Mat Marrash

It’s pretty hard to believe that I’ve been working on commercial photography sets for over fifteen years! A majority of those years were spent hauling gear and cleaning countless products and surfaces, but even the most boring of gigs had some teachable moments. This is a new series I’m releasing on the YT channel offering up some of my favorite tips and tricks. First up on the list are my Top 5 accessories worth having on any photo shoot.

Here’s the condensed version of my Top 5 list from the above video.

Gaffer’s Tape - An indispensable piece of kit for holding things together on set. Can be used for: placeholder marking, gear identification, taping down cables/cords, repairing a battery door, holding together a v-flat, the list goes on and on.

Light Meter - Your shoot lives and dies by proper exposure. Sure most modern cameras have a solid built-in meter, but when working with multiple artificial light sources on set having an accurate, hand held reading is worth its weight in gold. Especially useful for big shoots on location where your set is always changing. I’ve been using Sekonic meters for 18+ years now and they’ve never failed me.

Backup SSD - No modern, digital shoot is complete without on-site backups. Even when it’s not my job to have one, I bring a backup SSD or two. The new D1 series enclosures from Terramaster are incredibly solid, waterproof, dust proof, and crush proof! You can also save 10% on any Terramaster drive with coupon code “MATMARRASH”. A shameless plug that pays off!

A-Clamps - Right up there with gaffer’s tape, A-Clamps are super handy to have on set in a variety of sizes From tightening up wardrobe on a model to propping up a light modifier, you can hardly have too many of these when on a photo or video shoot.

ROBOCUP - I’ve never been on a shoot where a member of the camera crew didn’t have some sort of drink with them. When you’re working with expensive digital equipment, you don’t want those drinks placed anywhere near that pricey gear. What started as a tool for the outdoors crowd has now taken photo and movie sets by storm. Get yourself at least two of these and your production team will thank you later.

(Bonus!) Bluetooth Speaker - Along with convenient drink placement, having good vibes on set is critical to a photo shoot’s function. I recommend the JBL bluetooth speakers that fit in a cup holder so you can pop the tunes right in the ROBOCUP when on location.

Back in December of 2023, Harman Photo tossed a curve ball to the world of film photography with the introduction of their experimental color emulsion, Phoenix. It was a color negative film (C41 process) with a purple base, low fidelity everything, and a charming warm glow. Many folks in the film community, myself included, were puzzled by this new color negative film. At the time only a handful of labs had the ability to scan it, and for a while it was only available in 35mm. Since then, and Harman has garnered itself a loyal fan base and a growing fleet of Phoenix roll films, including 120/medium format and Harman Red, a red scale version of the original Phoenix. That brings us to today, where Harman is releasing their latest in the color line, Phoenix II. Harman was kind enough to send me a pre-release care package containing Phoenix II in 35mm and well as 120/medium format. Let’s take a look at how both sizes of Phoenix II handle and I’ll share some of my first rolls’ experiences in the galleries below. Oh, and if you don’t like reading further, there’s the YouTube review video pinned to the top of this post.

35mm

My first test roll of Phoenix II was the 35mm version run through old faithful, my Pentax K1000 with 50mm f/2 lens. This was the same combo I used for testing the first Phoenix, it was only fair to treat version 2.0 the same. It was an egregiously hot early July day, but the sun was out and there was a local dog event to attend. I loaded up my partner Laur and our 2.5 year old borzoi, Echo, and headed to Dublin Ohio’s Bridge Park where a large number of local dog shelters, veterinarians, and pet shops were gathering for the day. Due to the 95F+ heat, we didn’t stay as long as we typically would, and there was just enough relief in the form of tents, fans, and cold water to keep all the humans and dogs going.

I’m not a big test chart and calibration kind of guy, so for this test roll, my aim was to capture a variety of photos in both subject matter and lighting conditions. In my intro letter from Harman that came with the film samples, Harman stated that this film had improved sharpness and slightly better dynamic range. Same box speed as last time, ISO 200, though Harman admitted that you may find better results rating it a bit slower; last time around, ISO 125 was found to be the sweet spot by many testers. With that in mind, I set the internal meter of the K1000 to 125 and didn’t think twice about it.

