Lomo LC-A and Agfa CT Precisa cross processed. Love it! I might have to try more of these types of city night shots while Mia is away on a business trip.
Tag Archive for 'film'
I’ve been going through a bunch of old film shots lately and have rediscovered some awesome photos. They remind me that I don’t need to have a bag full of lenses and a big-ass DSLR and Photoshop to capture and create great images. I can “get by” with “just” a Lomo LC-A and a pocketful of film.
In fact, it’s kind of liberating and refreshing to work with such a “limited” camera. The fixed 32mm lens is just the perfect focal length for how I like to shoot (roughly 20mm on Nikon DX sensors). Zone focusing is wicked easy. The LC-A’s auto exposure is really good, and, if needed, I can set a custom aperture from f/2.8 to f/16 with a fixed shutter speed of 1/60. And it has a hotshoe for those times when I need a flash (yes, I’ve done on and off camera flash with an LC-A).
Then there’s cross processing. As fun as it is to tweak a digital photo to look like it was cross processed, there’s nothing quite like the real thing. Elitechrome’s blues are soothing. Velvia’s reds are nothing short of explosive. Playing and experimenting with each film type’s characteristics is part of the fun of cross processing.
And now I think it’s time for me to go out and burn a few rolls of film on my LC-A. Too bad I have to work today. There’s always the weekend. :)
I used to shoot a lot of film back when it was super convenient for me to drive down the street a couple of miles to a local pro lab (Rainbow Photo). Ever since it closed, I’ve had to switch to labs that are at least 10-15 miles out which, in this area, equates to about 20 minutes of driving one way without traffic. All that driving sort of turned me off to shooting film, simply because of the hassle of getting out and back during business hours.
However, I was recently going through some old film scans from a couple of years ago, and the desire to work with film is back. I want to shoot medium format. I want to cross process slide film. I want to work with the limitations/quirks of a particular camera and exploit those. I want to play and have fun.
That’s not to say that my D300 isn’t fun (far from it), but it doesn’t really have any character to it. My Lomo LC-A has character. My Olympus XA has character. My Holgas definitely have character. And, not to get into a film versus digital debate, film still has a certain aesthetic that digital doesn’t have (yet).
As I look through old film shots of mine, I keep thinking “Wow, that looks cool!” I don’t have quite the same feeling looking through my old digital shots. Maybe that says something about how and what I shoot. Maybe I’m just more “inspired” when I work with film. Who knows.
I do know that I enjoy the experience of shooting with film cameras much more so than with digital. Perhaps that is the difference in what I’m seeing in my images. When I see my film images, I remember which camera I shot with, how I got the photo, and what it was like taking the photo. When I see my digital images, I get caught up in the technicalities of the processing and lens types and whatnot.
I think it’s time for me to get back to shooting with film cameras again. Actually, I think I need to shoot with film cameras again. I need the challenge of working with different cameras and film types to spark my creativity and to break me out of the photographic slump I’m going through right now (did I forget to mention that I’m in a photographic slump right now?). I want to have fun with photography again.
This is a small view of my current film stash. I’ve got a pretty wide range of film types in here: Kodak E100VS slide film (35mm), Agfa Color 200 color negative film (35mm), Ilford Delta 400 black and white film (120), Fujifilm Fujichrome T64 tungsten slide film (120), the works. I’m all stocked up to shoot a variety of things, and all I’m waiting for now is both the nice(r) weather and some inspiration. Soon…
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