A roll from the old rhythm
These frames come from an April 2017 roll shot on the Olympus OM-2n, back when I was still in Ho Chi Minh City and film was part of my normal walking rhythm.
I used to shoot a lot of film there. The city made it easy: small rooms, bright gates, cats under cars, and enough labs nearby that finishing a roll felt like the beginning of the next one instead of a chore.
When scanning became the bottleneck
That changed after I moved toward Hoi An and Da Nang. Without a nearby scanning lab, the loop broke. Rolls could still be exposed, but the waiting, shipping, and uncertainty made film feel less like practice and more like storage.
For the time being I shifted into the work that fits my current life better: macro subjects, telephoto field notes, and digital bodies I can review right away.
The kit for now
My main digital kit now is the Olympus E-M1 Mark III and the Panasonic Lumix GH5. The Olympus body has become the patient macro and telephoto tool, while the GH5 still fits the slower observational work I like.
I do not think of that as replacing film. It is just the route that keeps me shooting while the scanning problem is unsolved.
Coming back to film
When I move from Da Nang to Hoi An next year, I would love to make film part of the routine again. Not as nostalgia, and not as a separate project, but as another way of paying attention.
These scans are a reminder that the slower process used to suit me. I want to get back to that pace when the practical side becomes possible again.