There are plenty of similarities between the original Phoenix and Phoenix II, the biggest of which to me is that this color negative film shoots like an expired slide/E6/positive film. It has a warm color wash throughout the frame, has pronounced grain, and doesn’t have a ton of wiggle room for over/under exposure. Phoenix II has a touch more sharpness than its predecessor, but I found myself stopping down quite a bit more than normal just to see the difference. My Bridge Park architecture shots were both made at f/11 and look decently sharp, but only enough for digital screens up to ~ 8x10” print size equivalent. There’s still a good amount of grain present throughout the frame and it’s a bit more controlled than the first Phoenix.

All the film shown in my galleries here was processed by my local lab Midwest Photo, and the lab scans were done on a Noritsu with final touches done by myself in Photoshop Lightroom. Speaking of the edits, some of the hardest time I had with this film was the lab scanner’s interpretation of color in the shadows. Even with the updated scanning data provided by Harman, mid-tone and shadow areas of nearly all images have a yellow-greenish tint that can be difficult to color grade. In direct sunlight, this daylight balanced film is more at home. It becomes a bit more stubborn to work with in mixed lighting and dealing with reflected light from greenery like grass and trees. In backlit scenes where your subject is in shadow, I’d recommend utilizing some sort of fill light either from a flash or reflector. In natural light like I was working with, you’ll have to overexpose the background by 1.5-2 stops to get adequate detail in your subject. With Phoenix II, this often means blown out skies, but a lovely warm halation in those “crispy” highlights. The 4th and 15th shots in the gallery above demonstrate this quality of Phoenix II the best. Personally I really like the “glow” of the setting sun in the last frame in the gallery. Here I was testing out the long exposure aspects of Phoenix II, which needs quite a bit of exposure compensation in lower light scenarios. For this photo my meter was indicating 30 sec. of exposure, and according to Harman’s datasheet, I needed to expose for 90 sec. to compensate. Oh, and those little blurry yellow bits in the grass are from the neighborhood fireflies, there were so many blinking during that long exposure!

This roll of 35mm wasn’t all sunshine and rainbows, there were plenty of off-compositions, blurry shots, and few frames that using identical camera settings seemed to have a completely different color once scanned. Hopefully this isn’t a common feature on the new Phoenix II, but given how Harman keeps referring to this film as experimental, you may want to shoot a few more frames per roll on those extra important photos. Even considering the minor problems with my first roll, Phoenix II had already left me with a better impression than original Phoenix. Let’s move on to the medium format roll!

Medium Format

For my 120 roll of Harman Phoenix II, I headed over to the Milo Grogan neighborhood of Columbus, OH to visit my good buddy Tariq Tarey at his studio. There was a whole shoot that we had setup, but alas some last minute cancellations by the booked talent meant we had the photo studio all to ourselves. Since this time around Tariq and I had a larger format roll of film to shoot, we loaded up the Phoenix II into a Fujifilm GW670II, a wide-angle medium format rangefinder camera. Equipped with a fixed 90mm f/3.5 and leaf shutter, this hefty 120 rangefinder was decently suited for the task of studio portraits and walking around the neighborhood. Our goal for the studio portion of this roll was simple, two lighting setups with different backgrounds, contrast, and skin tones.

First up for the studio setup was a simple one-light portrait with a 3x4’ softbox placed at 11-o'clock and ~1m from the sitting subject. The light was metered for f/6.3 @ ISO 125 against one of Tariq’s soft green hand-painted backdrops. The first three frames from the gallery below are from lighting setup #1, and they didn’t turn out too bad. Contrast was still considerably higher than the scene actually was, with shadows falling off dramatically to camera-right on the subject. In the two closer portraits of Tariq, he’s positioned a little bit further onto the posing table than my portrait, which might account for the steeper light falloff on my “grabbing the table” shot. After a couple of minutes taking turns updating each other’s profile pictures, we moved on to Tariq’s white cyclorama backdrop, pulling the key light further back to ~2m to “flatten” out the contrast, but still give some grey to the backdrop. Photographers testing film, holding film cameras, and taking each other’s picture, this was practically a film meetup! Here Harman Phoenix II performed a little bit better, and predictably so. “Flatter” light is has lower contrast, and when paired with a film that has less dynamic range like Phoenix II, it has a pretty nice look. That yellow-green cast was still present here in the medium format scans, and for the what’s shown in the gallery I’ve color graded the shadows and mid-tones blue to counteract the “juandiced” effect of Phoenix II’s shadows.

