I have been posting about shooting film lately and I realized when someone asked me "where do I get it?" that it isn't as easy to just go buy a roll anymore. So I thought I better post some resources for you to be able to find a camera, film and processing stuff if you need any. For a camera you may only have to go as far as your closet to find one. But if you need to buy one you can always go the ebay. The place I love to buy from is KEH.com. All of my images are made with cameras I bought from them. Another place to check out is freestylephoto.biz, what a great photo retailer. They are in L.A. and have a great selection of film, chemicals, and paper. Just about everything you need you can get from them at great prices. The image below was shot on their legacy pro film, and all of my black and white portfolio uses supplies I have gotten from them. You may even want to explore the toy cameras like the holga. Those are so simple and so fun to use. They make those really artsy images that look sort of dreamy and funky.

Pentax *ist 35mm, 50mm f2.0, 1/60th sec @ f2.0, Freestyle legacy pro 100 film

Now for some lab advice. I encourage anyone who wants to shoot film to develop their own film. I know it can be a bother but it is so much fun to pull the film off the real. To develop your own film you will need:

• A dark closet or changing bag.
• A developing tank and reels.
• Chemical. I would start with a liquid developer and fixer. That way your not having to mix powders and such.
• Extra plastic bottles and a way to measure your chemicals. Glass measuring cups work but don't use them for cooking too!
• A thermometer.
  
• A place to hang your film dry. I use the shower stall in the extra bathroom.
• A scanner is good to have so you can scan the negs when you're done.
  

A great place to go to get info on how to develop your own film is apug.org or you could always search youtube. If you don't want to do it yourself then you will most likely have to have your black and white film sent to a "pro" lab. Mini labs don't do traditional black and white film. Check your area for a pro lab or you can use mail order services if you want. For color negative film I recommend using a pro lab but be careful. Some labs call themselves pro but they are so far from pro it's laughable. To be honest, places like Costco can give a pro lab a run for their money with 35mm color film. I mean Costco can give you a developed roll scanned to an 8-9 megapixel resolution file for under $2 a roll. The pro lab will run you almost $20. Make sure your getting more from your pro lab than you could get at Costco.

Well, I hope that helps you get your feet wet in the world of film photography. It's a blast.

So, when I was at the Denver Chalk Art Festival last month I was walking around with my Mamiya 645. It's a manual camera that is pretty big. Anyway, I was snapping away... well "thwaking" away really. This thing has the loudest mirror slap, it's music to my ears. I was shooting the artists and all around me were hundreds, it seemed, of folks with DSLRs. But it seemed that every time I pressed the shutter release, every bodies head turned to see what in the world kind of camera I was shooting. One guy even walked up to me and just stared at the camera in my hand. Funny.

Mamiya 645 S1000, 80mm F2.8 @ 1/1000 Fuji 160C

The thing that I kept seeing at the festival, was folks walking around the crowd with their nose in the screen on the back of their camera. I had a blast. I got to talk to the artists, hang out with my wife, AND take some nice photos. But my nose wasn't in the back of the camera. My wife appreciates that. I guess that's what I am trying to say, is that when you shoot, you should keep an awareness of the things around you. It makes the people your with much happier and you won't miss the next shot because you nose is in the back of your camera.

I was in the airport in Salt Lake City headed back home after a great week at Sundance Resort. I was going through the security line and had my camera gear hand checked and they asked if they could inspect and swab the bag etc. The officer was a great guy and we chatted a bit about the weather and our visit. Then he opened my bag and saw all of my film gear and film. His reaction was pretty cool, "Oh, nice camera. So, you still shoot film? You must really know what you're doing."

Mamiya 645 1000S, 80mm f2.8, 45 sec @ F16, Kodak Portra 160NC

That made me wonder, has the art and craft of photography been cheapened and viewed as "easy" by the masses because of the digital revolution? Has the safety net of that little screen on the back of a digital camera given people the sense that good photography is just as easy as pushing that button? I think it has. People ask me how I know that I am getting what I want when I shoot. The simple answer is I know because I know my gear, and I am shooting film. When I shoot film I tend to over shoot so I usually get some great surprises along with what I planned to get. I hardly get anything unexpected other than the usual eye blinks etc. 

The funny thing is I get just as many "bad" shots when I shoot digital as when I shoot film. To be honest, negative film is so forgiving that I can get more "keepers" out of a roll of film because of the films latitude. Now, any digital shooter worth his/her salt will tell you that the only way to shoot is with digital RAW file format. It's true there is a lot of latitude with that format but you have to spend time in front of the computer to actually pull it all out into the image. The film today is so forgiving that it is like an analog version of the RAW format. Without the computer work. Very nice.

So Last week we had a little Bar-B-Q at the Hillside School in Boulder. My youngest went there for a few years and I can't say enough good things about it. Anyway, while I was following the kids around the grounds I had my TLR with me. I was shooting some Kodak Portra NC in this beautiful light as the evening sun went down and I was blown away with how every shot came out fantastic straight out of the camera. I mean I didn't have to do a thing to the images on the roll. I love this stuff! I mean, compared to shooting chrome this stuff is fool proof. Anyone can shoot this film and have fantastic images without have to do any post processing.

It got me wondering, since when did having to do post processing become a must? I mean, Formula 1 drivers don't work on the cars, they leave that to the professionals. There is nothing wrong with wanting to do post processing on your images. If you enjoy it great, but I shoot a lot and I can't imagine having to spend tons of time working on an image after I shoot it that I could have gotten right in camera and not spent any time at all on it. After all these were only meant to be snap shots, and they look awesome without any work.

