Ellen at home

A few months ago I had met up with Ellen because I had some new film to shoot from Lomography.com but since I was only using one roll for a test use of the roll, I figured why not shoot some digital as well.

Something that was exciting for me on this shoot was when Ellen asked “would you want to come to my new house and shoot there?” Pft, of course! I really enjoy shooting inside with natural light, more than shooting outside with natural light. The contrast and colors with available light are some of my favorite things about having shoots inside. Another plus of shooting indoor portraits is that it adds a some comfort to the subjects, they are somewhere they know and is personal to them.

Anyways, here is the digital set. I think I will create a separate post that holds the roll of film I test shot with my Rolleiflex!

Jessica Sulikowski

For quite awhile I have had a strong interest in photographing ballet. I had this huge inspiration from other dance photographers on my Instagram and I finally wanted to try this myself. I reached out to a local dancer and she agreed to come to the studio she trains and teaches at, which had a over abundant amount of light pouring through the windows. Before I had even taken a shot I was already in photog heaven because of the amount of light and space we had to work with. 

During this shoot I really had no direction I wanted to go. I simply wanted to just get a foundation on photographing someone doing dance and understand the timing and proper framing. I also didn't want this collaboration between artists to be a commercial feel. Sure I took shots that were traditional in a sense and got Jessica to show her artistic talent but deep down what I wanted was simple. A documentation of Jessica in her space that she spends 40+ hours a week in. 

Lastly I shot digital and 120 black and white film. And as usual I wish I had more film, than space on my SD card. When I developed my rolls I was blown away at how gorgeous these portraits came out and with film that had been expired (totally accidental).

Hannah Blake

On my last post with Ellen, I mentioned I sold my Yashica Mat 124G because I had been given a gift. That gift was a 1950's era Rolleiflex TLR, I could not wait to use. So I kicked off the new year right by shooting with Hannah. I shot both digital and one roll of Kodak black and white film. All the square (6x6) photographs you see are from the Rollei. I took a break from shooting inside and we walked downtown Boise. I found this spot at the JUMP building that has interesting light during the day and I was hoping to practice a bit with more high key lighting. Success! We continued walking the bitter cold streets and found this gorgeous light bouncing from a window down to the sidewalk. I could've shot here all day long with Hannah in this pocket of light.  

I was stoked to see the negatives from the Rolleiflex were perfect and the camera had NO issues,Woo hoo! With that being said, I feel I need to start shooting more rolls of film on shoots instead of being so conservative and shooting one. I always regret when I see a whole roll come out great and wonder "what if." 

I have been developing my own black and white for a few months now. I have a C-41 kit for color film that I have yet to put together for developing. Soon I will, there is just a little fear of the unknown and have only doing it once. When I get comfortable I think I will begin a film blog and separate the digital shoots from the film ones!

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!