Vacation Dispatches in 35mm: Photo Diaries of Samra Jean Lovelady
Samra Jean was destined for the art life. She spent her formative years amongst a multi-hyphenated creative family in San Jose, California — her father owned a brand design studio, her mother is an interior designer, her sister is a CGI animator, and her brother is a musician.
Equipped with dual bachelor’s degrees in graphic design and photography from Utah Valley University, she’s armed to the teeth with creative expertise. During a seven-year stint in San Francisco as a brand agency designer and digital photographer for Astro Studios, she was in cruise control, supporting the vision of its clients.
Now, after an eight-year hiatus from film photography, she’s decided to revisit the medium to expand her own vision. These photo diary entries from Florida and Utah serve as her departure from a ‘fix it in post’ corporate mentality in favor of a skillset entrenched in intentionality, unedited and uncut.
Greetings from Florida
Destination: Boca Raton, Florida
Samra: “I love how film can evoke a sense of timelessness. This image was shot in 2024, but the date stamp still reads 2005, mostly because the camera date is stuck. Beyond the fashion, the film grain and colorization blur the sense of time, making it harder to pinpoint an exact era and adding depth to the story.”
Destination: South Beach, Florida
Samra: “When I think of Miami, my mind immediately goes to the vibrant 1980s aesthetic—pink and teal green hues paired with iconic plastic flamingos. During my visit, I gave myself the assignment to capture these colors. Setting guidelines like this helps me narrow my focus and create more intentional, meaningful images.”
Destination: South Beach, Florida
Samra: “I love the color blocking in these images—the blue skies, white sands, and brown elephants create a striking visual harmony. These elephants were part of an art installation on the beach, highlighting the growing elephant population in India and their peaceful coexistence with humans. When capturing these shots, I aimed to honor the artist's intent by including man-made elements, such as the buildings in the background, symbolizing the balance between urbanization and wildlife. The people with their phones out, walking alongside the herd reflect how our interactions with nature are often mediated through technology, framing it as a spectacle rather than a direct experience.”
Destination: South Beach, Florida
Samra: “I've been finding a sense of calm in embracing my images as they are, without edits. When shooting digital, I often overlooked in-camera adjustments, assuming I could fix everything in post-processing. Both of these images are ones I would instinctively want to edit—the unbalanced corner on the left, the distracting people and cars—but I find beauty in the blue light, the art deco architecture, and the interplay of white, yellow, blue, and black. The second image has its own imperfections—a cluttered background, an unpolished mirror—but these elements contribute to the authenticity of the scene. By leaving these details untouched, I’m learning to appreciate the raw, unfiltered story of shooting film again.”
Season’s Greetings from Utah
Destination: Highland, Utah
Samra: “The winter lighting presented a contrast to the vibrant, summer-like light I experienced in Miami. In this setting, I focused on lighting that could convey a sense of warmth, adding life and energy to images that might otherwise feel flat or dominated by grey tones. By finding these moments of light, I aimed to create a visual narrative on how seasons can mix with the mood in photography.”
Destination: Spanish Fork, Utah
Samra: “Both of these images were shot at the same location and at night. For the first image of Mary, I thought I could hold steady enough to capture it without blur, but I'm quickly learning the importance of recognizing when additional light or a flash is necessary. By contrast, for the second image of the truck, I knew from the start that a flash was not just helpful but essential to achieve the shot I wanted. I'm working on thinking through my images more deliberately before shooting, but I still appreciate the blur in Mary’s image—it captures her nontraditional way. At the same time, I love the crispness of the truck image and how the light falls off toward the back, creating depth and leading lines.”
