Film Camera a Month - May

For May I chose to use my Canon 1000f film camera. 
 As I mentioned before, I was really looking forward to using a more reliable film camera for this month.

For my film I decided to use slide x-pro 200 by lomography. I then decided to go a step further and have it developed in normal colour settings aka having it cross processed. I also did my normal trick of over exposing in camera by two stops which honestly was this month's biggest downfall. If I use this slide film again, I will just shoot at normal exposure as a lot of the shots from this roll were way too washed out to even share :( In saying that I'm still super excited to share my favourites, which I do really love!!

The reds ended up being super bright which I think is so pretty :)
You may also recognise this shot from my insta :P

Don't think I explained the focus to Ben :P

Can you spy the corn! My bro visited and we opened one and I'd say it was 70% ready but he still gave it two thumbs up for taste wise :)

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Asahi Pentax 6x7 - Fuji Velvia Film

So a few months ago I finally saved up enough pennies to buy my dream film camera, an Asahi Pentax 6x7. 

Mine didn't come with a strap but I've been loving the tripod screw version on the right I picked up.

Obligatory self portrait with camera!

This thing is huge and heavy, it's also my first proper medium format camera taking 120 film; a film due to its negative size, records more data than 35mm film - a plus if you want to go large in printing.

After much research, I also settled on the takumar 2.4, 105mm lens, equivalent to around 50mm on my canon full frame body. 50mm is my all time favourite focal length so it was kind of a no brainer. My only complaint so far with the lens is its minimum focus is around 1 metre, I would of loved for that to be a lot closer! After building my scanning rig, I was able to "scan" two rolls of film, so today I'm going to show you the results from a roll of fuji velvia, which is a slide film.

I actually did two things with this film, I shot it in camera at 32 ISO( it's rated at 50) and I had it cross processed, so instead of running it through slide film chemicals, my local lab ran it through the normal colour processing - so I could get some funky colour results!

Note to self: hand held portraits - way to close to focus!

I love the crazy colours happening! 

One thing which I'll have to get use to and currently have a love/hate relationship with is the film only allows for ten shots when using the 6x7. I've been privileged in the past with the 35mm film getting 30+ shots per roll in my canon camera. The plus for this, is when I have to get through 30 shots, a lot of time film will sit in my camera, so the quick turn over is nice; although only having 10 shots before needing to change rolls does seem a little crazy to me! 

Tomorrow I'll show you some photos from a portra 400 roll :)

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the FIND Lab

I wanted to try something, I wanted to trust the Aussie postal system (hard to do!) pop my film into a mailer and post it to America to be scanned, crazy? Maybe!

I've been a big fan of Jonathan Canlas for a while now - chances are if you're into film then you are as well.   Mr Canlas only shoots film, coined the phrase "film is not dead" and does a lot to promote the artform and keep it alive, he also has started (I believe or had some involvement with) the Find Lab. Speaking of which, FIND becomes the awesome acronym for "film is not dead" :)

I shot my very first roll of slide film, some Agfa CT Precisa 100 that I wanted to cross process and knew it would be in great hands if I sent it to the FIND lab (and it was!). Cross processing, simply refers to processing a film in different chemicals then what's intended for the film stock.   In this case I had my slide film processed in normal colour film chemicals. You may ask why and the simple answer is because you can get some interested results by doing so, crazy colours, contrasts, all slightly unpredictable but hopefully all awesome :)

I have to give mad props to the FIND lab, I will say upfront it is more expensive then when I was sending my film a state away through the lomography website (but not that much more) and much more expensive then dropping it off your local drugstore but I can honestly say it's worth it to do so. The Find lab's customer service is outstanding, not only did they do a killer job on the scans but they took the time to give feedback and offer some other film/suggestions to try :) I appreciate the communication and felt free to ask questions, something I'm not use to and took me pleasantly by surprise :)

Okay onward to the photos, they're a hodge podge of photos from Biggenden, Byron and Fraser.  There's also a few non-slide photos in the mix, like the cactus shot and the black white one (portra 160 and lady grey 400, respectively) but other than that it's all cross processed goodness shot on my Canon 1000f :)

I definitely want to play with slide film and cross processing more in the future - I love the unpredictable nature!

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VSCO 04 - Slide Film Review + Examples

This is going to be a painful post for anyone who doesn't care about photography or processing - you better look away now- but for those interested this might be a helpful guide.  Visual Supply Co (VSCO) have released their fourth set of presets (slide film) and I bit the bullet and bought it.

Image by Jared Chambers taken from the VSCO website

Presets for those not in the know are photo enhancing processes run over a photo with a click of a button (magical!).  I use the program Lightroom (LR) to run my presets  :)  I currently own the first ever edits VSCO brought out, number 01 (modern film) which are all about emulating the film look of today's negative films.  I should stop and say that I know how silly it sounds to shoot with digital and then try and re-create the film look but hey, film is awesome so it makes sense to want to copy it and sometimes digital is just cheaper/easier :P Don't worry I still believe in film and it's my goal for the rest of the year to shoot a tone of it :) I've also got lots of film photos coming up to share too!

(because I have 177 photos to show -all of the same thing - I'm going to save your eyes and stick it behind a cut for the truly keen, you can thank me later!)

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