That one roll....

I had to take a little break after my shooting spree (I'm talking cameras, not guns here) after I spent $30 on processing and $70 on film IN ONE DAY back in August. I'm waiting for my funds to catch up to me. In the mean time, I did some fun toy camera photos at my friend Danielle's wedding and decided to shoot a little expired black and white film.

Here are some photos from the wedding. Shot with my lovely seafoam Savoy (which many people mistake for a purse..therefor the perfect accessory to have on my wrist at a wedding). I prepared reels ahead of time with Ektar100, e100g (which I had cross processed), and portra400.

Danielle's wedding was way back in September, so I didn't shoot anything from that point until about a week ago when I got a little stir crazy and decided I needed to wake up early and go for a walk. I already had some expired black and white film loaded into my trusty Pentax ME Super...which I had initially intended to develop myself at work, when I realized that I had another roll of exposed black and white film in my bag  from a year ago that I still had not developed...So I sent both of them to the lab.

 I like how abstract this one turned out. I hope I was going for some abstract reflective portrait, but I was probably just trying to take a picture of a squirrel.

This one reminds me of my grandpa. He always liked still lives.

Looking at this roll completely removed by time and comparing it to the roll I shot a week ago, I'd say I'm a little less moody...but then again maybe its time for another photo excursion to the cemetery!

Here are the photographs from last week:

 The moral of my story is...1. shoot your friends (with a camera) even if it's their wedding. 2. get that roll that's been hanging out at the bottom of your messenger bag developed. Like yesterday.

Consumed

More photos of women! In the last month and a half or so I have shot somewhere near 12 rolls of film. This is pretty spectacular for me since I think about film like I think about gold. I probably shot this much while I was in school, but maybe not with this much enthusiasm. I'm caught between the need to slow down because of money (the cost of film + processing), and my desire to keep going everyday because the amount of available light I have is dwindling. This is a new concept for me...sort of. While in school financial constraints were always present in terms of making things but time was always more of an issue. Now the issue becomes less about time (I only have personal deadlines) and more about losing light in the winter (but I know once spring comes I can continue on).. In the meantime though, life is still happening. This weekend I took a break from working on my projects to take toy camera photos at a wedding and to get my cat spayed (I feel too guilty leaving her alone to go shoot.)

at any rate, this is what I have been working on..

 To follow: There may be toy camera wedding photos to follow (it depends on how well they turn out... I know, I live dangerously) But to protect the dignity of my cat, there will be zero photos of her bald spots.

I just can't stop shooting awesome women

....with my camera. AND I WON'T STOP!

Enjoy these new photos!

Women!

Recently, I have decided to photograph every woman I know who inspires me, who works in fields previously dominated by men, who fearlessly goes after what she wants because she knows she can. This project is very near to my heart because I know too many women who feel trapped, who feel like they have no choices, who feel like they can't be anything. One woman who lives in fear is one too many. We live in a wealthy country with plenty to eat, with fresh water, full of so many opportunities-- all you have to do is to go out and work for what you want. However, there are so many of us who feel so crippled by fear or politics or opinions. So many women are afraid to walk in their neighborhoods after dark, to drive alone, to meet their neighbors, to quit their job in favor of something better. I'll even mention politics here: The conversations in the news regarding women and their choices about reproduction is making me absolutely sick to my stomach. The only person who gets to make the choices about my body are me. End of discussion.

I want to celebrate women. We are fantastic, brave, strong, artistic, athletic, loving, intelligent, passionate, ambitious, we can be anything and everything as long as we realize it and then go do it.

BRRRRONICA

I'll admit that I'm not the biggest fan of Hasselblads... from poor experiences (It's pretty silly, I know) But I have nothing against Bronicas, so I figured I'd give this one a shot. The guts of this camera are pretty cool. The mirror runs on a track inside the camera and slides down and out of the way rather than flipping up to reveal the shutter. The resulting sound is something that I found deeply satisfying but which startled the wholy bajeesus out of my cat. I just got my hands on it last week, so there will be more photos to come, but for now, enjoy these abstractish pictures of my cat!

Isn't she a beaut?

New friends, old friends, and sunflair.

A bunch of fantastic things happened this week. I finally had my mamiya c220 fixed (It has been out of commission all summer due to finding some mold in the foam lining on the interior of my camera. I know, right? gasp.) We also had some out of town visitors (awesome!)... So of course out of sheer excitement in all directions, photography happened. I've been interested in trying to get some sun flair images for a while (ever since I read this article about it and was sort of like, oh yeah that sounds like fun..why haven't I done that yet??).

Some of the sun flair photographs were pretty cool, but I ended up getting a few shots without it that I liked as well.

E100G!!!!!!!

     Recently I was given a roll of 120 slide film. It was expired and therefore unwanted by the giver but very much wanted by the receiver. I mean, come on guys... I'll shoot anything. I'm around slide film every day and I know its potential, but I haven't shot slide film for myself...ever.. of course I HAD to shoot it for projects in school, but for the most part I didn't really see the benefit because I was overly serious about finding my niche by only shooting one thing one way. ...Which is okay for honing specific skills by limiting my options, but ultimately wasn't helpful at all in avoiding school burnout and artistic boredom. And here we are. So why not put this 100 speed "sensitive" exact film into my toy camera which is not exact at all, which I shoot willy nilly (honestly my solution for low light situations is to just layer more exposures. What? I'm off by four stops? click. click. click..) Did I mention I've NEVER cross processed film? Yeah, lets do that!

I am so totally in love with this film. Too bad I fell in love with it AFTER Kodak decided to discontinue it. Will that stop me from stockpiling it like the world is ending EVEN THOUGH it costs more per roll than I make working for an entire hour?


nope.

Happy (Belated) Independence day!

FILM! These photographs screamed america to me...or hipster. Same thing right? Well no, it seems that every country has their own version of the hipster. Exciting and terrifying at the same time, right? Don't forget about the zombie apocalypse...

I come to your house...I shoot all your cats.

First off, I have an amazing job. We have a spectacular rental department and just in... the D800. Normally I'm not a big digital shooter, but I'm always willing to try new things. This week, I borrowed Nikon's new power house of a camera and an 85mm lens with the intention of taking some portraits of friends and pets. For the first 45 minutes of having this camera in my hands, I hated it. I couldn't find the mode dial and I found this incredibly frustrating (After the camera and I had some time with each other, I found the dial organization more to my liking). This is where a little patience and reading comes in handy. I was out of my league and I knew it. But that's okay, learning happened and I ended up getting some pretty good shots.

It is incredibly easy to snap away with this camera. Because I had such a high volume of photographs, editing them down took a lot longer...but I couldn't help myself while I was shooting. I didn't have to worry about the cost of film or development, stopping to reload, or any of that. snap snap snap over and over again. As far as the image quality goes..this might sound a little silly coming from someone who shoots medium format film, but I'm not convinced I actually need a 36 megapixel camera..or probably about 80% of it's features. I'm normally easily pleased with just the basic functions of a camera. That said, I'm pretty sure you could program the D800 to make your morning coffee. Definitely out of my comfort zone, but I would LOVE more time with this camera.

and now for some pictures of cats: