The Film Journey | Virginia Wedding Photographer

Film is Not Dead, Natural Light, Photography

May 15, 2014

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Last year when I mentioned to my dad that I wanted to start learning to shoot film he turned around and mailed me his old Mamiya 645 and 3 lenses!  No pressure!  I have slowly started this journey and I attended a film class during one the last days at United taught by Christina Blanarovich.  I left that class completely overwhelmed by all of the different types of films, film labs, ways to process it, etc.  I decided that it wasn’t for me.  I had purchased a pack of Portra 400 and felt that I had completely wasted my money.

Shortly after returning home, I decided to go ahead and use up the film that I learned to load while in California. I remember using up that roll and not being quite sure if I ruined it when I removed it from the camera, so to make sure the camera was working properly I used another roll of film.  On this roll I grabbed some photos of the blooming and close to blooming Rhododendron’s in my yard and Brittani allowed me to take a few film photos of her during her bridal session.

I rode around with the California roll of film in my purse for a few months and the other roll in my house while I tried to see if any local labs could develop it.  It turns out that I would need to send it off.  I happened to see a post by Michael and Carina – film photographers in Virginia and saw that they use Richard Photo Lab in California so I decided to send it there with a note basically letting them know that this was my first two rolls of film ever shot and not to make fun of me!  Well, it may not have been exactly worded that way but it was pretty close!  My California-stashed in my purse for two months-roll of film came back with nothing and I was able to get about 9 of 12 shots out of my 2nd roll.  I have a ton of work to do but my first attempt wasn’t a total bust but I am no where near offering film photography as a service yet.

When the film has been processed Richard Photo Lab sends you the FTP information to download the scans. I didn’t know this but I am glad I am familiar with how to use FTP programs. At any rate, and in full transparency. Here are my first scans of film.

Observation: My composition is a little off here and I prefer my images a little warmer than this.

Observation: Underexposed (for my liking) and the composition is off.  My dad’s camera is old, so it’s heavy and it’s manual focus so it was a challenge to hold and focus, but I’ll keep playing with it.

Observation: This was a few days later after trying to get a better handle on holding the camera and using a light meter.  I’m happy with these but my shots of the blooms didn’t come out so I apparently still did something wrong on the other frames.

Well, there it is!  I figure the only way to grow is to continue to challenge myself in this area.  I have 3 more rolls of film that I am going to experiment with, so the journey continues…..

 

  1. Erika Layne Salazar says:

    Both of the attempts you posted look great!, keep up the exploration and you’ll master all you desire!

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