With only two frames remaining, I hit the curb and walked around a block of the Milo Arts District. If I couldn’t demonstrate Phoenix II’s color here, I either had the lens cap on or I wasn’t trying! The area around the 934 Gallery was plastered with bright, colorful murals from dozens of local and nationally recognized artists. Just like the studio tests, I wanted to try out some direct lighting as well as more subdued and back-lighting. The backlit photograph of the alleyway at 934 had a lovely warmth in the overexposed regions, while the shadows moved from yellow to green once again. Compared to original Phoenix, the new version held a bit more highlight detail, I’d estimate one extra f-stop (there’s a tinge of blue in the far right corner). My final medium format shot was about as textbook a Sunny-16 photograph as one could make. The mid-evening sun was shining directly on the 934 gallery and adjacent buildings, and everything in direct sun had a beautiful pop of color. The f/11 aperture really helped to show off the improved sharpness of Phoenix II, and here the shadows had more usable color information and good color depth.

Final Thoughts

It’s that time of year again. For it’s 19th year, Ilford has opened up the ULF Special Order program. If you’re someone that is currently shooting or wants to shoot specialty sheet and roll film formats, you have until June 1st, 2024 to get in those orders. This program includes ultra large format and funky format B&W films in Ilford Delta 100, FP4 Plus, and HP5 Plus.

For an exact list of films available, here’s the official 2024 product list direct from Ilford:

Personally, I’m super excited to see this effort by Ilford to supply this very niche portion of the film community by offering ULF films year after year. If you haven’t participated in the ULF special order program before, it’s very simple. Check the List of 2024 ULF Program Dealers courtesy of Ilford, contact your dealer of choice, and place your order. Later in the year sometime in the late Fall, usually around Thanksgiving, the dealer you placed your order with will contact you and ship out your ULF film. If you’re not sure how much film to order for this, I’d recommend getting an extra box or two since this order window is yearly and there’s often not a way to increase your order after the due date (this year it’s June 1st!).

Now for the really great news. This year for the first time ever, The Film Photography Project is going to be participating in the ULF Special Order! If you’ve shopped at the Film Photography Store before you know what kind of crazy deals they offer and I’m happy to confirm that the same is true for Ilford ULF films! I’m going to be ordering more than my typical “year’s worth” with FPP and I hope you do the same.

With 2024 right around the corner, now’s the perfect time to reflect on 2023 and share a bit more about what I’ve been up to. In terms of making pictures, 2023 is currently in my Top 3 worst years for creating photographic work. This doesn’t mean that everything else I was working on wasn’t photography related, it just wasn’t work for myself. Looking back, this year was all about strengthening my arts connections locally by sharing photography with the community. In no particular order, here’s what I’ve been up to for the past twelve months.

After-school Arts

Since the Fall Semester of 2022, my good friend Tariq Tarey and I have been working closely with a local charter school to develop an after-school photography program. For our first year, we were able to get interchangeable lens mirrorless cameras into the hands of fourteen eager 7th and 8th graders. Each week, we would take an hour to introduce the kids to a different aspect of photography. Throughout the year we managed to guide them out of Auto Mode on their cameras and start “seeing” their photos instead of simply “point and shoot”. By the end of year one students had: photographed a body of work, critiqued and edited their pictures, printed, framed, and entered their photographs into a local art show.

It’s been a long time since I’d worked with middle school aged kids, and to say I was nervous about working with younger students is an understatement. From years of teaching privately via Midwest Photo and One-on-One workshops, teenagers haven’t been my typical clientele. Many of them had no experience with a camera outside of a smartphone, and the idea of a dedicated device for picture taking was completely foreign. To the surprise of Tariq and myself, they picked up the basics at lightning pace. The mechanics took a bit more practice than anticipated, but their grasp of the language of photography was impressive and helped guide their vision. Overall I’m incredibly proud of what our students were able to accomplish in our short time together, and I’m looking forward to 2024 where we’ll be back for a new class of creatives!

Hilltop Cyanotype Day

Each year, the Greater Columbus Arts Council (GCAC) offers financial support to individual artists and arts organizations in the Columbus, OH area in the form of grants. These can range from one-time stipends for artist’s supplies to sustaining grants for arts nonprofits in the area. I’ve been participating in GCAC Individual Artist grants since 2015 and looking through the 2023 opportunities list, there was a new program that piqued my interest. The Neighborhood Arts Connection (NAC) grants are a way for artists residing in a particular Columbus neighborhood to receive funding to elevate and engage the community. And one of the two neighborhoods on the list for early 2023 was the Hilltop, where I’ve been for the last four years. There were two levels of the NAC grant available, $5k and $10k for a neighborhood based art program, so I decided to swing for the fences. I pitched a one-day public workshop where ANYONE would be able to attend free of charge to make a cyanotype print. To my complete surprise, the grant was approved; this was going to be my biggest undertaking of the year by far!

