This question rolls through my brain as I pack for every trip. The obvious answer should be, “as many as I need.” However, I often find myself packing a lot of stuff I want to play with but will never have a reasonable chance to use. So here it goes – my effort to cut down on the number of cameras, lenses, and other gear I pack for a one-week trip. The first thing I do is consider the destination and what we plan on doing on the trip. Next, I look to my “What’s in My Bag” page (film and digital list is on my sister site, My Irie…
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As the prices of film cameras and film rise, the economy of digital cameras becomes more obvious. However, as a film shooter, it’s difficult to fall in love with a digital camera. I have repeatedly said that digital cameras tend to be rather clinical, showing every detail without much character. I have always owned and used a digital camera since 2007 and appreciate the advantages they offer, but never really loved using them once I got back into film. However, due to a bit of luck in finding a demo model of a recently-discontinued camera, I was able to discover a digital camera that had some character of its own,…
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My daughter is getting married next year, and it came time to pick a dress. We are both fans of the show, “Say Yes to the Dress,” so it was time to make my first trip ever to New York City to visit Kleinfeld’s Bridal, and fingers crossed, hopefully, she would say “yes.” We only had a 3-day weekend in the City, but aside from our appointment at Kleinfeld’s, the weekend was devoted to sightseeing and eating. As a newbie to the City, I was really impressed by the architecture. I shot the Empire State Building so many times it was ridiculous, although having a suite at the New York…
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In August, we spent a week in London, England. It was our first trip, and we quickly discovered how much there is to see, and how little time there is in a week. We visited the State Rooms and the Royal Mews at Buckingham Palace, the Victoria & Albert Museum, the British Museum, the Harry Potter / Warner Bros. Studio, and had time to walk the streets of London, enjoying its many shops, pubs, and restaurants. Join us, taking in the sights of London. Along for the trip were my Canon 1v with the Canon 24mm f/1.4 II, Canon 50mm f/1.2, and Canon 135mm f/2. The 24mm lens was rented…
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I love shooting film, in part, because of the thrill of seeing what you captured. Unlike digital, where you have immediate feedback, you never quite know what you’ve got until you either develop your film or receive it back from your lab. With double exposures, the excitement is that much better. It’s not just a matter of what you have captured, but how you lined up the two exposures to reveal an entirely new composition. Here’s a super quick step-by-step guide on how I shoot double exposures on film. When you think about a double exposure on film, you have to know the basics of how exposure works. When you…
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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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We celebrated the Fourth of July with family in Buffalo, Minnesota, complete with a visit to a neighboring dairy farm. Mamiya 6 with Mamiya 50mm f/4 lens, Mamiya 645 ProTL with Mamiya 80mm f/1.9 lens, and Canon 1v with Canon 135mm f/2 lens, using Kodak Ektar 100, Kodak Portra 400, and Fuji Pro 400H film. Processed and scanned by Richard Photo Lab.
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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…
