Life in film.

As I mentioned in my last post about the film festival, my brain is incredulous at the idea of being planted in front of a computer screen for hours of photo editing. Thus, the transition into shooting far more film photographs than digital images. Here are a few of my favorites from the past few months.

Missoula International Airport: 6pm / 7pm.

Let me explain why. I will always LIKE digital photography for some obvious reasons: immediate satisfaction, virtual perfection, ability to manipulate, speed, mass of images, and ease of uploading. However, the reasons I LOVE film photography are exactly the opposite: anticipation of seeing my photos, little imperfections, pure and raw scenes, it slows me down, care with each image, and that I don't have to sit in front of my computer at all if I don't want to.

Alicia Watkinson, in Wyatt's empty room with beautiful window light!

Film, for me, has become more than just a way to be different, a way to empty my bank account, or a subscription to the hipster movement. It's a totally different way of seeing.

A building.

I know that those of you who shoot or have shot both film and digital know exactly what I'm talking about. I feel like slowing down and shooting film photos makes me such a better photographer. I HAVE to know exposure so well, because sometimes my meter will be out of batteries or broken, so I'm forced to do some math on my own, which makes me have to remember zone system, sunny 16, and basic exposure. I also have to manually focus the camera I use.

The view from my window.

Alicia's beautiful face in Wyatt's empty room.

The camera literally does nothing for me. There's no white balance corrector, no autofocus, no flash, no exposures over 1/1000th of a second, no playback button, no erase button, no nothing. It's just me, light, and my scene. With digital I can just shoot and repeat if I screw something up. With film, it's one and done. You won't know whether it sucks for a while.

Red Tea, Green Tea, Chamomile Tea. Indecisiveness.

Film is wonderful because it's tangible. I have thousands upon thousands of digital images, but 95% of them never see the light of day. When I shoot film, I get to make beautiful, tangible photographs that I can hold in my hands or flip through. I feel like I'm making real photographs, not just virtual images.

It makes me stop and think. It keeps me engaged in photography from start to finish. The colors are richer. There IS a texture. The dynamic range is greater. Light leaks are cool. And I get to spend time watching my photograph come to life in the darkroom.

I'm really loving film far more than digital these days. I think I always have. I'll probably never make the full switch, simply because I can't afford it, plus there are a few occasions on which I've been thankful for a digital process, but I can say with certainty that I will never stop shooting film.

Alicia holding a window.

I want my kids to have a shoebox full of photos of themselves when they grow up, not just a hard drive full of images.

Gabrielle, the kitty / Forest, my man.

And that is why I love film.

Harold the typewriter being put to use in an abandoned schoolhouse in Bannack Ghost Town.

P.S. I stopped doing my 365 for this reason too. I want to take time with my images and my 365 didn't allow me to do that. Sorry guys. I know that's the second one I stopped. I'm just not in a place in life when I can do it again. Someday I will. Keep in touch.

Big Sky Documentary Film Festival!

Alright friends, I'm finally posting this. It was one of the most enjoyable, frustrating, intriguing, challenging, beautiful, quirky, enlightening weeks of my life.

You see, I had to shoot any one event for my photojournalism class at the university. I chose the Big Sky Documentary Film Festival. It's a ten day extravaganza filled with films of all shapes and sizes about different people and different things and crazy stories. And leading up to this decision, I had been repulsed by the computer, for no specific reason, per say, other than hating how much life it sucks out of me. That's the first reason I thought to shoot the festival in film, but the next thought that rolled around was how flippin cool it would look if the photos I took of the festival looked timeless, like the people sitting in the theatre are the same people who sat in theatres 50, 100, 150 years ago and who would be sitting in a theatre in 50 more years. I wanted to accurately convey the nostalgic feel of attending a movie at the Wilma. I wanted to showcase the festival in a way that no one has before, in the way that I feel it should be seen.

Alas, this is why I chose to shoot the entire ten day shindig in black and white film with a large format (4x5 inch negatives) camera. It was so, so, so worth it. What do you think?

(And for you photography buffs out there, I used Tri-X Pro 320 speed film and pushed almost every shot two stops. I used my dear future father-in-law Neil Chaput's speed Graphlex press camera from the 60's. I used a wonderful little Pentax Digital Spot Meter that looks like this one. I developed and printed and scanned each shot myself.)

Greenhouse Adventures : Grace + Lauren

The people you meet online sometimes become some of your favorite human beings. I think that many photographers can attest to that. And it was like that for me when I had the joy of meeting the lovely and sweet Grace Adams and the kind and bubbly Lauren Parker. Those two young ladies are both spectacular photographers and wonderful people. Thanks to Lauren setting this up, I now have two new photo buddies.

That's Grace on the left and Lauren on the right. We met at a favorite coffee shop and decided to go to this beautiful (and warm!) greenhouse that Grace knew of in Anchorage. It was so lovely (and warm! haha) and it kept us entertained for a couple of hours.

I'm a big fan of this photo. They are both so gorgeous. 

Pretty Lauren! I loved those steamy windows too much not to get a shot in front of them.

I think this is my favorite shot of the day. I shot so many of Grace in this beautiful little corner. Lauren was being a champ, holding the reflector for me for about ten minutes. I'm so happy about this light.

They're both a little goofy.

And I wanted a shot of myself with each of them too!

 

And of course, the too often overlooked simple portraits.

And all of us together. Thank goodness for tables as tripods. I only wish our goodbyes didn't have to come to soon after our hellos! I hope to see both of them in the future someday and can't wait to see where each of their photography takes them. :) I love you both!

Engaged: Nate & Rori

Well, my brother is engaged. I took photos of him and his lovely lady yesterday while I was home in Alaska. We went to this lovely greenhouse that I explored the day before with two wonderful new photographer friends (that post will be up next). Nate and Rori were a blast; they are totally goofy and don't make serious faces very often, so it was hilarious shooting them. I'm so excited for their wedding!

LOVE: Jake & Theresa!

So I have this amazing friend. She's really pretty and nice and kind and fun and an exceptional roommate and third wheel. She took some photos of me and my man when we got together last summer and I wanted to return the favor. Meet Theresa and Jake. They fell in love. They're perfect together. They're both ridiculous. He's an ex-marine. She's a fellow photographer. They like to laugh a lot. It made my job easy. Enjoy the photos. I know I do. :)
(And thanks to my amazing man, Forest, for shooting some of these gorgeous photos with a tilt-shift lens!)