Film: Exploring Medium Format

For years I'd been dreaming about exploring film again. It's what I started out on and last year it was all I dreamt about. I'd given myself excuse after excuse not to pursue film, but it kept haunting me  until I gave in.

Last fall I found myself eyeing a medium format camera online, and with the encouragement and support of my husband and a few close loved ones, I dove right in. I got myself a Mamiya 645 AFD right before traveling to California. So I shipped it out to my best friends' house to meet me on the west coast and from there it was all butterflies in my stomach and fear.

Let me tell you, I was so afraid.

I was afraid because film felt absolutely foreign again. I was afraid I'd load the film wrong, or ruin the exposure, or leak light somewhere. I was afraid when I took every single shot, unsure of my camera settings, but really unsure of my skill. 

And after all was said and done, I was still afraid to send in my first rolls for developing. So the film stayed undeveloped for 6 months. 6 whole months. The truth is, I am a wimp. This is all I have been aching to do for the past year, yet it scared me to no end to actually follow through with it. 

But last week I built up the courage to finally send in my rolls to Fulltone Photo. I know there are many amazing photo labs around the country, and I've done plenty of research, but Fullton was the most cost effective for my first round of "trial & error". 

For my first set of scans I am extremely happy. I know I'll be shopping around in the future and I'll be sure to try other labs, but for now I'm grateful just to simply view my images and know that my rolls did not come out as duds. All without breaking the bank.

Here are a few favorites from my first few rolls of Kodak 400TX black & white.

{Some of which might be repeats from this post I did in digital}

A gigantic thank you goes out to my best friends who cheer me on while also modeling for me.
Their love and support helped make me brave.

Film: Life in Action {Lomography}

Life's been moving quite fast lately. I'm trying hard to capture it before it passes me by.

Happy Wednesday friends!

Film: Navy Wedding

Lately I've been truly inspired to shoot film again. It's definitely a lost art, and still one of my favorite things to do. Though I don't have my own dark room, nor do I have the resources to develop my own film, Target is my go-to place when I'm feeling extra creative and will develop my film for me. Woo-hoo Target!

Anyways ... this last wedding I shoot {the Navy wedding} I wanted to challenged myself to shoot not just digital, but to in film. Boy was I was nervous, but it was something I've been dying to try so I just went for it. Looking at my images they turned out pretty sweet, but now I know where I can make improvements and I'm going to keep at it till I'm satisfied. 

You don't know what you can do till you try right? So I did. And here's what came out.

I shot all of these with my big sister's fully manual FM10 we've been Nikon girls from the start. It made me nervous that I really had to rely 100% on my manual skills because having no LCD screen to show me my shots felt like shooting blind. But it was exhilarating and worth it, I'm so glad I gave it a try.

I know alot of my digital shots are the same as these, but it's giving me somewhere to start and a place to compare and contrast.  I can definitely see a difference with my digital shots and my film shots. To start, my digital shots are definitely "creamier" than my film shots, but I know what needs to be done differently with film to get the "creaminess" back.

*This is my favorite film shot by far. Her veil was too beautiful and "the blurriness makes the picture come to life" as Jose Villa would say and for lack of a better word.

There are two major things I know I can do differently next time, First is the film speed. I just grabbed what I had readily available to me in my camera bag, which was Fuji 400 colored film. Nothing fancy, I know. But now I know I'm going to definitely need something faster like Kodak Professional Portra 800 film or Fujicolor Pro 800z, which are also pricier but worth it. I bought a roll of the Kodak Portra 800 today so we'll see how that goes. 

And secondly the lens choice. I decided to shoot with the original lens my sister got with the camera that day because I reserved all my prime lenses for my digital slr, which was my main camera. I believe the lens I used on film was something comparable to a 28-80mm 3.5-5.6 lens, but don't quote me on that. What I love about Nikon is that all the lens made in the last 30 years I believe are interchangeable with most if not all Nikon camera bodies {expect for full frame cameras/lenses}. So I know I'm able to shoot with my prime lenses on the FM10 and when I do I'll get back that creamy, shallow depth of field I love so much.

There are a few other things I could have done differently, and I know I can improve ... but this was a trial and error of sorts and my first go at shooting film in a long time. But with that said and done, I'm still pretty happy with how things came out.

Stay tuned because I'll be posting more film adventures as I continue to practice and re-learn my way around film. It's going to be a fun ride.

Ps. My apologies if this post seems a bit redundant with images, since I posted this ceremony already ... but thanks so much for sticking around.