My Photographic Observations…and AWESOMENESS
06.03.2012
It’s Party Time! Excellent!
category: film photography
tags: , , ,

Muddy’s Bake Shop had a big birthday recently. Depending upon your point of view, Muddy’s either turned four years old or one year old. That’s because the bakery is a Leap Day baby!

I was asked by Muddy’s owner, Kat, to come snap photos at the big birthday bash she threw for the shop on Leap Day.  IT WAS SO FUN! Lots of customers, employees, and friends of the shop showed up for the party. The place was buzzing! I was so pleased to be a part of it all! I’ll post more “official” photos from the party soon, but here are some “just for funsies” ones I took with my Pentax ZX-7 that night!

28.02.2012
What $35′ll Get You
category: film photography
tags: , , , ,

I got a “new” toy last week. It’s a Pentax ZX-7, which is a 35mm auto focus SLR. Though most would say I need another camera like I need a hole in my head, I do have my reasons for buying this Pentax. I’ll tell you about those reasons some time. Since I paid only $27 for the camera and its 28-90mm kit lens, I feel my purchase won’t need much justification though.

I’m not ready to do a full write-up on this camera yet, because I’ve only put one roll of film through it. But I think this one’s a keeper!

(I might add, other than $27 investment in the camera, it cost me an additional $8 for the “privilege” of using my niece as the subject for the test roll. What a demanding diva she is!)


Pentax ZX-7 • Kodak BW400CN •  Some using 28-90mm/3.5-5.6, some using 50mm/1.4

19.02.2012
Canon Rebel 2000: A Pleasant Surprise
categories: camera equipment, film photography, shop-talk
tags: , , , ,

I thought it was about time I profiled a camera that I’ve been using for nearly four years and which has become an unexpected favorite in my camera arsenal: the Canon Rebel 2000.

In June 2008, I purchased a Canon Rebel Ti from a charity shop for $25. It didn’t come with a lens, so I had to lay hands on one in order to test the camera. I had a flash of inspiration: My friend Adam used to have a Canon Rebel, and I was pretty sure he said it had stopped working. I hoped he might be up for selling the lens off his Rebel, since he couldn’t get any use out of the camera body at that point. As hoped, Adam agreed to sell the lens to me. Hooray! When I picked up the lens from him, he said, “You can just take the camera, too. I think it might be working again.” I attached said lens to the Rebel Ti body I’d purchased and found that the Ti’s film door was broken. Boo! I put batteries in the 2000, and to my delight, it was working again!

Thanks for the killer camera, Adam!
It’s in good hands, I promise!

Product of my first roll through the Rebel 2000

This was right before I was going on a church youth group trip to Waco, TX, so I broke the Rebel 2k in by taking it on the road with me. The Rebel was just PERFECT for toting around with me down there. I could use it like an over-grown point-and-shoot if I wanted, or I could have complete control over exposure and focus settings. That trip to Waco with the Rebel had me hooked. It’s been one of those cameras I can throw into my purse and be ready to go at a moment’s notice! I remember one of my photo buddies, Dirk, at Memphis Photo Supply giving me a hard time when he saw me with this camera. He gave me a “you could do better” sideways glance. Then, when complimenting a photo he thought was fantastic and wanting to know which camera I’d used, I’m pretty sure I rocked his world by replying, “My Canon Rebel 2000!” Burn!

Waco, Tx

mewithoutYou in Nashville, July 2008

I did a search for photos in my Flickr photostream that are tagged with “Canon Rebel 2000.” There are about 450 photos there from my Rebel! That number is pretty high, considering how many other cameras I have and divide my film between. I’ve actually featured a lot of Rebel 2000 photos on the blog and in my photo galleries, but here are a sampling of my favorites from over the years.

(Click the thumbnails to view the full-sized image)

 

(And, I’ve obviously loved shooting people with the Rebel 2K!)

All photos taken with the Canon Rebel 2000 and the 35-80mm/4-5.6 “kit lens.” Except the photo of the Rebel at the top of this post, which was taken with my Canon Powershot SX230HS.

07.02.2012
{Redscale}
categories: film photography, informational, shop-talk
tags: , , , ,

I redscaled some film, y’all.

What’s “redscale” film?

Yet another question that I’m glad you asked!

