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theclo4ked1 · 2 months

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Photo Dump: I'm not retro because it's trendy (is it still trendy?)

^ Digitized scans of some of my many prints. The left is a still life of my desk, the next two are my hand to a mirror, inspired by Cindy Sherman's Film Stills.

Months ago, I dove into the wonderful world of Film Photography, or Still Photography, Black-And-White Photography, which ever of these mean using a film camera to expose rolls of films to create exposures that are then chemically soaked and... Well, it's a long ass process; I'll tell ya hwat, boi. I have no nostalgia for film cameras, I didn't know what exactly I was getting into, I thought it was more of digital photography stuff I used to do, but no, this was the real deal. I learned about exposure time, an fStop (I'm still a lil' stuck on it but), shallow and deep focus, a light meter, and other things some may take for granted on their smartphone cameras—I sound much older than I actually am, no wonder they call me a boomer :P It's all analog, baby. Before studying film cameras, I used my digital camera as my preferred method of taking photos, it even has an added bonus of being waterproof. I still use it from time to time, it's not like it's obsolete, it's just that I was lent a film camera at the time. For the curious, I'd used a Nikon N6006, it has an automatic zoom and focus mechanism so it's a little easier to use than a more manually controlled camera like a Yashica FX-2, which was the film camera given to our family by my great-grandfather—I'll get back to this later. But, back to the matter, it pays to learn about and to use a film camera to appreciate the photo process. You'll come to appreciate figures such as *does a pooh voice* mmm, cccindyyy sshhherrmannnnn... Cuz that how I remembered her name, but I ended up forgetting; nonetheless, I briefly studied her and her Untitled Film Stills; really interesting stuff.

She served as an inspiration for the last roll of film I had done. I have my portfolio (you've seen it above), a binder, and from this experience, I did six rolls of film with a total of... ~180 exposures and over 85 prints from those exposures because I gave some away to peers as what I called "gift prints". The film used to take every single one of these pictures was 35mm Kentmere PAN 400. Like I implied before, I have no nostalgia or prior experience for this kinda stuff, so I can't say "Ah, good ol' Kentmere P400!", but it's said that these rolls are suitable for high-speed, general purpose black-and-white photography. In my experience, these rolls would come with either 24 or 26 exposures. I preferred 24, but when I felt gutsy, 36. Below is a loose compiled list of my counting, and you may notice the exposure numbers are either one over, or exactly the numbers stated above. I don't know how I did that, but I'm glad I had extras.

1st roll, 37 expos, 12 prints plus roll call

2nd roll, 25 expos, 13 prints plus roll call

3rd roll, 37 expos, 26 prints plus roll call

4th roll, 36 expos, 13 prints plus roll call

5th roll, 24 expos, 9 prints plus roll call

6th roll, 24 expos, 13 prints plus roll call

The "roll call", for lack of better term, were prints of all my exposures from one roll lined up on film. I can only share these three pictures because a majority of these prints involve private things, not like pornography, but y'know, I have a lot of portraits of people whose identities will remain anonymous because I respect them. As good as those photos are. There's a fourth that came before this post, of a friend, that's posted not on Tumblr, but on my former-Tumblr extension Instagram page that I won't delete until after August. Anyways, I found my niche in still life compositions and portraits. When I asked people if I could take their photo (and if they consented), I'd ask them to do the thing they were doing before I approached them, like this one of my peer reading in a chair. The "acting natural" look is what's most appealing to me, it shows people's character, even more so complimented with good composition, which I think I got a handle on—love me some Rule-Of-Thirds—and it helps in making the picture feel more realistic. On the rare occasion, I would have someone pose or act for me; few times I'd have to get somebody IN MOTION.

