5 frames in Orlando with the Canon EOS Rebel 2000 SLR and Ilford HP-5 Plus film

I’ve been away from film photography for decades. As a teen in the 1970’s, I carried my Ricoh SLR with me almost everywhere. By the time I reached college, the Ricoh was upgraded to a Pentax Spotmatic F. I even had a 135mm telephoto lens for the Pentax to go along with the “normal” lens, which I recall was 55mm instead of the more usual 50mm.

Until recently, the last time I shot with film was a family vacation with my wife and kids to Yellowstone National Park in 2000. Using film on that vacation was not intentional. That was early in the digital photography era – and I was all-in. I had a just-released Kodak DC290 2.1 megapixel digital camera for the trip out west from our home in the Detroit area. We had two weeks to see the sights by car, including the Black Hills, Mount Rushmore, Yellowstone, Grand Teton National Park, and Jackson Hole, Wyoming.

“Disaster” struck early on. While at Mount Rushmore, I handed my DC290 to my ten year old daughter to hold briefly while I attended to her twin brother, who needed something (I no longer remember what) from me. She promptly dropped it onto the paving stones outside the visitor center, destroying the lens.

Although my hope for a digital record of the trip was shattered (literally), I am the type of person who always has a Plan B. My Plan B for this trip was a mid-1990’s Pentax IQ Zoom compact 35mm camera. I no longer remember which model. I dug it out of the back of the car and went into the visitor center to buy several rolls of film at the ridiculously inflated prices charged at tourist destinations. I think it was Fujicolor 100 print film. I documented the rest of that memorable vacation on 35mm film. I still have the prints and scans.

Last August, as part of my retirement planning for early 2025, I decided to give film photography another try. I intended to get a fully manual 35mm SLR of a vintage similar to my old Spotmatic F. However, with two fast-moving granddaughters, ages 2 and 4 living nearby who would be frequent film subjects, my research guided me toward a more automatic camera.

Not wanting to spend much money, and not necessarily needing a “classic” like the Pentax K1000 or Canon AE-1, I discovered the Canon EOS Rebel 2000. It is cheap, lightweight (polycarbonate body), and there are tons of lenses available for its EF mount. Best of all, with a kit 28-80mm zoom lens, there were literally dozens to choose from for less than $75 on eBay. I paid $55 for mine. It arrived in like new condition.

I have no illusions. This is not a high- or even mid-range example of a 35mm SLR. But it can take decent photos. I purchased a few rolls of film and headed out into the world (or at least my part of the world near downtown Orlando – which differs greatly from “theme park” Orlando).

The second roll I shot was Ilford HP-5 Plus black and white film. Most photos I took were at Lake Eola Park in the center of downtown. The Park is famous for its waterfowl, including dozens of swans. I also visited another downtown area lake, Lake Davis, which has a few swans of its own along with ducks of many species and many loud and aggressive geese. Orlando has dozens of lakes in and around downtown.

This first frame is a Muscovy duck (my favorite species) in mid wing-flap at Lake Davis. Muscovy’s are not native to Florida, but they do well here. A white ibis looks on.

Also at Lake Davis is this backlit view of trees growing out of water. I had the Rebel 2000 set to automatically overexpose each shot by one stop. Something I read suggested doing so for more dense negatives. But I am still learning.

The next two frames are from Lake Eola. Keeping with the theme of backlit trees growing out of the water, this shot shows a half dozen swans in the water around the tree, with a large fountain and downtown’s buildings in the background.

Next is a closer shot of two swans along the shoreline with a pair of tree trunks in the background.

One of the reasons I went with a more “modern” automatic SLR was to simplify taking photos of my young granddaughters. The final frame shows the younger of the two children when she was about a month shy of her second birthday. Even in a black and white photo, you can tell she has beautiful blue eyes.

Each frame was taken with the camera’s kit lens. Each is unedited and exactly as the scans were sent to me by the processing lab.

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