On June 1st, my wife and I attended an Echo & The Bunnymen concert in Salt Lake City, Utah. I love music and the experience of seeing my favorite bands perform live. Echo & The Bunnymen launched another U.S. tour in 2024, and I was there at the front of the crowd with a borrowed Olympus LT Zoom 105 (1997) camera, loaded with Kodak Tmax P3200 film.
During the show, I firmly gripped the camera in my right hand. Towards the end of the show, I lowered the camera from my face and accidentally hit my right leg, causing the camera to fall to the ground. D’OH! I have never dropped a camera before! A fellow concert-goer picked it up and handed it back to me. Upon inspection, I discovered that the camera had landed on the lens, and it wouldn’t power off. The camera was dead. My first thought was the uncomfortable conversation I would have with my son, the camera’s owner. I managed to rewind the roll and remove the film from the camera. The next day, I apologized to my son and promised to replace the camera with something from my collection.
After developing and scanning the photos, they turned out as expected, with a lot of contrast and grain. Unfortunately, the concert venue didn’t light the band from the front. Most of the lighting was behind them, creating cool silhouettes of Ian McCulloch and Will Sergeant. McCulloch always performs live wearing sunglasses, so the lighting choice was likely intentional. Again, the concert itself exceeded the quality of these photos. I scored a setlist from the stage and we had fun, even after I dropped the camera.
Camera: Olympus LT Zoom 105 (1997)
Film: Kodak Tmax P3200
Process: Kodak HC-110 (1+31) 10 Min @ 20° C
Scanned: Epson V700 Photo
Here’s a link to a Spotify Playlist that contains all the songs played at this show.
Utah Film Photography 