Two Worlds Unite

Saturday's wedding was amazing.  Megan and Sid were awesome!  The reception was incredible.  It was also a little crazy.  


As part of my transition to film, I've been shooting some film at each wedding to build my portfolio, work out bugs in my technique, and decide on the best equipment for each situation. This past weekend, I shot quite a bit of film along with my normal digital coverage.  It was so much fun, but also a lot of work.  I even had a special assistant to wrangle film and gear.


I shot eleven rolls, but the "polaroid" went a little neglected.  Here are the two I shot.

Tech Notes:

Fuji FP-3000B shot with a Mamiya Universal with 100mm f3.5 lens.  I forgot to pull them until the next morning.  Gotta remember to do that sooner.  

  

Double Ikon

Here are a couple of double exposures from my Zeiss Ikon Nettar 6x9 camera.  The cocking of the shutter and advancing of the film require separate movements so it is easy to accidentally create a double exposure.  The first was a mistake and the second was intentional.  

Tech Notes:

Fuji Neopan 400 ISO 120 film shot with a Zeiss Ikon Nettar 6x9 camera.  Processed and scanned by Richard Photo Lab.

Davis Deaton Day

Here are a few favorites from a recent wedding.  The weather was perfect and Allison and Trey were so much fun.    


I'm so pleased with the results that I can't wait for the wedding this weekend.  I'm planning on shooting enough film to create a complete sample album.  Shooting both digital and film is work!

Tech Notes:

The color images are Fuji 400H with my Mamiya 645AF with 80mm f2.8 lens.  The black and white images are Fuji Neopan 1600 with my Contax G1 with 45mm f2 lens.  All were shot with available light.  The film was processed and scanned by Richard Photo Lab.  Photoshop (actually Adobe Camera RAW-it works on jpegs as well) was used to crop and straighten the images as well as add the white border.

Olympus Decay

Confession time.  

I am terrible about stopping to take pictures when I am traveling.  I am consumed with arriving.  As much as I believe it is about the journey, I'm all about the destination when I'm driving.  Here are some examples of what happens when I overcome by need to be there.  

These images were taken of the old Lee Maddox Grocery in Jackson, Georgia.  Truth is that I've passed it dozens of times and never stopped.  I did this dreary day.

Tech Notes:

Fuji Neopan 1600 35mm film shot with an Olympus Stylus Epic.  It is a fully automatic point and shoot camera with a 35mm f2.8 lens.  Processed and scanned by Richard Photo Lab.  No Photoshop except for the white border.

 

Cake Love

This year I'm switching my wedding business to film.  Next year I plan to do the same for my portrait work.  I haven't really started working on the portrait side, but, recently, I needed to finish off a roll I started a few days earlier, so I took part of a first birthday session on film.  He really loved that cake.


These images were shot on the new Kodak Ektar 100 rather than my normal Fuji 400H film.  The skin tones are beautiful!  I'm really impressed.

Tech Notes:

Mamiya 645AF with 80mm f2.8 lens on Kodak Ektar 100 ISO 120 film (Got it free at Imaging USA).  Shot in studio with 3 Alien Bees strobes.  Processed and scanned by Richard Photo Lab.  No Photoshop except to add the white border.

Glass But Not For Drinking

I spent about half an hour in one of my favorite stores in the world this weekend.  It was an amazing 30 minutes.  The Paris Market in Savannah is filled with a combination of new French inspired home decor and antique items from around the world.  Each time I have visited, the inventory has changed.  Each time I have found something that I would need to sell my Rover to purchase.  Each time I have found a few items that fit into my meager budget.  This trip was no exception.  There was a 15 drawer chest that would be perfect for storing prints and negatives.  I wasn't the only one who thought so.  It was filled with old prints and had boxes of old glass plate negatives and slides on top.  In fact, an entire corner of the basement was filled with old photographic items.  There were large format field cameras, old Speed Graphics, stereo viewers, and projectors in addition to the prints and negatives.  I found one negative that I had to have.  I need to go back!

Tech Notes:

Glass plate negative, 4x5 inches.  I guessing it was taken in the 1930s-1960s based on the gentleman's attire.  Since I don't yet have a negative scanner, I used a normal flatbed scanner with an old viewing light box on top of the negative.  I inverted in Photoshop, converted to black and white, and brightened it slightly.

Low Country Love

Here is a sneak peak of today's engagement session from the low country.  Ryan (the bride) and Keith (the groom) decided to use the wedding location for the engagement session as well.  The weather was amazing.  The marsh was beautiful.  The couple was great fun.

Tech Notes:
Mamiaya Universal with 100mm f3.5 lens.  Fuji FP-3000B instant film.


As an added note, I dropped my camera during the session and apparently fogged the film.  I kinda like the results.

Some Call Them Mistakes

I call them learning opportunities.  I had a couple this morning.  


First, remember to pull the dark slide on your back.

Second, you can't do the lifted edge trick on the 3000B film (it processing in only 15 seconds).

Tech Notes:


Mamiya Universal with 100mm f3.5 lens.  Fuji FP-3000B instant film.

Instax In The Rain

I shot a couple of images with my Fuji Instax 210 camera (think Polaroid on steroids).  It is an integral film camera.  There is no peeling apart of the film.  There is no timing.  There is no sticky goop.  Everything is contained in the film itself.  It has a fixed focal length lens with a relatively small maximum aperture.  You have to learn to work with the limitations it presents.


I normally use it for the Instant Guest Book, but I've been thinking of other ways to put it to use.  The first is from my favorite Mexican restaurant, El Carnival.  The second is from my trip back to the office in the rain.

Tech Notes:
Fuji Instax 210 camera with Fuji Instax film (800 ISO).  The first image is a little blurry because the camera won't focus closer than 3 feet.  

30 Photos That Changed The World

There is an awesome post at the Photography Schools Online blog that discusses images that have become part of the vernacular.  The images range from large format landscapes to digital snapshots from Iraq.  While not all the images are analog, most are.  


My personal favorite is the Robert Capa photo from Omaha Beach during D-day.  It has what seems to be a blur caused by panning the camera during exposure.  It adds to the sense of movement and urgency.  The funny part is that Capa did not pan the camera.  The blur came from a lab tech drying the film too quickly.  The heat caused the emulsion to smear slightly.  Analog leads to happy accidents.


It is a wonderful, informative and educational read.  If you are a photographer, or hope to one day be a photographer, study these images.  If you one day create an image with half the impact of these, you have moved a mountain.  Check it out here.