Tag Archives: Medium Format

Holga: Back in the Saddle Again

November 26, 2015 9:24 am ⋅ Leave a Comment ⋅ Amanda Raney

While I’ve been off trying to conquer Diana the last few years, I’ve left my true toy camera love, Holga, neglected. I decided to change that this summer, starting with loading my trusty Holga 120N for Holga Week. Now, I didn’t get the film developed in time to share it for Holga Week, but better late than never!

Roll #1 was Kodak Ektar 100 (Holga Week)

Otherlands Coffee, Memphis

Mom outside Otherlands Coffee, Memphis

Owl mural, which has been shown here a couple of other times

Bike outside Aldo’s Pizza, Memphis

Looking up from my seat on the patio at Aldo’s

Roll #2 was Fuji 64T, expired (expiration date unknown. In fact, these are the craziest film scans I have ever received. I asked the lab to cross process it, but I am not convinced they did. These scans scream, “Underexposed expired tungsten slides” to me…)

The Orpheum on my birthday

Dodge Challenger Hellcat

Spooky double exposure

Oxford, Mississippi

Roll #2 was Kodak Tri-X

Family friend’s 1957 Chevy station wagon

Dinner at an Italian restaurant we like

Hanging vines at my house

Coldwater, Mississippi

Tattooed mom, Coldwater, Mississippi

Tuxedo rental, Coldwater, Mississippi

Merican flag, Coldwater, Mississippi

I ONLY included this poorly exposed picture of Dilly because it was the only photo I took on World Toy Camera Day this year 🙂

Conclusion?

I really need to keep shooting with my Holga! Duh!

Posted in: film photography ⋅ Tagged: film photography, Holga, Holga 120N, medium format, toy camera

{Red, Red, Red} Scale

September 8, 2015 11:57 am ⋅ Leave a Comment ⋅ Amanda Raney

You’ve seen redscale film a few times on this blog before. As a refresher, redscale film is regular film which is loaded into a camera and shot backwards, if you will. The light has to work extra hard to get to the side of the film that a photo is exposed onto, which also causes color shifts in the resulting photos. I usually do my own 35mm redscale film because it’s super easy. It’s possible to make redscale out of 120 (medium format) film, but it’s a little more tricky to DIY. Medium format film has “backing paper” on it, that keeps light from getting to it. The backing paper is what makes turning it into redscale more difficult, because you have to remove the tape holding the paper to the film, turn the film upside down, and retape it. The paper and film can curl up, making it even more difficult. Mind you, all this has to be done in a completely dark room! All that to say this: Lomography makes redscale film in medium format, and I’d much rather buy theirs than try to mess with it myself.

The Lomography redscale film I bought is XR 50-200. “XR” stands for “Extended range,” as they say it can be shot from ISOs 50-200, depending upon the effect you want to achieve. If you shoot the film as if the ISO is 200, you will get photos with tones of deep red and orange. That’s because the film is being vastly underexposed since the light is having to fight harder to get to the light sensitive (emulsion) side of the film. I, however, prefer to give the film as much light as possible. I chose to shoot this film rated at 50 (or thereabouts.) I wanted to have more muted color tones in my photos. Most people tend to shoot film like this in toy cameras, like a Holga or Diana. But I like to shoot redscale film in cameras where I have exposure control, like my Yashica-Mat (which I used for these photos.)

New red shoes for my birthday

(Hi there!)

1959 Ford Fordor I saw in Hernando, MS

I normally wouldn’t post such a blurry photo, and I was very disappointed that camera shake ruined it. But it was so lovely: on my birthday, my mom, my best friend, and I went to The Orpheum to see “Hook.” There was a little memorial to Robin Williams set up on on his star outside the theatre. I wish the photo had turned out better, but it’s still something I want to remember. Ya know?

My favorite place in Memphis…

In the foyer of The Orpheum.I had to guestimate the Bulb exposure for this, and I’m happy with how it turned out!

Flower at my sister’s house (close-up filter used on the camera lens)

Yashica-Mat • Lomography XR 50-200 (shot at 50)

I have a couple more rolls of the Lomography XR 50-200, and I think I will try to shoot it at 25 ISO. The colors were a little more orange and red in some of the photos than I like!

Posted in: film photography, personal ⋅ Tagged: alternative process photography, film photography, lomography xr 50-200, medium format, redscale, Yashica-mat

{Forgotten Frames} Double Exposed, Years Apart

July 5, 2015 11:20 am ⋅ 1 Comment ⋅ Amanda Raney

I have an odd one to share with you today.

Back in 2012, I borrowed Gabe’s Hasselblad for awhile. He told me that the film loaded in it was one with an ISO of 160, so that’s how I shot it. Stands to reason, right? When I finished the roll, I found that it was actually a roll of Agfa Ultra 50. That meant the film would be underexposed by nearly two stops. I thought I shouldn’t bother getting the film developed, so I just put the film away in a drawer. Then, two years later (2014) I had this idea that maybe if I exposed the film in the Yashica-Mat I’d just gotten, I could fix the underexposure problem by double exposing it. I put it in the Yashica, shot the roll again, and put the film away yet again because I didn’t think it’d be worth developing. Now, in 2015, I finally just threw the roll of Agfa Ultra into a batch of film that I was sending the photo lab anyway. The results are interesting, on a couple of levels. 1. With the exception of one photo, I didn’t remember anything I’d shot when the film was in the Hasselblad. 2. The photos, for the most part, didn’t line up as proper double exposures. Some of them don’t seem to be double exposed at all??? 3. I have NO recollection of what I photographed when I transferred the film into the Yashica-Mat. That makes it hard to discern which layer of the double exposure was taken with which camera. I can make some educated guesses, but that’s about it.

I believe that the more “prominent” images on each double-exposed frame was taken with the Hasselblad. I didn’t seem to do a very good job getting enough light onto the film when it was in the Yashica-Mat. From what I can tell, I think I shot things in the Yashica-Mat that I thought might add a textural layer to the original exposures. But, from the looks of it, I might have given the film almost enough exposure when it was in the Hassy that I might not have even needed to undertake this silly pursuit!

Oy vey!

Posted in: film photography ⋅ Tagged: agfa ultra 50, double exposures, film photography, forgotten frames, hasselblad, hasselblad 500 c/m, medium format, Yashica-mat

{Just Married} Jessica + Dustin, the bonus shots

June 17, 2015 3:13 pm ⋅ Leave a Comment ⋅ Amanda Raney

I’ll be posting more photos from Jessica and Dustin’s beautiful wedding very soon, but first I wanted to share some of the snapshots I made of their wedding with my Fuji GA645i.