Analog Travel Story: Sweden

There's a lot that goes into planning a trip when you want to make the best use of your film camera. In terms of deciding on a film roll, among others, you would want to know what ISO to use and whether to use black and white or color film. For me, it helps to do some research to better understand the scenery of the city or country that you are traveling to. You could also refer back to your travel itinerary for more insights. Thereafter, you should have a clearer idea of the type of photos you would like to capture and prepare the right film rolls and camera(s).

Taken during a break after an afternoon bike stroll

Since I've been to Sweden a few times before, my research was a bit minimal this time. I thought it would be fun to shoot in color to better capture the beauty of the nature, especially considering that I was visiting during the summer. Taking into account of the amount of light during the season, I knew that using an ISO 400 would most likely overexpose most of my photos, which I would like to avoid for obvious reasons. However, I wasn't super comfortable using an ISO 100 as I still wanted a high degree of versatility in case I would like to shoot indoors or in lower light conditions. So I opted for an ISO 200 instead.

Shot with the Olympus AF-1 and Fujicolor c200 film

The Olympus AF-1 has been my go-to point-and-shoot camera for a while now, so it was an easy decision to take this one for my trip. I find it to be the ideal camera if you want to take photos easily and with none of the hassles of having to tinker with the camera settings before every shot.

I've never shot with the Fujicolor c200 previously, but I thought I'd give it a shot for this trip. I have to say I'm quite impressed with the results. I like the tone that the film produces. It doesn't have as much 'glow' as the Kodak Gold 200, but it does the job. I especially like it when capturing less colorful photos, and more of the ones under cloudy conditions, like the two below.

I also have a fond memory of taking these photos of the swans swimming in the sea. The sea was quite shallow so I could take my camera with me and take the photos, but still, I had to go quite far from the shore to try to get as close as possible to the swans, while also being careful not to get too close to get attacked... I love the first photo as it shows a couple of swans, but I find the second one to be equally beautiful as it shows the city as a background in the far distance.

Sticking to my theme of nature, I also managed to capture a few photos of the cows! Let me tell you these cows don't come looking this healthy and plump where I come from, so I have absolutely loved taking photos of cows in Europe. I find them to be quite easy to take photos of as well, mostly because they barely move, of course.

And down below we have bits of pieces from everywhere. The first photo was taken during a cloudy and rainy day in Halmstad, and the second one was taken just a few hours after the clouds passed.

I really like the third photo as it feels very European with the castle in the background, separated from the photographer by way of the lake and the big tree on the left. Then there's the vivid photo of a child playing in the sand - very summery, and a bonus photo of when a hot air balloon flew over our house.

Final thoughts

I'm happy with the camera and film roll I've chosen for this trip, as well as the resulting photos. It's funny when you bring your film camera on a trip because at least for me, much of my memory of the trip starts to take the tone of the film roll. So much of the Sweden I have in my head is now in the tone of the Fujicolor c200, and I don't mind it one bit. I wouldn't be surprised if I use the same film color again if I ever revisit. But that's just me.