I didn’t know what redscale film was when I first saw it either. I saw some film labeled as redscale at Urban Outfitters last summer and was puzzled. I thought, “Surely Lomography hasn’t produced a new type of film…” They hadn’t. And I was so shocked that I’d never heard of this before, seeing as I’m an “experimental photography” enthusiast. You load film into a canister with the wrong way facing the shutter – this exposes a different part of the film’s emulsion, which is what causes the shift in the colors. Shooting the film upside down also causes your images appear reversed, as they would in a mirror. My research uncovered a tutorial on how to redscale your film, and it seemed simple enough. I decided to give it a go!

I took a roll of Fuji Superia 400 X-tra and transferred it into a canister for Fujicolor 200 film – backwards, like ya do. I loaded it into my trusty Canon Rebel 2000 and began incorporating this film/camera combo into my life over the course of the next few days. Here are some of the results! Backwards results, of course.

 

What do I think about shooting redscale film?

The same thing I think about shooting cross-processed film: Fun stuff! I normally like the colours in my photos to be as true-to-life as possible, but I enjoy alternative process techniques as a surreal  accompaniment to the look of my usual photos.

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Technical notes for my fellow photo nerds: This film was 400 ASA, shot as 200 ASA to help compensate for the fact that the light coming into the camera had to go through wrong side of the film in order to reach the light-sensitive side of the film (aka “the film was loaded upside down.”) The developed negatives look pretty well exposed, perhaps underexposed in some shots. I might experiment with exposure on future rolls of redscale film. I told the one hour mini-lab where these were developed that they shouldn’t try to correct the colour cast in the photos. As such, the negatives weren’t scanned quite right. There was a weird blue-green grain/noise in the areas of the photos that should have been black or shadowed. I didn’t know if this was an actual film exposure issue or an issue with the scans from the photo lab. I normally don’t do much to “fix” film photos in post-processing on the computer, but for these, I used the black color dropper in my software’s levels to click on an area of each photo that should have been black. This made the scans look MUCH better. I hope this does not constitute “photo manipulation.” I’m not really into that.

05.02.2012
Waiting Room
category: film photography
tags: , ,

Olympus XA • Expired Fuji Super HQ 200 film

Waiting room chairs outside my dad’s doctor’s office in Coldwater, MS. One of those oddities I run across and have no choice but to pull out a camera and document it. File this under “what is THIS all about??”

27.01.2012
Behind the Scenes {+ Inspiration}
categories: film photography, personal
tags: , ,

You know me and my documentarian nature. While I’ve been working with the owner of Muddy’s Bake Shop, Kat, in her home to do their menu photos, I’ve been snapping photos of the “process.” I’ve also been taking photos around Kat’s home, because it inspired me both photographically and personally!

If you’ve ever been to Muddy’s, you may know that Kat considers the bake shop to be an extension of her home.  As such, I would describe her home as being “like Muddy’s, on steroids.” If steroids made decor extra cute, whimsical, and with an extra pinch of cheekiness, that is. I announced to Kat, “I’m pretending I’m doing a magazine photo shoot of your home because I love it so much.” Which I promise is far less weird than it sounds when I put it that way. But Kat’s probably pretty used to my being forward with my photography by now (“Hold on while I get my camera so I can take a picture of you in your wig!”)

Before I began my tenure at Muddy’s in 2009, I had people telling me “You have to go to Muddy’s! It’s what your bakery would look like if you had one!” It was totally true. By the same token, Kat’s home decor is in the same vein that I’d want my home to be furnished one of these days. I hope she won’t mind too terribly much that I’m sharing these with you all, as my way of paying homage to her impeccable style.

All photos taken with the lovely Yashica GT on Kodak BW400CN film. One of my favourite camera and film combinations of all time. That camera is going to get a much-deserved blog posting dedicated to it soon.

26.01.2012
Artist, at Work
category: film photography
tags: , ,

Olympus XA • Expired Fuji Super HQ 200 film • Muddy’s Menu Photo Shoot


An artist who works in buttercream and sprinkles.

21.01.2012
Hipster Cam {Volume One}
categories: camera equipment, film photography
tags:

Warning: if you or someone you love is a hipster, the contents of this blog may fly all over your delicate, ironic sensibilities. Also, this was written with tongue firmly in cheek.

