Tag Archives: Film Photography

{Two Rolls In} {Three Rolls In} Holga 135

September 6, 2016 9:27 am ⋅ Leave a Comment ⋅ Amanda Raney

I actually had a Holga 135 a handful of years ago, so this is not a camera that is entirely new to me. I bought one in 2011 but felt like a hipster for doing so because it came from Urban Outfitters. That inspired me to do a photo series call “Things Hipsters Like.” After running a couple of rolls through the Holga 135, a piece broke off of it, then I tried unsuccessfully to paint it a color I liked better, and that was the end of my relationship with the Holga 135. Fast forward a few years, and I started looking back at some of the photos I’d taken with that camera, and I thought “Hey, some of those were pretty cool!” Couple that with the fact that the Holga factory shut down earlier this year, and I decided that I wanted another Holga 135 while I could still get one. I found one online and bought it. It was described as “fuchsia.” My friends, it’s actually a bright neon orangey pink. It’s a LOUD color.

I was SO excited that my new Holga 135 arrived just before I left to see Mallory up in Midtown Memphis on a beautiful afternoon. I knew it would be a great day to try out the Holga!

Roll #1 was Agfa Vista Plus 200

Crosstown

I kinda went overboard photographing the cool sculpture outside Crosstown 🙂

Around Midtown

HI!

It was February, and they still had Christmas decorations up!

Roll #2 was expired Fuji Sensia 400, cross-processed

Now. This isn’t a full roll, because when I was photographing the Impala you’ll see below, someone at work saw me doing so and insisted on taking a bunch of photos of me with the car. It wasted a good bit of that roll. AND I accidentally opened the camera because I forgot there was film in it. OOPS! I was going to wait to get this roll developed, because there had been so many missteps with it, but I decided to throw it in with the most recent batch of film I sent off for processing.

Example of the aforementioned photos of me with the car…

I didn’t really think it was fair to the camera or this blog post for me to accept Roll #2 as a proper test roll, so I put a third roll through the Holga 135 for this post!

Roll #3 was Fuji Superia 400, expired in 2007

Admittedly underexposed, but they’re of SPIKE!

Como, Mississippi

Double exposure, probably in Como, Mississippi

Pro tip: don’t leave your camera in bulb mode and then take a photo in broad daylight!

HI!

Double exposure at the zoo and winner of “best of the bunch” for the photos in this blog

Another zoo double exposure

Crepe myrtles

Underexposed double exposure. But I like it?

Conclusion?

Aside from the mishaps with Roll #2, I actually am really pleased with a lot of the photos I took with my new Holga 135! Hopefully it won’t break like its predecessor did!

Posted in: camera equipment, film photography ⋅ Tagged: camera equipment, camera test, film photography, holga 135, two rolls in

{Testing the batch} Expired Kodak Pro 400MC 2.0

August 13, 2016 9:51 am ⋅ Leave a Comment ⋅ Amanda Raney

Maybe you’ve noticed by now that I sometimes buy batches of expired film. I had some film called Kodak Pro 400MC a couple of years ago, which expired in 1996. I LOVED it. It was some of my favorite expired film which I’ve ever used. I wished I had lots more rolls of it once I ran out! Here are some examples of that Pro 400MC batch:

(those last two were taken in London <3)

I finally decided to buy more Pro 400MC from ebay, knowing that it wouldn’t necessarily give me the same look as the other set of Pro 400MC I had, but I thought I would give it a try anyway. I got three rolls that expired in 1999 (well, I bid on five, but then the seller realized that there were only three in the box and the other two were something else. More on that another time though…) ANYWAY, I used the test roll on one of my niece’s “$5 photo shoots” on July 4, in her “photo shoot worthy” Nintendo shirt. I know some purists won’t like the way the expired film looks in these, but I kind of LOVE them. A lot.

Fuji GA645i • Kodak Pro 400MC, expired 1999

I shot the film at 200 ASA to help compensate for the age of the film, but I will probably want to do exposure compensation in tricky lighting situations, because film this old doesn’t have as much “latitude” as fresh film. I noticed that when I used the other batch of Pro 400MC I had in my GA645i, it wasn’t as well-exposed as when I used it in a camera where I set the exposure instead of the camera doing it (which is the case with the GA645i.)

Posted in: film photography ⋅ Tagged: expired film, film photography, Fuji GA645i, kodak pro 400MC, medium format, test roll

{Short and Sweet} 2.0

August 9, 2016 9:05 am ⋅ Leave a Comment ⋅ Amanda Raney

I wasn’t sure that there were enough photos in this set to warrant a blog post, but much like my previous “Short and Sweet” blog, I am posting them any ole way!

These are photos from the same roll that gave us the Forrister “forgotten frames,” but these don’t really qualify as forgotten. When you keep a compact 35mm camera with you at all times, you can end up with a random assortment of photos on one roll. This film was loaded in September and finished in February. It started its life at a photo shoot for Muddy’s and ended its journey at the aforementioned show where I photographed Forrister.

Muddy’s Broad Avenue gnomes on the windows

Window looking in to the kitchen at Muddy’s Broad Avenue

Snapshot of one of the groupings we photographed for the Muddy’s holiday look book

Rainy day at Dollywood

My rainy day at Dollywood style aesthetic in a mirror self-portrait

I can’t resist photographing cars that have rims painted to match the car itself

Thanksgiving at my brother and sister-in-law’s house

I don’t remember when this was, I just know my niece was being pouty at dinner one night

Pentax Espio Mini • Agfa Vista Plus 400

This roll just confirmed for me what a great little camera the Espio Mini is. I think it might have earned a spot in my “travel camera” arsenal!

Posted in: film photography ⋅ Tagged: agfa vista plus 400, film photography, Pentax espio mini

{Short and Sweet}

August 7, 2016 2:01 pm ⋅ Leave a Comment ⋅ Amanda Raney

This was a roll that was fraught with problems. Not problems with the film itself, but with the camera. My beloved (and sometimes cantankerous) Kiev 4AM was having some issues with its shutter again while this roll was in it. On various occasions, I had to let part of this roll get fogged by light so I could tinker with the shutter, therefore a lot of the frames of film weren’t usable. However, the images that DID work out are kind of wonderful. The Helios lens for the Kiev is truly a gem!