Birthday Film, Harman Phoenix: From the Beach to the Low Desert

Today's my birthday !!

I shot this roll of Harman Phoenix 200 starting on my previous birthday back in November 2025, and kept shooting it all the way until fig's birthday in May 2026.

And of course it took me about six months after that to finally get it developed. Just in time for another birthday !!

This post is a response to sameoldstory.co's post. If you haven't read that yet, she recently did a review of Harman Phoenix II which inspired me to finally get my roll of Phoenix developed. Here's her post:

Phoenix II is supposed to be an improved version over original Phoenix roll, I haven't shot it myself, but what I do know is that I'm very happy with how my standard roll came out.

One thing to note, this film absolutely LOVES bright light. Truly, I don't think you can't get enough sunlight with this film, which cost me some photos, but the ones that worked came out looking beautiful.

I'm using the Reto Pano "ULTRA WIDE" point and shoot for these, which is basically just the Reto Ultra Wide & Slim with a flash slapped on and a fake panorama setting. The toy camera look paired with this dreamy film makes for a nice combo.

Even in direct sunlight, these photos came out suprisingly dark. This film is soooo hungry for sunlight. I'm pleasantly surprised with the way these photos look though, even if about half the roll came out underexposed.

I feel like this film really went in a lot of interesting directions depending on how much light was available. Some shots are glowing with warmth and life, while others came out moody and intense. It really does a great job of capturing the warmth of these moments and makes them feel especially nice to look back on.

I have a roll of Ektar 100 that I'm going to shoot next, I can't wait to see how it compares.

Maybe I'll start it today, on my birthday again. I wonder if this one will also take me 6 months to get through?

XOXO Brookie ❤️