First things first: until September 3rd, 2018, UK-based film retailer Analogue Wonderland is giving away a free 35mm 24-exposure roll of Kodak ColorPlus 200 with any order that contains any Kodak film!
But even more exciting is that you can submit your summertime images in a competition to win a goodie bag "full of film," including a roll of the eagerly-awaited Ektachrome!
My name is John Helmuth. I'm currently living in Philadelphia, but grew up right over the bridge in South Jersey. I graduated from the University of the Arts in 2011 with a BA in Graphic Design. I've been a film photographer since 2000-2001 when I got my first film camera, a Canon AE-1p. I stopped shooting film for a long time to get more digital work, but ended up selling all of my digital gear to invest in some Leica gear about 2 years ago. Most of my freelance work is shooting classic cars and classic car shows / events, but since I live in Philadelphia I always find myself shooting around the city focusing on whatever catches my eye. People, architecture, signage, all different things. I also usually travel with a batch of film whenever I'm on vacation.
I ended up getting back into film photography a few years ago after taking a long break because I found my digital work more or less getting lost in the sea of digital photography online. I was able to get a better a response from my film work while continuing to photograph the same things I shot with digital. On top of getting more recognition for my film work, I love geeking out and getting into the more technical side of film. Absolutely love finding my favorite black and white films, using certain color films for certain times of day, pushing film to gain more light and texture and making the subjects of my images feel like they're from another space and time by just using certain types of film. Not to mention making new friends and being included in the film photography community.
My Domke F-5XB is filled with a Leica M6TTL .85 with matching leicavit, Voigtlander 35mm f1.4, Summarit 50mm f2.4, Tele-Elmarit 90mm f2.8, all BW XS-Pro filters, and a Yashica T2 point-and-shoot.
The first image is a photo of a 1949 Mercury that was shot in the Philadelphia Navy Yard in front of a retired aircraft carrier. This was photographed for the Jalopy Journal. I wanted to photograph this car surrounded by interesting elements of the city the car was original from. I shot this image on Portra 400 around dusk. It was shot with a Leica M5 with an early 60s Summicron 90mm f2 lens.
The second image is a photo of my cousin on a smoke break outside of our beach house. Her positioning in front of the window, the back-lite glow, the framing of the plants around the window, and the timing of having my film camera loaded with black and white TMax 400 were all by chance. This caught my eye immediately. One of my all-time favorite BW shots. Shot with a Sears 35RF.
The third image is a night photo of a motel called the Beach Comber located at the beach town of Wildwood, New Jersey. This town is packed with retro motels stuck in time. Many of their original neon signs still glow in the night. This specific motel was the main headquarters of the car club The Oilers during The Race of Gentlemen, which is a motorcycle and automobile racing event on the Wildwood beach showcasing all pre-WW2 motorcycles and cars. This was shot on a Leica Minilux with Portra 800.
My name is Michael Neal, and I'm from a small town in Ohio. I began shooting concert photography which I am still very passionate about, however after taking classes through the New York Institute Of Photography, I've discovered a real passion for shooting 35mm film. Being from Ohio, I didn't have much exposure (get it?) to film work, however after spending time in Seattle and Portland, their community really grew my fascination and love for analog work.
One of the things that I love most about shooting with film is the connection I feel between the artist and the camera. I love that I really have to "earn" my shots. There's a certain look with film that sets it apart from digital work, and though I can't really describe it, I think a lot of photographers know when they see it. A lot more thought goes into the shots for me when I know the cost between each frame advance. Additionally, I like that more of the process is on the front end of the shoot since there isn't as much you can do in post to alter the image. What you see is what you get. There's an immense amount of responsibility and pride behind each shot in such a permanent and manual process. Also the fact that it isn't quite as saturated as the digital photography scene is nice. I still shoot quite a lot of digital work for various jobs, but film has a special place for me. As I travel, being able to document specific instances, moments, people, and places I see in a tangible format is a really rewarding process.
