Cassidy

Before I left on my Christmas trip to Florida, I met up with Cassidy to do just an impromptu shoot. We’ve talked so many times about going out and creating but we always were so busy, the bad part about being responsible adults. Anyways, I felt as if I was neglecting my Rolleiflex and havent shot with it much lately so I brought that amazing medium format camera out and it is always enjoyable to work with that system. The reverse glass and waist level finder is a nice little challenge to shake up the usual prism, viewfinder the Pentax 67 or digital camera can do.

The weather was great and I was very happy for a sunny day. We met up at my favorite coffee shop in downtown Boise (District Coffee House) and we just went for a walk. I had spotted a few locations I had though this is gonna be super sweet. I was really looking for some direct sunlight, then use contrast light with hard shadows and highlights and then just flattering bounced light. I felt I hit all three on my checklist. I shot some digital, however Im happy with all but 2 frames that were a mistake on my part with exposure.

I know my professor would never see this, but I still always think to myself a huge thank you to Dr. Ponsford for passing this gorgeous camera on to me.

First Roll: Lomography F2/400

Its not uncommon for me to keep a roll or two in my bag when I go take some portraits. When I was shooting with Ellen I also brought my Rolleiflex 2.8C with a roll of some Lomography F2/400 color film. (Check here to see the digital shots) Now, F2/400 is a color film that was purchased by Lomography, they bought an exclusive jumbo roll of film from an older company. And like a fine wine, they “aged” it and then distributed it. When they announced this film I picked up a good handful, which was a good idea because they sold out within a day or two.

After wrapping up our shoot I ran home and went right to developing this roll. I was super excited how the negatives would render let alone if they would reveal anything, which is always my feelings about developing but that’s what makes it feel like Christmas morning haha. Anyways, I shot this F2/400 at box speed and was extremely impressed in when I did a preview scan. I’m happy I bought a good amount of rolls. With that in mind, I will be treating this film like a fine whiskey… only busting it our for special shoots or something.

Hannah Blake

On my last post with Ellen, I mentioned I sold my Yashica Mat 124G because I had been given a gift. That gift was a 1950's era Rolleiflex TLR, I could not wait to use. So I kicked off the new year right by shooting with Hannah. I shot both digital and one roll of Kodak black and white film. All the square (6x6) photographs you see are from the Rollei. I took a break from shooting inside and we walked downtown Boise. I found this spot at the JUMP building that has interesting light during the day and I was hoping to practice a bit with more high key lighting. Success! We continued walking the bitter cold streets and found this gorgeous light bouncing from a window down to the sidewalk. I could've shot here all day long with Hannah in this pocket of light.  

I was stoked to see the negatives from the Rolleiflex were perfect and the camera had NO issues,Woo hoo! With that being said, I feel I need to start shooting more rolls of film on shoots instead of being so conservative and shooting one. I always regret when I see a whole roll come out great and wonder "what if." 

I have been developing my own black and white for a few months now. I have a C-41 kit for color film that I have yet to put together for developing. Soon I will, there is just a little fear of the unknown and have only doing it once. When I get comfortable I think I will begin a film blog and separate the digital shoots from the film ones!

Ellen On Film

A few months ago I purchased a 1970's era Yashica Mat-124G. I had been really, really wanting a square format (6x6) so the right deal came up and I picked one up. Now this camera was a TLR (twin lens reflex), the same sort of camera that Vivan Maier used to create her street photography, portraits, self portraits etc. 

Now usually when I get a new camera, lens or whatever I have a few people I will ask to create some work with the new equipment. And in this gear test, it was my red headed friend Ellen. Now it was early December so it was freezing cold and Ellen told me she had this amazing window light in her living room. The rest was history. Now I did shoot some digital but I'm more interested in shooting more film this year, especially since I obtained my own chemistry to develop at home. (Real quick I'll tell those photo nerds who are curious. I shot with TriX 400, metered at 1600. Developed with Kodak HC-110)

As excited as I was to use this camera. I SOLD IT. 

Why? You'll see on my next blog post when I develop, scan the next roll of film!