Tried out a roll of Kodak Tri X 400 on my Canonet since, gosh, this past winter (the snow-covered driveway gives it away).
For the first time, I sent a few rolls of film away to get processed and printed, with great results. It’s not cheap, but quality counts.
It seems I’ve become the “Dave Will Take Your Old Film Camera” guy.
To be fair, I did pick up the Canonet at a yard sale. The film, too (all of it expired), was a flea market grab.
I’s been a fun way to stretch the photography hobby into new areas. Yes, it’s expensive, and yes, there’s a learning curve. But what else do you do with a hobby but spend money and pick up new skills?
Missing from this photo: a Yashica Mat 124 TLR camera a friend from high school gave me. My first foray into medium format.
Stay tuned.
Squares and Rectangles – An abandoned plant in Ann Arbor, Michigan.
35mm film with a Canonet QL17.
Some summer time plant life, taken with the Pentax K1000 and a lovely roll of Kodak Portra.
Magic.
Had my first roll of Kodak Ektar 100 printed, and boy, talk about some touchy film.
Or I should say, touchy camera (my Canonet) and film combo. Lots of underexposures, crushed blacks, and double exposures (like the one above) in the roll.
It’s a bummer when the photos you’re looking forward to seeing come out botched. But that’s the magic of film, right?
Sure, there’s a bit of bravery needed to pull the car over and climb into an abandoned and nearly-collapsed shack on the edge of an overgrown tree farm.
And then you see the creep-tastic shrine someone made out of a skull and carcass bones.
But there’s also adventure, and the gnawing desire to see what’s inside the thing.
So it was that I climbed into this ramshackle little building, probably no more than 15 ft. by 30 ft., after passing if for many years along M-60 just east of Spring Arbor, Mich.
Gueorgui Pinkhassov (via A set of photographs by Gueorgui Pinkhassov | Pavel Kosenko’s blog (English version))
Numbers 11, 23, 33, and 73 (above) are everything I love about color film photography. Just perfect.
The fun part about a hobby is that you can take risks and trying things out with little to no consequence (if you don’t count time or effort).
And so, while I don’t do New Year’s resolutions, this year I’m going to try to do a bit more 35mm film photography.
I just posted my first batch of photos developed from a roll of Fuji Superia film. My local photo shop actually developed them for me last year, but it’s taken me this long to get them scanned and uploaded. I’m also working on a roll of Ilford black and white film that I’m excited about.
All of this film stuff has me thinking about experimenting with film more. Specifically, I want to play with my Tomyko LT002 plastic toy camera. I just loaded it with some Lomography 400 speed color film (if you’re going to go toy/plastic, go all the way, right?). While poking around, doing some research on the camera, I came across some sample images – the type of dreamy photos I’ve wanted to make, just for fun.
(An aside: it’s super hard to find info on these Tomyko – or Lavec – cameras. But you can grab your own for $15 on eBay, or for $5 at a local thrift store.)
Also, I have collected rolls of Kodak Portra and Ektar to try out with my Pentax K1000.
To do all this, there’s a little bit of an investment involved. It takes money to develop and scan the film (though not much), but that’s to be expected with any hobby. And lord knows I know how to spend money on a hobby.
Taking photos with film is different almost automatically. You need some patience, and some selectivity, to make film photos.
That’s my goal for 2014: explore this measured pace. Make thoughtful images. And learn a bit about how people used to make photos.
