Ektar 100

When I first came back to film I tried as many different film stocks as I could get my hands on and one of the first was Kodak Ektar 100. One of the main reasons was because it’s easy to come by. It’s incredibly easy to find online and you can even find it in small local photo shops. It’s not the easiest to lay your hands on - that would be Kodak Gold 200 or Fuji Superia 200, both of which you can usually find in drug stores and big box stores.

But I fell in love with Ektar immediately and it’s become my favorite color stock. Its warmth and fine grain give a look that I find just dreamy. Even though its low ISO of 100 it handles low light pretty well - it’s got quite a bit of latitude when in comes to exposure. This is an image from the very first roll of Ektar that I shot and it’s one of my favorite images.

Gear Choices

I am not one who goes for high-end, expensive photography gear. You’ll never see me running around with a Contax T2 or a Leica. They are amazingly well-crafted and designed cameras. But in the end it’s not about the camera you’re using but more about how you compose your images, find the best light, knowing how to use the gear, being prepared and a whole lot of luck.

I almost always have a camera with me. I have a small messenger bag that I take with me, slung over my shoulder. At the very least I have whatever 35mm SLR I am currently shooting with or one of the small point & shoot cameras from the 90’s that I have. These are easy to find in thrift stores for a few bucks, or if you have a particular camera in mind (that isn’t overpriced like the aforementioned Contax T2 which you can’t find for less than $1000) you can find it online, usually for less than $50.

I shot this image with a Minolta Dual Freedom that I picked up in a Goodwill store for $4. The roll of Kodak Tri-X 400 that I shot this with literally cost more than the camera itself. It was a warm spring day in 2019 and it had been rainy in the morning. As the day wore on I could see out of the window at work the fog getting thicker and thicker so when I took my lunch break I ran up to the roof and then around downtown New Haven and shot half a roll of film in about 20 minutes. I got a lot of great images from that brief period but this one is a particular favorite. It’s matted and framed and hanging on the wall in my home. And I didn’t need a $3000 Leica camera to create it.

Why Film?

I get asked this question fairly often. Why take pictures in what some perceive to be an outdated way. My reasons are many. A lot of them have to do with nostalgia but there are practical reasons as well.

1. Film looks different. It doesn’t have the ability to capture as much of the light spectrum as the sensors in modern digital cameras. For instance, the Sony Alpha 7 iii has a range of 15 stops (roughly how photographers measure levels of light or luminescence) while one of my favorite film stocks, Kodak Ektar 100 has a range of only 10 stops. For reference the human eye has a range of about 20 stops. So a film photographer is more constrained than a digital photographer. But I’ve always found imposing restrictions fosters creativity. Like Orson Welles once said, “The enemy of art is the absence of limitation.”

2. I enjoy the delayed gratification. Not completely knowing how the shot is going to turn out forces you to really stop and think about composition, framing, exposure, etc. You can’t click and immediately look at your camera’s display and keep re-snapping till you finally capture something satisfying. Not having the option to take unlimited angles and exposures makes you more disciplined and choosing to take that on makes this feel more like an art than a science.

3. It’s also a tactile thing, or at least it is for me. I have a couple of DSLRs and they’re great. But they just don’t compare to how the Yashica 635 (pictured) feels in my hands. Or nearly any other older film camera. I have a Bronica ETR medium format camera that is just a behemoth and I love hefting it around. When the shutter opens and closes on a mechanical camera you really feel it.

Some people have the opinion that film is dying but it just isn’t true. New film stocks are being introduced all the time and old ones are being brought back from the dead like Fuji Neopan Acros and Kodak Ektachrome. Older cameras were built to last and I have quite a few that are as old as or older than I am and function beautifully, and there is an ample supply of them. I find it a more fulfilling process than digital photography.

Abstract(ish)

I went down to Wooster Square early one morning just to see and photograph the blossoms. One of the ideas I had in mind was to do something somewhat abstract, focusing on the blossoms and little else. I had my Minolta XE-5 in hand with my Rokkor 55mm f/1.7 lens mounted. I wanted as much bokeh as possible so I opened the lens as wide as possible and got as close as I possibly could. I was shooting Kodak Ektar 100, which is one of my favorite film stocks. It turned out much nicer than I had anticipated. This one is getting printed, mounted, framed and hung on the wall.

This is all new to me (again)

It’s been a while since I’ve had my own blog, my own domain. I used to be a web designer a lifetime ago and remember a bit of the tools of the trade but certainly not enough to try and do it on my own again. So… squarespace. I plan on using this space to feature my photography, talk about my process and journey and probably occasionally ramble on about nothing. Thanks for stopping by and checking me out and come back again soon.