Travelling with Film, Mexican adventure with Ewa Tryniecka

On a recent trip to Mexico our lab technician, Ewa, decided to only shoot film, so we have invited her to write up her experience.

For this trip I packed two rolls of Portra 160, and a roll each of Kodak Ultramax 400, Elektra 100 and Fuji Superia X-TRA 400. All photographs were taken with Pentax MZ-10 + Pentax 28-80mm f3.5-5.6 lens. Black and white film was not an option for me, as I wanted to document the vibrant colours of México.

Seeing our customers’ incredible results, I was particularly excited to shoot fine grain Elektra 100 (or Luminar 100), which is a respooled Kodak Aerocolour IV film used for aerial photography and surveillance.

However, most of my favourite photographs from this trip were shot on Fuji Superia X-TRA 400, especially the ones below:

From the left: a bus ride from Chichén Itzá to Mérida; your local barber in CDMX (shot with Fuji Superia X-TRA 400)

It’s common in rural parts of Mexico for the locals to hop on buses and sell sweet and savoury snacks. You could tell by the way this charming amigo was chatting with the bus driver that this is part of their daily routine.

What made this bus ride even more memorable was a little Mexican girl travelling with her abuelita who, as getting off at their stop, handed me her bag of leftover popcorn, nodding at me as we shared secret.

From the top the left: Doralba Hotel; the streets and real street food experience in Mérida (shot with Fuji Superia X-TRA 400)

During my two weeks in Mexico, I travelled across the states of Quintana Roo and Yucatán ending the trip in México City- my most anticipated part of the trip! It made sense then to save Elektra 100 for, what turned out to be, the gloomiest of all stops (I still loved it though!)

The streets of CDMX (shot with Elektra 100)

I wasn’t equipped with the brightest of lenses either, so I found Elektra 100 a tad too slow for a rainy afternoon in México City unless the subject was static. I regret not shooting it in sunny Quintana Roo.

A bunch of cute dogs walking the streets of CDMX (shot with Elektra 100)

From the left: the coconut vendor; Museo Frida Kahlo/Casa Azul (shot with Elektra 100)

I had a few frames left on the Kodak Portra 160 at the beginning of my stay in México City, and I’m quite pleased with the photographs below. It was the sunniest day, and I shot these around midday.

Overall, I did like the results from Fuji Superia X-TRA 400 the most! It’s a nice all-rounder, reliable in different lighting scenarios. If you ever come across Elektra 100 then I would recommend using it on a bright summer or autumnal day for the best results. It produces warm undertones that add on to that vintage look, and it’s a sharper alternative to the classic Kodak Gold 200.