Personal | 2 Years
October 3, 2011Featured | Little Green Notebook
October 5, 2011
Back in March I bought a 50mm 1.7 for my old Minolta Maxxum 50…. I bought it on a whim, and really didn’t know what to expect. I started to read about film… again. I shot true black and white for years through high school & college, but never color. I started reading about this new Kodak Portra film, so I looked it up on Amazon & bought a 5 pack. Karen & Paul were coming to town for their portrait session, so we broke it out for a frame or two that day.
I put the camera back in my bag & would break it out occasionally over the next few months. It took me from March to September to finish that first roll. I then quickly shot a 2nd roll & sent them off to Richard Photo Lab, holding my breath & hoping for the best.
** Let me just stop & say the people at Richard Photo Lab are amazing…. theywill hold your hand and walk you through everything, or point you to a place that will answer your questions…. They aren’t cheap, but they know their stuff.
Of course I had a few frames that were less than desirable, as I was experimenting with my settings, but I had a few come out that I really love….
My little lens is an auto focus, but focusing it manually gives me a lot more freedom…. however, the focus ring isn’t smooth, so it can be hard to tell when you have your focus locked in where you want it…. I couldn’t believe how sharp my photos were, despite the rough focus ring. I mean… just look at the petals on those spider mums!
I really like these images of Karen & Paul… They’re a little dark & murky but I think we were probably playing with rating our film higher that it actually was (ie: we were shooting 400 speed film, but told the camera it was 1600)
Me and Jer at a wedding in Savannah 🙂
I’m really excited to shoot more film now 🙂 I splurged yesterday and bought a Nikon F5! This camera was the top of the line in 2004 when it came out, and cost about $3k. I bought one yesterday for $325! I cannot wait to play with it, and use our current lens line up with it.
We plan on breaking out the F5 at our shoots & take a few frames with it each time. Maybe one day we’ll get brave & do a whole shoot on film.
18 Comments
Great film work! I like the ones with the couple holding the books. I really like the brownish tones.
Looking forward to some of you work shot with the F5!
These are awesome! Love the flare in the mum shot. I really need to get a film cam too. 🙂
Neat! I love using film & my AE-1.
WOW! great job shooting with the film, thanks for all the info on shooting with film!
LOVE the shot of your feet in the water!!!!
These are awesome!!! Keep playing with the film, you’re rocking it! And I like the ones where you upped the exposures!
I love the colors from film. Awesome work!
Beatiful images, Jessica. I’m dying to shoot some film of my own!
Beautiful Jessica! Love the colours and detail in that flower. Gorgeous!
beautiful!
ahhhh the filmy goodness! love these!
sweet! thanks for sharing the journey with us… these are great images – my favorites are the diptych of the mums and the tree, and the shot of you guys at the wedding! 🙂 beautiful!
Such beautiful, soft tones. Simply lovely, Jessica!
Love those feet shot…and the rest is just pure awesome!
Very cool, there is something so magical about film. I am sorry to tell you that it seems you have been bitten by the ‘film bug’…. Looking forward to seeing more of your film work.
Girl! This is so awesome! For the past couple of years Ive been toying of the idea of going back to film and being a film photographer – film is so beautiful! I dont have a professional film camera anymore but still do a lot with my holga and diana cameras. Oh and I forgot to give you good places in Savannah, shame on me! I hope you had an awesome time!
Izzy- you have NO idea how excited I am about film. Most of the photographers I really admire shoot film. We’re taking the F5 to DC this weekend to use for some shoots…. I cannot wait!!!
[…] You may remember back in September/October we purchased & began using some film. Well, our new Nikon F5 arrived & we couldn’t wait to begin shooting with it! […]