Film is back!

Film is back!

Ok, so film has always been here. I just haven't been getting rolls developed as frequently as I could be. I also haven't been taking as many pictures up until recently. But, I do have more coming and some cute shots from last summer and my 26th Birthday.

These 3 shots are from some really horrible red scale film I bought for some god forsaken reason. I thought it would be a fun experience, which it was, but only for about 3 frames. After that, I was bored with the idea that all the frames would be RED. It was a roll of 36, but I only shot maybe 15 frames before I ended it. These 3 are the best that came off the roll - the rest were really far too dark to make out much. Next time, I will just use a red filter rather than this type of film.

Sick and Tired

But looking forward to the weekend! I'm so drowsy right now from this head cold... I sort of feel like I'm floating... in light of that, I though to share some cloud pictures I've taken over the years.

This is what I feel like.

Crossing off the list

Good news! I meant to get this out over the weekend, but didn't quite find the time - because I was too excited shooting with my new DSLR!!!! For Christmas, my great friend Devin pulled a bunch of my family and friends together and got them all to give me a starter fund for a DSLR. I have been saving up since December and finally took the leap last week to order a new camera. I couldn't be more thankful! I will be sending out thank you cards and giving a print to everyone who helped me.

I'm super stoked, but also nervous about how many new things I need to learn. But in the big picture, this is just another step to having my own business. Also, I get to cross something off my 30 by 30 list :)

Straight Lines For States

Visit my friend Eric's blog!
I designed his first (of many) album cover :)
He's decided to write about his musical experience and share his thoughtful and creative ideas about making music, playing music, and having a life filled with... well, music. Drop by and say hi!

Moth

Going to Chevys today, take some pictures, work, then hot tub. I think this is the first time I've ever felt relieved that the holidays are over.

Speaking of new years - I checked out what some of you said on your blogs, but what was the best part?
My favorite part was walking late a night while eating a cheeseburger. Happy 2012!

2011 - the year that kicked my butt

2011 was a tough year for me. I lost my grandfather, my sense of home, a job, plans for the future, felt very alone, useless, and over all a giant mess. Nothing is resolved and for a lot of things I will not receive a sense of closure until much later, if at all. All these things have changed me and influenced me in some unexpected (good and bad) ways.

In review of older posts from this year, I found the way in which I reacted to life.

In this Rock Collection post, I consoled myself over the loss of my grandfather through learning about the things he was interested in. One such thing was the rocks and minerals he studied.

Nick has stuck with me through this tough year and we're both beginning to learn more about the struggles and triumphs of a relationship. I shared my favorite pictures of Nick in this post.

Though I did feel very much alone, my friends and family were always there when I needed them. Eric wrote a very lovely song about my photography in this post. They encourage me and even got together to give me the money to purchase a DSLR so that I could further pursue my dream to be a self-employed photographer.

Being unemployed was a mixed blessing. The positive part about it was the time I received to be creative and stretch my artistic abilities. I did more experimental work this year than I ever have with film: Halloween portraits, expired film, double exposures, graphic design, event photography, studio work and lots more.

This year I worked on two big projects in black and white photography. Both projects reflect the loneliness and distance I felt, and being able to work with those feelings in a creative way was very therapeutic. You can see both completed projects here and here.

And in helping with keeping up a weekly blog schedule, I started two themes a few months back. This is my favorite book review and this is my favorite Flickr inspiration.

Good-bye, 2011.

Double Exposures Close Up

Earlier this week I shared some double exposures in this post. Today I'm sharing some individual images from that roll that make my eyes tingle.

(I love that in the above photo, the hand of god has oyster mushrooms!)

I love experimenting with film. The images were an accidental mash of summer and fall images that turned out to go pretty well with each other. Funny how that works.

Double Exposures: You can do them too!

Short story. I was using color film in my camera and didn't finish the roll in time for my photo class which required black and white film. So I wound up the color film and decided to use it when my photo class was over, hoping for a few interesting double exposures. Three months later, I forgot how many photos I had taken with the color roll and just started the whole thing over again. It turns out that I had actually shot 17 out of 24 frames.

Now I have lots of double exposures because I thought I had only used 7 frames. However, I am not disappointed in my lack of recording information because this roll of film came out like magic.

(To see a larger size of this image, click here)




(To see a larger size of this image, click here)


(To see a larger size of this image, click here)

Yay magic! I'm working on a few close ups right now which is hard because I don't want to separate the images. On the weekend I'll share some more.
(edit: see the separated images in this post)

Do you have a film camera and want to try making double exposures?

1. Shoot an entire roll of film.
2. When winding the roll, make sure to leave about an inch of film. Basically, don't wind the roll all the way.
3. Reinsert film and re-take the roll. If you want darker images, underexpose by a stop or two.
4. If you have the ability to scan negatives, make sure you ask to not have your negatives cut so that you can cut them yourself in the best possible places. One way to make sure that there is a space to cut is to take a photo every 5 images or so with the cap on.
5. If you don't have a scanner and someone else cuts your negatives, have no fear! You can piece them back together like a puzzle with any photo editing software.