So, my challenge to you if you are a photo enthusiast or pro is to see how close you can get to your final image in camera. Good luck.

Yashica 12 TLR, 1/500th @ F3.5, Kodak Portra NC 160

I was thinking about how the digital revolution in photography has impacted our world on a sustainable point of view. There are two things in particular that I have thought about. The first is, a sustainable business in photography today. With cameras that come out every 6 months that level the field "technically". Less and less technical skill is needed to achieve a decent level of photography resulting in a flood of mediocre photographic images. ""Good enough" has become the standard. Ironically, I think that is the key to standing out today. It is easier to stand out among the flood today, than say 10 years ago when you had to be a fantastic photographer to stand out. If you can bring a higher level of vision and creativity to your photographs today then your work will be a stark contrast to the ordinary stuff out there.

Patio Fireplace at the Renaissance Orlando at SearWorld Nikon F4, Tokina 24-70, Kodak E200

The other part of the sustainability thing is what happens to all the gear every time you have to upgrade to the next best camera? Where do all the raw materials come from when new gear is made at such a rapid pace? And how much money really needs to be spent on upgrading a camera that could have otherwise been put to a better use like feeding or clothing someone? I mean $4,000 - $8,000 or more every year or two on camera bodies? Wow, that's a lot. Remember about the standing out above the sea of ordinary photographs? The camera won't make you stand out, it's your vision and creativity, not the camera. Don't fall into the upgrade trap if you can avoid it. Rent gear if you must, but you don't always have to buy that gear because you think it will give you the edge. Your creativity will give you the edge. Shoot with a Holga, if it fits your creativity, and you get the upgrade with what you put in the camera... the film. Film technology is fantastic and is an affordable upgrade, environmentally, and economically. Some would say that film is not a green tech, but I beg to differ. It has been around for over a 100 years and we are doing just fine with it. I mean, the plastic is what we want to keep right? And it doesn’t take a battery to keep the image on some device once it’s taken, it’s just there..

Think about this. A Hasselblad H3 or H4 system costs up to $30,000 or an H1 system for $1,200 (that stays out of a land fill and not producing a new H3/4). That leaves enough money left over to buy 8,500+ rolls of the latest greatest, highest tech film around. That's a heck of a lot of film, and the greatest thing is, you only pay for the film when you use it. Not in one big chunk. Creative imagery + using film = sustainable photography.

Nikon F4, Tokina 28-70, 2 sec @ f8 TRI-X 400 pushed two stops (1600 iso)

In my last post I confessed how much I like to shoot film. One of the reasons I like to shoot it so much is that I can stay engaged with what/who I am photographing. That little screen on the back of digital cameras distracts me so much that I stop interacting with my subjects. I stop thinking of what the next shot could be. I love to work in a stream of thought that is a constant flow from shot to shot. I just can’t get that mojo going when I am looking at the back of a camera after every shot. Sure I can put tape over the screen but I’m not the only one who wants to look at that screen.  My clients and models always want to see that last shot. So, there goes that magic feeling and the creative stream.

I was reading the March issue of PDN and there is an article in it called “Art and Commerce”, by Coner Risch. Turns out Joanna Ewing, the Art Director in charge of Urban Outfitters catalog department, thinks shooting digital takes the creative flow out of the process too. She requires all photographers to shoot film. Her reason for this, is that, she feels the process of shooting film is more fluid. She says the digital shoot had a “stilting” effect. Mostly because of the instant feedback that makes everyone want to look at that last shot, even the model.  I read that and said to myself “that’s it, that’s why I enjoy the film shoot so much more.”

The article goes on to discuss how film isn’t really any more expensive because there are added costs do a digital shoot that a film shoot doesn’t have. It really is about the same cost when you boil it all down. Joanna also talked about using mood boards and how she tries to get the “look” down before proceeding. It’s a really good article. If you subscribe you can check it out online at pdnonline.com or just go buy the issue. It’s worth it.

 Nikon F4, sigma 70-300mm lens and Kodak TX400, devloped in Xtol. 

I hate following the herd. Period. That's just the kind of guy I am. I don't buy the next thing that comes out just because someone else did. One thing that has come with the digital age that I have been thinking about lately is waist. More on that in another post. With photography it's easy for someone to think that the next piece of gear is going to make them a better photographer and I just don't belive that. The best tool a photographer has is his/her mind and eyes. The gear is just an extension of the artists vision. So with that said, I love to shoot film. There, I said it. I don't usually mention my methods of capture because it really shouldn't matter. But in this day and age of better, faster gear coming out every week (it seems like it anyway) it's hard to say "I love to shoot film" without getting a weird look from someone. Don't get me wrong, I shoot digital if I have to, and there are plenty of times wehn I do. But my heart is with film. It's sort of like a secret club with us film shooters now a days. Like when Harley riders wave the peace sign at each other when they pass on the road. "It's a film thing". Anyway, I want to encourage anyone out there who used to shoot film to go out and shoot a roll just for kicks. If you have never shot a roll in your life then by all means, go shoot some. You will be so supprised at the results. You may think of film as "Old Technology" but it's not. It's just different technology. So, zig every once and a while, be a rebel and shoot some film. 

All but 3 images on my website are shot with film. See if you can guess what ones were shot with a digital camera. If you think you can tell, let me know what your guess is, and I will tell you if you are right or not.