Trial and Error
That’s just how analog photography goes
Sometimes we spend ages waiting to find the “perfect shot”, the meticulously planned project, total control over every photo, the exact light you want, the perfect angle, the interesting subject, the pride of post-processing… But in the end, it all comes down to chance — rushed, spontaneous shots, trying to finish the roll quickly and find out what happens because the anxiety is kicking in!
That’s how it went with this “film swap” I did with Alê Araújo. I found Alê through her blog, followed her on Instagram, interacted with her, and we decided to do the film swap project. I loaded an Ilford HP5 Plus, ISO 400, into my Minolta X500 in June 2025 and began taking photos.
At first, you think about certain things — backgrounds, themes… I’d already read plenty of tips on image layering across several blogs and YouTube channels, but when I actually started shooting, I didn’t think about any of that. It was all very random, intuitive, and fun.
My photos were taken over a two-month period, and my friend Sam, who was here in Portugal visiting me, was in charge of taking the film with him and shipping it from São Paulo to Brasília. That was the safest way to do it, because sending any kind of package through the post office is a total disaster. I decided not to take any risks.
On August 20, Alê received the film there and started taking her own photos, at her own pace. From the day I finished the roll of film on my side, my anxiety vanished, because now it was no longer up to me, and as far as I was concerned, no matter how long it took, I was going to “forget” (in very strong quotation marks) about it until I saw the final result.
And we really do forget. Which is great, and what makes me love analog photography even more. Nothing is immediate, and the exercise of patience and surprise, the delightful sensation of revisiting and remembering the occasion when you took the photo, the story (or non-story) behind it… That’s priceless.
Well then. On April 7, 2026, Alê shared the scans of the photos with me, and, coincidentally, it was our messenger Sam’s birthday. I was celebrating inside and, of course, absolutely thrilled with the results!
I couldn’t have asked for a better partner—especially considering that Alê already had experience with film swapping and I didn’t. We didn’t plan a single thing beforehand; I just marked the film with a little square drawn on the first frame and started shooting. Unpretentiously and fully present, wandering, looking, snapping, imagining, and then disconnecting.
Here are some of my favorite photos from the roll, and maybe one or two will make their way from here to a frame on the wall.
