This past summer, I spent a couple of months working a seasonal retail job in Bar Harbor, Maine. This was my second stint at this job, and I was thrilled to be living close to the shore again, right on Main Street. Months prior, I had bought 3 rolls Portra 160VC film from eBay that had expired in 2005. I knew I was taking a risk with expired film, but I was semi-hopeful knowing that it was stored refrigerated. I overexposed the roll by two stops and shot it at 40 iso to account for the two decades passed its expiration date. I've never shot Portra 160VC, so I had no expectations.
I had the day off from work, and it was a beautiful, sunny September day in Bar Harbor, so I decided to finally put the roll to good use. I grabbed my Nikon N80, stepped outside my apartment and quickly crossed the street to start my walk along the Shore Path. The Shore Path sits right along Agamont Park and is known for being a nice, easy walk along the coast that goes along the edge of Bar Harbor and follows Frenchman Bay. It was my go-to route for when I wanted to squeeze in a quick photo walk, but in this case, I had the whole day to take my time and soak in the fresh sea breeze.
This was my first season with full access to the coastal path. I never had the chance to fully walk the Shore Path last year after a treacherous winter storm wiped out large sections just months before. Thankfully, Friends of Acadia—a nonprofit that supports Acadia National Park through funding, providing equipment, and volunteer efforts—helped restore the shore path by clearing the debris and reconstructing the original walkway.
Walking along the Shore Path and shooting a roll of film will always be one of my favorite memories spent at Bar Harbor. Even though I’ve had some bad luck with expired film, I’m really happy with how this roll turned out!
I chose my favorite images from the roll. Enjoy!
One year later, despite the devastation caused by the 2024 hurricane, the iconic Balancing Rock still remained.
Impressions
According to Kodak Moments, Portra 160VC is known for maintaining natural skin tones, vivid colors, fine grain, and medium contrast. My scans, however, seem slightly desaturated. The greens are muted and dull and the blue water appears more cyan.
Portra 160 has an exposure latitude of around -1EV to +3EV, especially when the highlights are overexposed. This means that it can keep details and will not readily "blow out" even when overexposed. I think the film's latitude especially helped me in this situation where exposing for a bright sky or the sun's reflection off the water could have easily made me overexpose. Instead, Portra 160VC did me a solid preserved the detail and texture of the water and sky.
Final Thoughts
Overall, I really liked this film! I don't usually shoot low iso films so it was nice to stray from the usual and switch it up. I also personally love the colors. They feel deeply nostalgic, like remembering a family vacation from childhood. I'm definitely excited to shoot the other two rolls of this expired film! To date, this roll contains some of the best photos I've taken using expired film. It is definitely going to the top of my list of expired film expedition experiments.
Read about Portra 160VC and other Portra 160 film here: https://business.kodakmoments.com/sites/default/files/files/products/e4051_portra_160.pdf
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