Photographer Shoots NFL on 35mm Film, Shares Photos Before Game is Over

A three-panel image sequence: 1) A roll of film is opened. 2) A film camera is held, aimed towards a vibrant, crowded football stadium. 3) A football player in green and white gestures and smiles on the field.

Professional sports are almost always photographed with digital cameras these days, but this week one photographer decided to do something unusual: not only did he shoot an NFL football game on 35mm film, but he developed, scanned, and posted the photos before the game had even ended.

Photographer Miles Myerscough-Harris attended the Monday Night Football game on October 14th between the New York Jets and the Buffalo Bills at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey. His equipment of choice was a Canon EOS 1-V 35mm film SLR camera loaded with Kodak Portra 800 color negative film. His lenses of choice were the 18-35mm f/2.8, 70-200mm f/2.8, and 300mm f/4.

After filling up some rolls of film, Myerscough-Harris passed them onto Will of Analogue Wonderland (an online film retailer), who processed the film during halftime in a backstage bathroom of the stadium. Development was done using the AGO Film Processor, a $479 automated system for B&W, C-41, and E-6 films.

A person develops film using a darkroom tank on a bathroom counter. The three panels show stages of the process: sealing the tank, mixing chemicals, and rinsing film under a showerhead in a tiled bathroom.
Will from Analogue Wonderland processing the film in a bathroom at MetLife Stadium.

The film was then digitized using a digital camera and lightbox, and the results were amazing.

A triptych showing film negatives, a camera's digital screen with an image, and a person operating a film scanning setup. The scenes illustrate the process of digitizing film photographs.
Will from Analogue Wonderland digitizing the film during the NFL football game.

Myerscough-Harris shared a 36-second video about this shoot on X, where it has been viewed over 3.6 million times:

He also shared this longer 1-minute behind-the-scenes look at how this project was done:

Myerscough-Harris has become one of the best-known film photographers on the Internet in recent years, boasting over 1.8 million followers on his Expired Film Club TikTok account. You can purchase prints of his beautiful work through Saint Leone.


Image credits: Photographs and still frames by Miles Myerscough-Harris / Expired Film Club

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