Even as I talk about it in past tense, $10k is a lot of money to spend on any one thing. I’m incredibly grateful that Columbus has an arts organization that’s able to support artists and their communities with grants like this. All of that being said, $10k for a public art event can be tough when accounting for everything that goes into the day. Breaking it down into three core categories, here’s what the budget looked like on my grant application versus what it actually came out to:

Material Resources - $4360 planned, $3878.81 actual

Includes art supplies, consumable goods, first aid supplies, and miscellaneous goods purchased for the event.

Human Resources - $4400 planned, $4682.50 actual

Includes pay for event host (me), eight assistants, and security all at a fair wage.

Event Planning - $1240 planned, $1693.11 actual

Includes space rental, permits, insurance, and event marketing.

So how far did that $10k go? I’m a little biased here, but I think it was enough to make an impact on my neighborhood. On Sunday October 1st, 2023 at Westgate Park, I along with eight other local artists hosted a hands-on workshop where all attendees were able to make their own cyanotype prints, free of charge. No photography experience? No problem! There were 200+ pieces of pre-coated light sensitive materials on-site, with dozens of different stencils and objects to make a unique photogram.

Throughout the course of the day, we had over 130 members of the public join us in making nearly 200 cyanotype prints on: watercolor paper, t-shirts, tote bags, napkins, and a few giant cotton murals! We had folks of all ages in attendance from age 4 - 72, many of which stayed to make extra prints. There were a few photographers that showed up, but a vast majority were Hilltop and Westgate locals that were interested in making something by hand. Any leftover arts and craft supplies that were used from the day made it into the hands of Hilltop art teachers, and two of the giant “snow angel” murals were donated to Hilltop local establishments. Most importantly, no attendees left the event empty handed, and everyone remained safe while having fun experiencing the joy of photography!

There were plenty of hurdles and a lot of lessons learned during the planning and execution of this event. Once I have that all of my thoughts and feelings compiled into an explainer video, I’ll be sure to append this blog post accordingly. For now, here are a couple of galleries of photographs taken on Cyanotype Day by photographers Shiann Banks (below) and Gracie Becker (above), thank you both SO MUCH for your help!

Research & Residency

Working as a freelance photographer is still not something I’m 100% used to yet, but in this second year of not having a 9-to-5 job I’ve started to look at opportunities that were previously out of reach. In previous years I’d see a handful of amazing location workshops and artist in residence (AiR) programs that I couldn’t participate in due to lack of paid time off days. One of my big goals for 2023 was to change this by applying to upcoming AiR programs and explore new grants. The Hilltop Cyanotype Day was one such opportunity afforded by a generous GCAC grant, but I’m happy to report there are a couple more.

Starting in January in 2024, I’ll be taking part in the Winter Residency program at the Penland School of Craft. Penland is an amazing craft school nestled into the Blue Ridge mountains of North Carolina. Each year they host over a thousand students in residencies and workshops of various lengths and disciplines. During those few Winter weeks I’ll be in charge of the photo studio and darkroom spaces at Penland in exchange for some much needed time and access to work on my alternative process photography.

Alongside the Winter Residency at Penland, I’m equally excited to announce that I’ve received a generous grant award from the Ohio Arts Council (OAC) to help fund additional materials and research related to alternative process photography. Combined with my upcoming time at Penland, my aim to is come back to Columbus and spend more time making fine prints throughout 2024. With any luck I’ll be attempting several new-to-me alt processes and be reporting back to you all here on the blog and the YouTube channel.

New Film, Who Dis?

It’s been a long time since I’ve decided to do a blog post documenting my experiences with a film, but I think this is a very worthy occasion. Just yesterday, December 1st, 2023, Harman Photo over in the UK launched their very first color film! That’s right, the folks that have brought us some of the film photography staples of HP5+, Multigrade Papers, Delta, XP2, and more are entering the color arena. Harman Phoenix 200 is a color negative, C-41 process film that’s unlike any fresh film I’ve ever shot.

