The chain of events from one lucky roll of film.

I guess the story starts from the moment when I found out there were no tickets left at the box office for the concert I had planned to go to that night. As I Lay Dying and Suicide Silence were in London and I was going to miss them, I was gutted. I never usually plan far enough ahead for concerts (or anything else in life, as we will see later) so end up trying to buy tickets outside but tonight, nobody had a spare, not even the ticket touts.

As I was stood with a couple of friends I had just bumped into, and we were working out what to do, another buddy of mine who promotes small gigs in London, and had put Suicide Silence on when they first came to the UK, tapped me on the shoulder. He told us how he was hanging with the band back stage and naturally we begged him to sort us out with a guestlst slot or pass or anything! He said he’d see what he could do and disappeared back inside again.

10 anxious minutes later, he reappeared with one pass in his hand… there were no more spaces left on the guest list and this was the best he could do… but there were 3 of us. He paused for a moment, inside my head I was hoping he’d choose me… “sorry guys but I’ve gotta give Dan (that’s me) the pass, I’ve known him longer and there’s two of you so you’d still need to find another ticket anyway.” I felt bad for the other two… but I HAD A BACKSTAGE PASS TO SEE SUICIDE SILENCE AT THE KOKO!!!

Now I’m sure you’re wondering what all this has to do with a roll of film? Well… I was so glad that I had managed to get into the show, and more importantly – I had an access all areas pass. I could go where I wanted, I wasn’t stuck in the crowd. I could go in front of the barriers and take photos with my Diana… What a great opportunity!

My thoughts in that moment went a little like this: “Thank god I have my Diana with me… I nearly left it at home because I couldn’t take photos from the crowd, they’d look awful. But I did want to take some shots of London before the show so I took it anyway… but only one roll, I didn’t want to get too snap happy and waste all my film in one go… only one roll? oh no… why did i take out my other rolls? How many shots do I have left?…… FIVE? FIVE SHOTS? I’m backstage at a concert with only 5 shots on my camera? Goddammit!”

I scrambled through my bag in hope that I would find a crappy roll of free Fuji film tucked away… I was about to give up when I felt the familiar black cylinder buried under scraps of paper in the bottom of my bag. YES I HAVE A SPARE ROLL OF FILM. But it was the Rollei Black and White film I was planning to save for some winter shots… Damn why wasn’t it the cheap film I had hoped for… Dilemma – do I use the roll now, it was quite expensive and what about my other plans? Or do I use it tonight… in this unique chance to get in front of the barrier and take photos from the photographer pit? Of course you know what I chose to do…

One of the photos I took that night has been a big deal for me on Lomography.com – and without that lucky spare roll I would never have captured this shot… It is my most popular photo on the site, and won me first runner up in the Wrangler competition where I got a Spinner 360 and another Diana.

Without that spare roll I would never have won a spinner – the spinner has brought a new sense of energy and excitement to my lomography experience and I have an even greater passion for it than I had before… all because of that one roll of film.

written by atreyuthechild on 2011-03-22