Film. The journey begins…

So… about a month ago I bought a new camera. But not just any camera. A Mamiya RB67 1970′s medium format film camera to be exact. Why? Well that’s a good question because strictly speaking I’ve never been remotely interested in film photography and very happy in my comfortable digital world. All I know is that one day in January I had a burger with two good friends (who also happen to be photographers), played with one of these cameras, fell in love with it, went on ebay and a week later I had one of my own. Sure, I’m cutting big chunks out of that story, but I’m trying not to bore you!

This is the camera.

What I loved about it initially was that – to me – it looks nothing like any camera I’ve ever seen. It’s big, it’s heavy, you look down into the top instead of through the back, nothing is where you expect it to be. It’s like some kind of camera alien. And it takes film, not memory cards. It doesn’t even need a battery – it’s completely mechanical. I’m fascinated by it!

Now, along with three of my good photographer buddies, I’m grappling with this big heavy alien camera thing and attempting to take photos with it – manually metering the light, choosing film, manually focusing and adjusting exposures depending on how far away the lens is from the film after you’ve focused it! I’m doing this for the sake of it, for fun, simply as a hobby but if it makes me a better photographer in the process somehow, that’s got to be a bonus. It’s like learning photography all over again, and I’m loving it. And enough people have told me they’re interested, that I thought it was blog worthy!

These are the first five rolls of real proper professional film I’ve ever shot. Ever. In case you’re wondering why I chose these five as my first, it’s just because I’d heard of them. How’s that for science? The negatives were all processed and scanned by Peak Imaging – no post production has taken place whatsoever in Photoshop, because, well, that would be cheating, right?

Fuji 400H

Frankly, I’m delighted with these considering they’re my first film shots – they’re exposed and they’re in focus!

Kodak Ektar 100

I’d seen some photos taken on Ektar 100 on Flickr, and I loved the tones so I popped on ebay and bought a roll! Due to the slower film speed (100) these were all taken on a monopod because I didn’t have my tripod with me.

Kodak Tri-X 400

By this point I was feeling braver about taking photos of people with my new camera. And as ever Sophie (my super-lovely wife) was my willing subject. Followed by my son Casper who spontaneously kept still for the first time in about six months. I absolutely adore the tones in this black and white film – there’s a kind of old-school soul about it!

Ilford HP5

A few weeks on I met up with Andy, Neil and Martin at Arley Hall for some more farting around very serious learning. It was ridiculously cold but made for some very photogenic wintery scenes. Ilford HP5 is another film I’ve heard people talk about so I thought I’d give it a go, and felt like black and white would work well with the frosty misty scenes.

Kodak Portra 800

Andy, Neil and I headed around the front of Arley Hall and I put a roll of Portra 800 in because… well… Portra is like a celebrity of films. Everyone’s heard of it so it must be good. I absolutely love the colour and contrast having seen the results. Officially my favourite film so far.

So there you have it – my first five rolls of proper film ever. I’ll keep you updated as my project progresses!

No related posts.