Film has caused me to focus more on portraits, street, and landscape photography. I originally started shooting film with a Nikon F100 due to the ability to use my professional glass that I already owned for that system. However since then, I've branched out even more into rangefinders, and I am currently using a Leica M6 primarily. For the F100, I love my sigma 20mm ART f/1.4, my nikon af-s g 50mm f/1.8, and my nikon f/2.8 macro. With the Leica, my kit includes the Voigtlander 35mm f/1.4 nokton, the Zeiss 50mm f/2 planar, and the Leica 90mm Elmarit - M. I find this setup is ideal for covering a wide range (get it?) of subjects. The Voigtlander has a really classic rendering which is great as I travel, and want a really classic, artistic look. The Zeiss is just so sharp. It's amazing for resolving high detail. The Leica is one of the best portrait lenses ever made in my opinion, and I love it. As far as film, I primarily used to shoot Fujifilm 160 and 400, however now my favored black and white film is the Kodak Tmax 400, and I lean on the Kodak Portra 160 most for color portraits. I love experimenting with different films, so I also find Ektar, HP5, Portra 400, Cinestill 50, Tmax 100, and a few others in my locker.
I primarily do concert work through UnderAir Media, and I freelance on the side doing portraits primarily. Right now, I'm focusing on submitting work to coffee shops, camera stores, and galleries to hang prints in addition to hosting tons of film images on my website.
Today I'm super happy to feature something a little different: a stop motion animation short created by photographer Max Lamdin. I'm going to let him take the reigns and tell you what this project is all about below. Have at it, Max!
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My name is Max Lamdin, I’m a 20-year-old photography student living in Kent in the UK, I’ve been heavily interested in photography for the last 5 or 6 years but have always enjoyed it, I grew up shooting film and returned to it around 4 years ago and it’s been my main focus for all of that time. I’m pretty much constantly shooting, with no particular preference for subject matter; street photography, portraiture, documentary the works, on a whole range of formats too, 35mm, medium format and polaroid.
The thing that ultimately interests me the most about film photography is the unlimited possibilities which can be made from cameras to film stocks, plus I have always been interested in the cameras and how they work. That was the main motivation behind the animation from the beginning, although it was set out as a Uni project I knew I wanted to make something that wasn’t just a straight video and I knew I wanted to make it about cameras.
In total I took around 3000 images in a simple set up with a lighting tent, sadly I couldn’t use film for this project because I would have if given the chance. The ‘story’ line behind the video was a bit of make it up as you go kind of thing, but I wanted to make sure I was using film cameras as they’re what I’m most passionate about and I wanted to use modular cameras so that I could build them up in the video. When I made the video, the cameras included were my favourites at the time, the Nikon F4, is an absolute beast of a camera and I treated it as such, I used it heavily over 2 years and it was one of my absolute favourite cameras, however I recently sold it as I got hold of an F5 that was at a price I couldn’t say no too, whereas the F4 was a beast the F5 is an absolute monster!
Although I miss the F4 I’m incredibly happy with the F5. Also included in the video is a Bronica SQ-Ai, perfect for this video due to its modular build, sadly this camera has had some issues and has been sent away for repair twice, which is why at the very end of the video eagle eyed viewers will notice something slightly different about that particular camera. I’m currently using an SQ-A in its place at the moment which is alright in some regards, but I definitely miss my SQ-Ai. The final camera in the video is a Polaroid ProCam, a bit of a weirdo in some regards, I see it as something Robocop would use which I hope explains why I’ve edited the way I have. But a very fun camera to use, taking Spectra film and allowing for a larger amount of control than most polaroid cameras. Now I’m using either an SX-70 of the Polaroid Macro 5 (something definitely worth looking up).
That’s the story behind the cameras I’ve chosen, all of the images included in the video preceding the cameras were shot using those particular cameras/on similar formats, to give a glimpse into my photography while also being surrounded by what I love most about photography.
In total, the video took an estimated 30 hours to make, about 15 hours of shooting, and roughly 10 hours of sound design, all of the camera sounds were genuine sounds which I recorded myself, and most the sound effects were found on free sound websites (poor student problems). I’m not entirely sure how long I spend editing the video in total, but it must have been roughly 5 hours at least. I wanted to make something which was meaningful to me and actually showed something which I am interested in which I feel was accomplished.
If you would like to see any more of my photography it can be found at maxlamdinphotography.co.uk or you can follow me on Instagram @the_maxines if you’d rather see some of my more sporadic postings about cameras and general photography nonsense.
The dedicated and prolific gang over at the Sunny 16 Podcast allowed me to be a guest on their show yet again, this time to help judge the Cheap Shots Challenge. It's nice chunky one so make sure your morning commute is long and your coffee cup is full.
