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Film lovers have been pretty excited with the re-release of Kodak’s Ektachrome, and have been anxiously awaiting their shipments to give it a try. I placed an order as soon as the FIND lab started taking orders and received five rolls in the first shipment. The day job delayed shooting a bit, but work took me to Manitowoc, Wisconsin, and I finished my roll of Ektar which was in the camera and then shot a roll of Ektachrome. Here are the results. Let me preface this by saying that there is no science or technical expertise in this comparison. I am not in any way an expert in comparing cameras,…
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Listening to my favorite film photography podcasts, I occasionally hear of people creating zines, essentially simple magazine-style booklets of their photographs to share with others. Coming off a Labor Day trip to San Francisco, I had a good set of photographs of Chinatown, which I thought would make a nice collection, so I made my first zine! I used Blurb Books to create it. I am quite familiar with Blurb and use the Lightroom to Blurb book creator tool to create photo books of family trips. Sadly, that book creation tool in Lightroom, does not work to create magazines, so you have to use the Blurb BookWright application to lay…
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For today’s Film Flashback, we go back to 2002 and travel to Mexico to visit the Mayan ruins at Chichén Itzá, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Located in the Yucatan Peninsula, the ruins are an easy day trip from Cancun. Although the most famous site on the grounds is El Castillo, the great pyramid temple of Kukulkan, the grounds consists of multiple structures, including the famous ball court, and two cenotes, Cenote Sagrada de Chichén Itzá and Cenote X’toloc. I was armed with my Canon EOS Elan II and a backpack leaving me free to climb, more accurately crawl, up the pyramid. The climb up, although steep, was not much of…
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You’re in Black River Falls, Wisconsin, home to the famous Orange Moose, and you have a few cameras and different film stocks with you. What would you do? Shoot the moose on four different films, of course. Located just off Interstate 94, the Orange Moose stands approximately 15 feet tall, near a restaurant conveniently called the “Orange Moose Bar and Grill,” although it’s not entirely clear which came first, the restaurant or the moose. The story goes that the great moose was won in a dice game, and was originally brown in color. After the owner’s death, the moose made its way to the highway oasis and acquired its orange…
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Film photography has generated a lot of interest recently, but not everyone is willing to plunge in and spend hundreds of dollars on gear if they’re not quite sure. Others are interested in getting the gear, but aren’t quite sure if they can get their head around fully-manual cameras or be able to handle manual focusing. At a relatively low cost, you can dip your toe into film photography and see if it’s right for you. For digital shooters, here is a way to get started in film photography for under $50. This post is written from the perspective of a lifelong Canon shooter, but many of these suggestions carry over…
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I am oftentimes asked why I shoot film. In 2007, I went from a film SLR, a Canon Elan 7n, to a digital SLR, the Canon 40D. I held out for quite a while. I was comfortable shooting film, but at that time, it looked as if film was in its last days, and it was either go digital or go home. So I made the switch. I loved the instant feedback of digital. Digital told me right away when I pooched a shot, and gave me a chance to try again. I was able to experiment with digital where I had not felt comfortable experimenting with film. When you…
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A few years back, I returned to film photography, and now shoot both digital and film while traveling. With a lot of hits and misses, I’ve come to find that several film stocks have emerged as my favorites, reliable from trip to trip, and perfect for the way I shoot. Although I will continue to experiment, these film stocks have proven their worth and will be in my bag on every trip, or as long as the manufacturers continue to produce them! Kodak Portra 400 Portra 400 is clearly my favorite of all film stocks. I used to shoot Portra NC and VC back in my pre-digital days, but the…
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Lately, I’ve been back to shooting film, shooting both digital and film cameras on our recent trips to Anguilla, Antigua, and Barbuda. Along for the journey were several film cameras, including the Canon EOS 1v. The 1v was Canon’s last professional 35mm SLR camera, with a magnesium alloy body and weather sealing throughout. At 10 frames per second, it was a favorite of sports shooters for years. It is a solidly built camera, and fits perfectly in my hand like the later DSLRs that Canon produced. I have the HS version, which includes a detachable power booster, however given the bulk, I leave that behind. The beauty of traveling with…
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Since returning to film photography a few years ago, I make a point of taking at least one film camera on each trip. Part of the reason is that I love the look of film. I also love playing with my old cameras and trying different techniques. Traveling to Nevis, I packed two film cameras, the Canon 1v, which uses all the same lenses as my DSLR, and the Mamiya 645 Pro TL with the 80mm f/1.9 and the 45mm f/2.8 lenses. I decided to try some slide film, so I packed a few rolls of Fuji Velvia 100 RVP, along with my trusted stocks, Kodak Ektar 100, Fuji 400H,…
