First Roll: Kentmere 400

It has been awhile since I have ventured out of my comfort zone and thought about trying a different film stock. When it comes to the big ones such as Kodak Tri-X & T-Max or Ilfords HP5+, FP4, Delta 3200 etc. Ive always loved them. However the buy in is getting pretty steep for me as a hobbyist portrait photographer. I’ve been seeing a bunch of others using Kentmere 400 as an affordable alternative. It has the connotation of being a “newbie” film stock for those new to black and white film. If you know me, this is not my first rodeo with film.

I rated this stock at box speed, 400 ISO. I love the tonality this black and white has. It sort of has an older film stock feel to it, which I won’t complain about! It doesn’t have a modern look to it. I think specifically in the highlights it gives that older black and white charm. My verdict for this film stock is: I loved it! Without trying a roll first, I bought a 120 brick (10 rolls) of this so I guess that’s a good thing I found it worth to have around in the film fridge.

For you super, duper nerds. I developed this roll with HC-110 using dilution B (1:31) for developing. Then DSLR scanned the negatives, turning these into positives with the amazing Negative Lab Pro software!

First Roll: Kodak Double X

Sometime early 2019 a friend and local photographer gifted me a roll of Kodak Double X. This film is a cinema film, yes the kind they use for Hollywood movies. Famous movies that have used this stock were Schindlers List and the opening scene to 007 Casino Royale. So my approach was to give a minor attempt in creating some cinematic stills, was I successful? Maybe. However I was extremely excited with the outcome of this first roll and I knew also I would attempt to photograph different people and different light times to see what this film looks like in all avenues. Sometimes I found it tough because this film is a 250 ISO film and I overexposed a bit with rating it at 200. The last few shots with Ellen I took were much slower shutter speeds and it was key not to mess up and get motion blur.

Conclusion: Would I buy this film again? Without a doubt, this film was fun to shoot and I think I would always try to get cinematic looks with it just because that would be a fun challenge to do. My only complaint though, its only in 35mm and not in medium format (120)

Julie Rose

I met Julie via Instagram last year and I photographed her wedding and since then I’ve become good friends with her and her husband. They messaged me saying they were in town visiting family and that we should meet up. I then suggested why don’t we meet up and create some creative photographs just for fun and see what comes of it.

We had only about 90 minutes or so to shoot, already knowing I wanted to shoot some film I decided that is all I will do. No digital. Scary because I could just waste all our time, even though just hanging out with Julie and Jordan is always fun I still had expectation to have work to share. I brought out the Pentax 67 with the 105mm only along with two rolls of film: Tri-X- 400 and Lomography F2/400. I developed the black and white film myself and then the Lomo film was developed locally. However some light leaks happened with their people and at first I was really upset, but then as I scanned the negatives I saw how it played with the compositions quite well.

2019 started off with work I’m very proud of. I hope this year is filled with plenty of work that I can share and eventually do something with it. I want to either have a “zine” or even have work be displayed locally. I want to have more progression of myself as an artist this year.

Ellen On Film

A few months ago I purchased a 1970's era Yashica Mat-124G. I had been really, really wanting a square format (6x6) so the right deal came up and I picked one up. Now this camera was a TLR (twin lens reflex), the same sort of camera that Vivan Maier used to create her street photography, portraits, self portraits etc. 

Now usually when I get a new camera, lens or whatever I have a few people I will ask to create some work with the new equipment. And in this gear test, it was my red headed friend Ellen. Now it was early December so it was freezing cold and Ellen told me she had this amazing window light in her living room. The rest was history. Now I did shoot some digital but I'm more interested in shooting more film this year, especially since I obtained my own chemistry to develop at home. (Real quick I'll tell those photo nerds who are curious. I shot with TriX 400, metered at 1600. Developed with Kodak HC-110)

As excited as I was to use this camera. I SOLD IT. 

Why? You'll see on my next blog post when I develop, scan the next roll of film!