“Sprocket Rocket & Wabi Sabi: A Photographic Journey” – Dive into our latest gallery, building on our exploration of life’s beautiful imperfections from our previous article.

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The Sprocket Rocket

On one of Atlanta’s first warm spring days, when the city buzzed with people and their dogs soaking up the sun, I rolled out on a photographic adventure armed with two kinda-trusty plastic cameras and a few rolls of film. With a flea market treasure and an impulse buy, the Diana+ and the Sprocket Rocket, were by my side, I was ready to capture the unfolding day. The film, three rolls of ISO100 35mm Color Negative from Lomography, was the perfect choice for this colorful journey.

I sent our film off to a place I found in San Clemente, California, called THE DARKROOM. I hadn’t tried them before, but after some online digging and seeing the cool stuff they do, it felt like the right spot to see what our Wabi-Sabi adventure looked like developed.

Crossing my fingers, I dropped three rolls of film into the mailbox, sending them off on their next journey. Yes, just three rolls of 35mm—yielding around 50-60 exposures. I figure about 15 of those turned out are share-worthy.

Poor Diana: I shot 6 exposures on the Diana and things were going well…until I took an exposure and went to wind the film and it felt tight.

That sinking feeling hit—the kind you get when you realize, ‘Film Jam!’ It seemed the film had taken a liking to the takeup spool, bunching up in a cozy mess. (One does wonder who loaded the camera!) Or perhaps, it’s all just a bit of overactive imagination and I’m just at the end of the roll.

With a hint of trepidation, I’m holding off on touching the film until I can find refuge in a darkroom. So there it sits, the Diana+, on my desk, cradling a few captured moments. Will these hidden snaps reveal Wabi Sabi magic or just be a costly fumble? I’m quite enjoying the drama.

I got the 35mm scans from THE DARKROOM in about a week.

When sending them off, I included a special request for processing the film:

“Yes I want full frame…the FULLEST of FRAMES!

The Darkroom dispatched the scans as a zipfile, packed with high-res JPEGs designed to expand in color-correcting software upon opening. And they seemed to do just that. I barely tinkered with them, aiming to keep corrections to a minimum. Prints are on their way, though I’ve yet to lay eyes on them. It’s worth mentioning they print at a 4″ width, not 5″. Curious to see how they’ll turn out.

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Stay tuned for more Wabi Sabi Sprocket fun.