First Roll: Fomapan 200

At the end of October, early November I really needed a day off from school other than the weekend. Now a “taking care of myself” day means I’m not sitting on my butt, it means I’m waking up and taking photographs and thats exactly what I did! I met up with Jerusha in downtown Boise with my Bronica ETRSi and a roll of Fomapan 200. I’ve been very interested in shooting this film stock because of what I’ve been seeing others create with it and I must say it did not disappoint. I loved shooting this film stock and I probably will be shooting more personal portrait work/travel with Foma. It’s a tad cheaper than other name brand b&w films and it just has a more classic black and white look to it that I just really enjoy.

I’ve really been enjoying all these new film stocks I’m experiencing. Up next I have a roll of Ilford FP4+ that I shot some portraits with and had a rather interesting developing challenge.

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.

Cassidy

Before I left on my Christmas trip to Florida, I met up with Cassidy to do just an impromptu shoot. We’ve talked so many times about going out and creating but we always were so busy, the bad part about being responsible adults. Anyways, I felt as if I was neglecting my Rolleiflex and havent shot with it much lately so I brought that amazing medium format camera out and it is always enjoyable to work with that system. The reverse glass and waist level finder is a nice little challenge to shake up the usual prism, viewfinder the Pentax 67 or digital camera can do.

The weather was great and I was very happy for a sunny day. We met up at my favorite coffee shop in downtown Boise (District Coffee House) and we just went for a walk. I had spotted a few locations I had though this is gonna be super sweet. I was really looking for some direct sunlight, then use contrast light with hard shadows and highlights and then just flattering bounced light. I felt I hit all three on my checklist. I shot some digital, however Im happy with all but 2 frames that were a mistake on my part with exposure.

I know my professor would never see this, but I still always think to myself a huge thank you to Dr. Ponsford for passing this gorgeous camera on to me.