I’m away for just over a month, and will be in Brazil, Chile and Bolivia.

Lagoon shooting, Brazil 2024. Image courtesy of John Motzi.

I’ve managed to get through all the airports so far without having my films scanned and I’ve found the best way to do this is to collect / un-box all the films and put them into sealable bags, so they can be seen easily. I have also chosen to make sure that there are a lot of 800 ISO films in the bags, as this seems to make the decision easier for the x-ray staff as to whether to scan or hand-search the films.

For most of the staff, I found showing an ISO 800 roll was enough for them to decide to hand-search the film. The only airport where I had more of a reluctance to do that was Edinburgh. I have always found London Heathrow to be 100% inflexible with regards to doing hand inspections of film.

I took Portra 160, 400 and 800 ISO films with me this time as I wish to focus on some portraiture shooting while in Patagonia. My Contax 645 system allows me to have different backs attached allowing me to change ISO quickly.

I realise this post is of little interest to digital shooters, but I note that film has gained more popularity in recent years (lowest year for film sales was 2009). We now live in a multi-format society where mp3, CD, vinyl and even cassette co-exist, and the same is true for photography. It has never been such a great time to do photography as there are so many different kinds of chemical processes which lend a very different look and feel to the work. It is not a 100% digital world.