When I feel like just having fun with photography, I often reach for a roll of B&W film and my set of filters to go with it. Typically, I work with a prime lens and yellow, orange, and red filters. On this day, my camera of choice was a Nikon FA, Nikon 28mm f/2.8 lens, T-Max 100 film (only slightly expired), and a Tiffen 21 orange filter.

If you haven't worked with B&W film and these filters, it's amazing at how much (and how easily) you can alter the image with them. The yellow filter is a great all-around contrast enhancer. The orange and red varieties are a bit more dramatic, depending on the colors in the scene. Take these orange cones for example.

"Orange Cone with Orange Filter" - Nikon FA, Nikkor 28mm lens, Aperture Priority at f/2.8, Kodak T-Max 100 film. Photo by Derrick Story. (Click on images to enlarge.)

"Orange Cone, No Filter" - Nikon FA, Nikkor 28mm lens, Aperture Priority at f/11, Kodak T-Max 100 film. Photo by Derrick Story.

It's amazing at how different the two images are. The top photo has the orange color "filtered out" with the filter. Plus, the wide aperture setting softens the background a bit, even with the wide angle lens.

The second image, without a filter, renders very differently. Plus there's more depth of field thanks to the f/11 setting.

This entire roll of film is filled with images that are fun and make great fodder for social posts, fine art cards, and articles like this. But the best part is, I had a great time that morning and was reminded once again why I like photography so much.

You can share your thoughts at the TDS Facebook page, where I'll post this story for discussion.