5 of my Favorite Photographs

I'm a little sick and busy this week. I just signed up for a special projects class for photography that I'm really excited about, I still have a sore throat, I'm hopefully and finally getting a job thanks to a friend of a friend, and I'm going to be making a ton of jewelry to get ahead on Christmas presents.

Because of this business, I don't have many new photographs to post. Instead, today I thought I would share with you some of my most favorite photographs and what they mean to me.

1.

Devin has been my very good friend for a long time, and I think this is the most Devin photo I have ever taken of him. He and a friend built a raft during winter and tested it on a very cold day. This is also the first photo that I ever had published in a magazine (The Red Wheelbarrow at UCSC). I like to look at this when I miss my best friend.

2.

Ok, I know that I share this photo a lot, but you must understand how exciting it is for me. This was the first night/long exposure photo I took that actually came out as I imagined it and saw it. It is really, really difficult to take a night photo as your eyes see it, so this success made me giddy for months.

3.

There are some photos that only mean much to the photographer because of the moment, the place, and the memories. This is one of those photos. I can't even begin to scratch the surface of what this photo means to me. All I can share is that this is in Uvas, and that rocks is called "the god rock" and I have been there many, many times.

4.

A lot of my work and projects deal with bodies and nature. In fact, the next big black and white project I am working on deals with just that. I'm really into making bodes look rather disconnected and taking photos of things that are abstract. One of my friends commented on this theme of mine and called it "raw", which is where Let It Be Raw comes from.

5.

This print looks much better in my hands, as it is less grey and looks more like an actual black and white print. Scanners do strange things to photos. I think of this photo as one of the best photos I have ever taken in black and white and possibly ever. Every detail is present and the contrast is perfect. Also, this is my dad, so it means a lot to me. We both have scars like that.

Summer Medium Format

I use my medium format camera sparingly, and have been taking my time with this last roll of film. It spans from the beginning of July to Monday of this week. The camera still needs many things, like a new battery for the light meter and some sort of janky home-made UV filter for the lens. I'm still figuring out the details... Anyways, let's start from the beginning of July.

July 5th was my cousin's wedding. I took advantage of how well dressed my brother and his girlfriend were so I cold add some cute couple pictures to my portfolio. Aren't they cute?

This picture is kind of funny. I think it's the sunglasses that makes this image look like a "hey, we're cool" kind of thing, but really we were at the beach and it was really bright out.



More camping photos from Memorial state park. The first is of an uprooted tree that was near our campsite, and the second is of the sun setting in the trees.

And lastly, these two images are from Sunol Regional Wilderness. My friend Lev and I hike all around so he could research for his geology thesis. I learned a lot about rock and land falls that day. It was awesome.

More Expired Film - the most damaged part of the film

I have three more pictures to share from a roll of expired film that I took last week. I posted most of the images from that roll in this post. I saved these last 3 for today because they are my favorite from the bunch. The end of the roll was the most damaged, but the effect the damage had on the images was really fascinating.

Mollusk in the sand.


My favorite of the most damaged images of rocks and erosion at the beach.

I also have an August Break picture to add:

August 12th

Soft tumbled beach rocks.

Expired film is really fun to experiment with. I've used other rolls with dates starting from 2005-2006, but I haven't used older so I don't really know how the effects change images. A lot also depends on how well the film was taken care of over the past 5 or more years because sun and heat can do a lot of damage. But, if you have expired film, I say go for it! It's a lot of fun in not knowing how your images will turn out, if at all.

Expired 35mm film and some August Break

I had very wonderful and relaxing camping trip with my partner as we celebrated our 4 years together. We went to Memorial State Park by Pescadero, which is right off of highway 1. We really lucked out with weather there and were able to do one of my most favorite things in the world, which is creek hiking.

Basically, creek hiking entails wearing shoes you don't mind getting wet and hiking up a creek. I just love walking around in water and examining rocks and watching little fish and water bugs swim around me. We also made decent fires (without lighter fluid or starter logs! It's harder than it sounds, at least for us), had delicious bbq dinners, and ate copious amounts of roasted marshmallows. On our last morning there, we were lucky enough to watch 3 baby racoons play around in the forest (You can see a picture of the three little rascals here, as well as some other pictures from the trip that Nick took).

These are my pictures from the trip (some of which I took for August Break, which are at the end) using expired kodak film from 2006. I have to say I am pretty happy with the way the expired film came out. I wasn't going for anything artistic really, I was just having fun taking pictures!

A tree bridge.


I love staring at the tops of trees when I'm in the forest.


Keds make for great water shoes.


The creek we hiked around in.


I have no idea what this was. The end of the roll was in pretty bad shape. I think nick is in the middle, and the circle is probably a sun flare.


Nick, enjoying the warmth of the day.

Now, to catch up with some August Break!

August 9th

There is something very funny in this picture. Do you see it?

August 10th

I am in love with expired film.

August 11th

Drying the creek shoes in the sun.

Reviewing these pictures makes me want to go camping again.