.

How did that happen?, I wondered.

I’ve now realized it was one of my (in)famous test rolls.  Used up when I had gotten hold of another M2-R to check out. Most of my shots were severely underexposed because the shutter speeds were off.  I didn’t end up keeping that camera after getting back the first roll.  But there was a second roll, which became this “lost roll”.  It sat untouched, because I wasn’t home-developing colour film at the time, and it was too expensive to pay a lab to develop/scan another roll that was essentially filled with underexposed test shots.

The expiry date on the box says 2018, so I would have used it sometime between 2016-2018.

Yesterday, I developed it.  At home.

There’s a photo of my wife in it.  Two of our dog.  Some scenes from around the house.  A self-portrait.

It’s winter.  Maybe December?

The images are like ghosts from the past.  Frozen in time.  And they are staring back from just before the pandemic, the multiple illnesses in our household, and my job disruption.

Hello strangers. 

Nice to meet you again.

—Peter.

↑Leica M2-R, Leica 50mm Summilux ASPH @ f/1.4, Kodak Portra 800, and Plustek 8200i.