Hello there!  Today, I present you with (what I call) “the hipster cam” -  also better known as the Holga 135. If you like it when I tell you overly verbose stories about cameras and photos, then this is the blog posting for YOU!

A Holga is a cheap, plastic camera from China that originally came only in models that took medium format film (Holga 120.) I’ve been using medium format Holga cameras since 2000. More recently, however, 35mm Holga models have been on the market. I never really wanted one of the 35mm Holgas. I the available Holga 135 collection at Urban Outfitters last year – which is (in my opinion) notorious for overpriced merchandise. Fifty dollars for a plastic camera that looks like you spray-painted it in your garage?! I think not!! I was not born yesterday, people!

All of those feelings about Holga 135 cameras were true until I went into Urban Outfitters with a friend last summer. When I saw a purple Holga 135 on clearance for $20, I couldn’t get it out of my head (this happens when I see most any camera for $20 or under.) I mulled it over for a few days and ultimately went against my nature buying a Lomography camera at Urban Outfitters. Yes, Hades had frozen over.

Riddled with guilt that I may have turned into a hipster at this point, I decided the only way to make up for this lapse in my usually unfailing devotion to anti-hipsterdom was to do a photo series with the hipster cam. A series of things hipsters like, more specifically. There are soooo many things which fall into this category, so I have only begun to scratch the surface. But here are a few of the shots from two rolls I put through the Hipster Cam mostly last summer:

Things Hipsters Like , Part One

Banjos


Old typewriters

Pho Hoa Bihn

Waffle House

Farmers Markets*

Sriracha*

Gibson’s Donuts

So, a couple of things:

  1. I LOOOOOVE using the Holga 120 cameras I’ve owned. Having owned the 135 since late June, I have only shot two rolls of film with it. That should tell you something. That something being that I’m not in love with it yet.
  2. After those two rolls of film, the rewind knob’s crank lever fell off. Or broke off. Can’t remember which.  Either way, I finally remembered to ask Lomography about a replacement part and was told I could exchange the camera. I sent it back last week. I didn’t like the purple one, so I’m keeping my fingers crossed that it will return to me as a mint green or blush colored Hipster Cam.
  3. Turns out, I like a lot of the same things I would make fun of hipsters for enjoying. See, we’re not so different after all.

*The accuracy of the viewfinder on this thing. Not so much. I did not actually compose those shots that way.

04.01.2012
After Midnight
category: film photography
tags:


January 1, 2012 • Nikon FE • Fujicolor 200 film

Post balloon-drop. Post dead digital camera battery. Film to the rescue.

New Year = ushered in.

30.12.2011
{Forgotten Frames} Close-up
categories: film photography, forgotten frames
tags:

As I predicted would happen, I found yet another roll of film that slipped through the cracks and remained undeveloped until now. This time, there was no photo of my niece during her formative years to help me pinpoint the approximate dates the film was exposed. There were, however, other tell-tale elements in the photos that helped me determine which camera was used and a few other things about the images.

Camera: Yashica TL Electro-X

How do I know this? That camera has a very distinct light leak. I’ll level with you, folks: I don’t enjoy light leak in my photos. So I do everything in my power to correct them when they rear their ugly heads (or, more accurately, ugly splotches and apparitions.) With the Yashica TL Electro-X, my normal light leak combating measures weren’t so successful. I still haven’t figured out exactly where light is getting into this puppy against my wishes!

Time period of origin: Roughly 2006. Possibly 2007.

There is nothing in these photos that tells me precisely when they were taken, but I can approximate a time frame using clues within the photos.

 

As I said, I could tell right away which camera I used for these photos because of the particular light leak in the images. I also know they were taken with macro extension tubes attached. These are very clearly test photos (aka “nothing very interesting…”) Furthermore, both the Yashica and the extension tubes arrived in my hands around the same time in 2006. In fact, one of the extension  tubes makes a guest appearance in one of the photos!

That leads me to believe that these photos were likely taken during the summer of 2006. I do allow for the possibility that the photographs were made the following year when I was trying desperately to get rid of that dadgum light leak!

Conclusion: I wouldn’t say that I unearthed any photographic gem when this roll of film was finally developed. But, it’s always cool seeing images for the first time when such a great length of time has passed between the time the film was exposed and when it’s developed. It’s a very good thing!