That's enough history and study. The future on the other hand... My great-grandfather's (but we don't call him that) Yashica: very old. After the whole experience in Still Photography, I wanted more, even though I don't have a darkroom or the chemicals to start development. I remembered a camera in our basement, complete with a strap, a case, an attachable flash (I think it's down there somewhere), and a long-ranged zoom lens. After uncovering it, I fiddled around with, snapping imaginary photos since it didn't have film. I was able to get it open by pulling up the hand crank. It was dirty and sticky, apparently so sticky that the shutter mirror got stuck after a few bouts of testing it. Tried as I could, the handle that rolls the film for another exposure was stuck, and even though I could open the camera, I couldn't meddle too much for risk of breaking something was high. I looked up any forums posts and the camera's manual to see if there was any hope, but alas, there was none. OR SO I THOUGHT! I found a camera shop some towns away that also offers camera repairs. It was about an hour of driving, so in early June, I made a plan to go there. I walked up to the guy behind the glass counter, and awkwardly asked if he could help me out. I really wanted the camera fixed for sentimental reasons, but he suggested to just a buy a newer Yashica model; less expensive with more features, like an automatic battery-powered film winder, also by Yashica. It was able to get a "discount" because Granpa's old camera lens was still in good condition, so the lens that came with the new camera was replaced and will go to someone else.

Addendum, Jul. 17, 2024. I've wanted to include the model of my new camera but I was blanking on the name, and I didn't feel like taking it out of its carrying case because there's this one latch that's a hassle to pull off without feeling like I'll break something. This new camera is a Yashica FR II.

That store also came with a roll of, you won't believe it, 35mm Kentmere P400 film, with 24 exposures no less! He seem impressed I knew about it, and this gave me the impression that he must've thought I came to the store because "old and vintage camera for nostalgia I wasn't even a thought at the point in time to exist and enjoy it".

Tangent/Addendum. Jul. 17, 2024: I've said it before: I have no nostalgia for this, I just find this interesting, and grayscale photography appeals to me in the artistic sense that these tones convey a different feeling than in colour. For those history buffs out there, black-and-white and monochromatic photography, like cyanotype, was all they had at the time... Uhh, I could be wrong. I just know that autochrome was invented much later, and the pigments and the starches and things and... Another reason I enjoy film photography is that you get to touch your pictures: the photo negatives on the film rolls. That's your picture in 3D space (sorta). It is not a print, that is your picture in RAW FORM. Well, no, if you just took out your film roll in raw form, it would get burnt by the slightest light and you'd lose all your would-be photos. That's why we have to load our film onto a reel in a pitch-black room, easier said than done by the way, which is then loaded into a canister for chemical processing, i.e. development. So, it's more PROCESSED/RAW FORM than RAW/RAW FORM.

I wasn't offended, I don't remember, and I don't care to remember because we got to talking thereafter, and I recounted the long and boring process I went through just to get the film developed, stopped, fixed, the works; how it would always take about an hour or so. After the business was done, I thanked him and went back to the car. I sat there admiring and getting a handle on my new camera. Meanwhile, nearby, a group of high-schoolers were walking by in fancy outfits. I asked if they were getting ready for graduation, which they were, so I said "Oh, congratulations!" I felt older than I actually was, but in this instance, I was older than them. They are similar to who I was. They're moving on to another chapter in their lives... I decided it was time to go home, so I packed my camera as safe as I could in my backpack, and drove off.

Come a short time later that month, after I gently cleaning the camera's exterior and part of the interior with some alcohol and loading the film as best as I could... The counter wouldn't go up, so I kept opening and readjusting the beginning end of the film strip that's always exposed so you can load it properly. The thing about film photography: you're betting on the film to be okay. You are blind, you're going to have to trust that the film is doing fine and that your capturing EXACTLY what you think you are...if you're using default program settings. Trying to figure out where the "start" of the film was, I pulled the film out slowly. I pulled a little more. I pulled a little more. I pulled, it was all this purple gray, which isn't how I remember loading the film into my lent Nikon. I've come to the conclusions either I messed up the film or that the film was left in the store for far too long. And about the counter being presumably broken, Yashica cameras are apparently known for their faulty mechanisms... Oh no. Thanks for reading!

#photography #still photography #black and white photography

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