Adventures in film (continued)

It’s been a fun few weeks as far as photography is concerned.

Old, grainy baby photos

The initial results of my film forays are in. Probably the greatest pleasure has been retrieving the old black and white film that was sitting in my camera for 9 years or more. As my son prepares to move to Big School, it’s lovely to find “new” images of him as a baby.

REDSCALE FILM
This 35mm film I bought from Nik & Trick (see previous post). It was the first film I’d loaded in to the camera in years, so part of the learning curve was getting used to the camera’s idiosyncrasies again.

I remember using a red lens filter years ago and having to over-expose the image to get any real sense of picture. The first couple of shots I took on an overcast day, and even with the overexposure the dark was shapeless and devoid of detail. Two stops would definitely have been better.

The shot could have benefited from more exposure

The next day I went out was bright and sunny with excellent cloud cover - perfect for redscale photography shots. Mostly one stop over-exposure was enough, but in darker areas such as in the shade of the Hyde Park Pavilion, it could definitely have benefited from more.

Now I have “cut my teeth” on redscale, I have a couple more options to play with. I have another roll of pre-rolled film to shoot - and I’ll choose my landscape more carefully, armed with my current knowledge. The other option I’m going to play with is playing around with coloured lens filters, to see if I can get the same effect on normal 35mm film or even on digital - without paying for the cost and hassle of film.

See the redscale photos here >

REVOLOG PHOTOS
Revolog is a brand of film that makes novelty effects (some might say gimmicky, but what have you got to lose other than a bit of money?). I bought a couple of rolls of different types here and here.

Obviously, taking the photos is as easy as taking any other type of film - you can’t see what you’re doing in the moment anyway. But in terms of the results, I much preferred the versatility of the Revolog film - though I still shot a little overexposed, the film was much easier to handle and the success rate of the shots was higher and especially in darker areas of the images. It is however more unpredictable in terms of the results you’re going to get - as you don’t know if a splotch of green is going to be to the left or to the right of the image.

This film is so much easier to shoot with, without so much decision making between light and shade

But of course, novelty film or no novelty film, it’s all a bit pointless if your composition is up to nothing. And this is one of the downsides of film: because the roll is in your camera, it blocks you doing anything else with it until that load is complete, so you end up taking slightly silly pictures just to finish up the roll. This said, I’ll definitely use this film again at some point in the near future: #filmisnotdead

See the Revolog photos here >

Next time I’ll talk about loading the Yashica 44, and other medium format fun things.

Finding Vivian Maier

A few weeks’ ago I visited Photo London, the huge photographic show for dealers, buyers and generally interested bystanders. I know very little about photographers in general, so it was a great opportunity to get inspiration and see what’s going on in the photographic world.

Photograph featured from http://www.vivianmaier.com

Some of the work that really stood out was by the artists below:

• Seydou Keita

• Nino Migliori

• Todd Hido

• David Goldblatt

• Nelli Palomaki

• Sherin Neshat

• Sabine Weiss

But most of all, the work of previously unknown photographer Vivian Maier really “spoke to me”. Her work stood out not because of her back story (don’t forget, I know nothing) but because it is excellent.

A Chicago eccentric, Vivian used her occupation as a children’s nanny to walk the streets for hours, recording street life with her Rolleiflex. She died unknown and penniless and it was only after John Maloof acquired a box of her hoarded negatives at auction that he began to piece together her life and work. Since then her story has been promoted and become famous, not least through the documentary film Finding Vivian Maier. Her work is documentary and prolific - you can really sense the spirit of the era - and to me at least evokes humour and pathos. For someone so much on society’s outskirts, you can really feel the connection Vivian had with the subjects she shot, and that timing she had is just so perfect.

This to me is what street photography is all about, and Vivian Maier has kept me thinking long after Photo London closed its doors, showing that inspiration can come from the most unlikely of people and places.