What doth life?
That's the spice!

City of (Alleged) Lights

In the fall of 2022 I went to Vegas for the first ever When We Were Young Festival. For reasons such as my camera was too damn heavy, I didn't end up bringing the Bronica GS-1 into the fest, but I did get a lot of alone street wandering time to shoot Cinestill 800T for the first time in my life. This stock is the token film for empty train stations or lonely gas stations at night. I was super excited to shoot it, thinking that surely Vegas would have the opposite vibe of a forlorn gas station devoid of a single soul, and instead be chaotic and bustling amidst a backdrop of glitter and neon. I walked around and found out.

Cinestill 800T | Bronica GS-1 | 100mm f3.5

I tried to shoot most of it at night, but the strip was eerily empty after 10pm. Between the sparse loud drunks and the creepy silent drunks, I didn't end up staying out too long by myself. My fellow emos were a sleepy bunch and had no interest in wandering the streets at all. I wanted bustling but I got empty gas station vibes anyway. Also, it wasn't as bright as I thought it would be. What happened to the vibrance of the city of sin and allegedly lights? No idea, but the buffet was nice I guess.


What I did learn was that Cinestill 800T was really nice in the desert sun. I haven't shot any more of this stock since then, and now we own a butt load of Portra 800 as far as faster speed film goes. There was a sense of slight disappointment that I didn't get to shoot anything that would have really highlighted the famous red halation of Cinestill. Maybe another time and place.


Side note: Emo fest was amazing and I never thought I would see My Chemical Romance live in any capacity, but that box was checked. Big win.

And now, some shitty 35mm photos of the actual fest below:

Kodak GC 400 | Don't remember what camera

- Cazimi