Dreamy, soft, dark and light, subtle and faint are the words that come to mind when I think of this beautiful new film the Impossible Project gods have granted down upon us.

On Tuesday I briefly met up with the lovely Ashley to pick up my film (she was a doll and went in on a shipment with me) so yesterday was PX film testing day. Of course, Vancouver chose to be rainy and miserable so I only took one shot. I am hoping to do some more tests when the weather clears up.

Overall, I was pretty happy with my first shot as I have read about some rather unsuccessful first tries and was very nervous that it wasn’t going to turn out at all. My advice is to read this and look around the flickr forums for as much information as you can before you shoot.

I thought I would share what I did to achieve this first shot.

I opened the pack inside and inserted it into my SX70 camera with no problems. This was the first time I’ve not had to manipulate the film to get it to fit into the camera. It slid straight in, I closed up the door and out shot the dark slide like magic.

Once I had figured out what my first test subject would be, I set it up near a window with lots of light as it was pretty overcast and grey outside. I had my exposure dial set to the middle, composed my shot and hit the shutter button.

The film ejected and I quickly pulled it out and turned it over.

I covered it with the dark slide and quickly put it in to the pocket of my jeans.

Now this is where I sound like a loon. I then stood in a dark corner with my hand on my butt while the image developed. I must have looked like something out of the Blairwitch Project hovering creepily in the corner. I waited around 2 minutes just to be sure and then took a look at my picture.

I was overjoyed to see a nicely exposed shot when I first glanced upon it. I wasn’t happy with the blurriness but I will hopefully get a chance to try again tomorrow outdoors.

The black spot you can see is because of the dark slide. I didn’t realise at the time but it had a teeny little indented bump which I guess pushed into the film as it was developing.

I think anyone can have a go with this film. You just need to read up on the best conditions for shooting and developing. It will take a while to get to know this first flush, but I get the feeling that we are going to become happy friends.

What do you think of my first go? Have you tried any of the new film yet? I’d love to know about any tricks you have!

EDIT: New tests done today in the sun: Not so great. Sun was shining and I got a totally white overexposed shot.

Went inside with south facing window light and was still over exposed but better.

Tried it a third time with a blind on the same window and it was a little better.

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Check out my Words To Shoot By and flickr bud Dave Tuttle’s first go- a gorgeous shot of the beautiful Whitney.