Harman was kind enough to send out a little care package containing a slew of marketing knickknacks and most importantly two rolls of this new film. They provided a few notes for pre-launch users of the film like: ISO, where to process, suggested ISO range, and throughout their introduction letter kept mentioning that this is an experimental film. Users were to expect: high contrast in most lighting situations, heavy grain even when well-exposed, unique color rendering, and halation in the brightest highlight areas. At the time of testing, I wasn’t working with the depth of information that is out there now on this film like the official datasheet. Without much more to go on than that, I loaded up my trusty old Pentax K1000 with 50mm f/2 lens and headed out to a local park with Laur and our new Borzoi puppy, Echo.

For the entirety of this first roll of film, I still had no idea what the results would look like, even from other photographers! I wasn’t trying to take any crazy chances, so I shot this 200 ISO film at box speed, checking my Reveni Labs Incident Light Meter in between shots to make sure I wasn’t going too far over/under. I was also playing it safer than normal in terms of lighting, trying as much as possible to include some direct daylight in each shot. November afternoons don’t last long in Ohio, so the direct, blue sky sun quickly turned to an even, pastel sky during our mile-long hike at the park.

I didn’t manage to shoot all 36 exposures in that short hike, so with the remaining dozen or so shots I took a jog around downtown Columbus, OH the following afternoon. This time I was really aiming for as many direct sun compositions as possible to see how the film handled a standard 5-stop dynamic range scene as close to the color balance as possible. For many of the brightly lit scenes shot this way, I employed the use of my Promaster HGX 2-8 stop Variable ND filter to knock down the exposure to the limited shutter speed range of my K1000. Time to send off my test roll to The Darkroom, the official Harman Photo lab for the USA.

A Tale of Two Films

Not even 48 hours after receiving my order, The Darkroom had already processed, scanned, and uploaded my order to their online system for preview. I was excited, to say the least, that is until I took a look at the scans. Nearly every single shot had crunchy grain, crazy contrast, and an extreme orange + teal dual tone color cast. And if the main subject matter was even partially backlit, goodbye to those highlights (the worst three off of those scans shown below).

My initial excitement quickly faded to an uneasy stomach and mild anxiety as I waited for the negatives to arrive back from California. It was at this point that I started reaching out to other film shooters I knew that might also be testing out Harman 200. A few replied back with some quick examples and one even sent me some of their personal tips and tricks. Faith hadn’t fully been restored, but I was no longer losing sleep over the lab scans and waiting to see what the negatives had in store.

Only two days after leaving The Darkroom, a FedEx package was on my doorstep with my test film and to my surprise, THE NEGATIVES WERE PURPLE! Harman had mentioned “a surprise” that they didn’t want to spoil, but this was not something I was anticipating. Of course those automated lab scans were going to look weird, the film base didn’t even have the standard orange masking layer that helps with the daylight color balance! It was back to the drawing board with scanning my first roll, and below are the three very different renditions of the same exact negative.

This also serves as a cautionary tale those of you sending this out to a lab. Make sure the lab you’re using knows about Phoenix 200 and some of its quirks. There is full scanning compensation data available on Harman’s website as well as the official datasheet for photographers.

The first scan is what The Darkroom sent out for preview. the second scan was done with my Epson V700 scanner in “Auto Correct”, and the third scan was with manual inversion. To manually invert the negative, it’s a pretty drawn-out process for a single frame, but gives you access to the full range the film has to offer. On a scanner like the V700, you have to go into the Configuration menu of Professional Mode and Disable Color Correction and also scan color negatives as Color Positive. From there, the positive scan is manually inverted using Adjustment Curves and Camera RAW Filters in Photoshop.

Was all of the extra effort worth it? If you like and of the photographs in the gallery at the top of this blog post, or any of the cooler-to-neutral looking photos in the galleries below, I’d say it’s worth it! Personally, my favorite look is somewhere between Epson’s Auto Color setting and the expired Ektachrome look of the manually inverted negatives. Sometimes the super-retro vibes of the warm + cyan look can work, but other times I’d like to see some more fleshed out blues, reds, and greens.

To the Studio!

By this time in my limited film test, I was a bit more hopeful about Harman Phoenix 200, but still wanted to try it out in a more controlled environment. With only a few days until the December 1st launch date, I called up my buddy Tariq Tarey to see if he was up for a quick studio shoot. If you’re not familiar with Tariq’s work, you should be. He’s an absolute master of portraiture, and his technical skill with light and cameras is only outdone by his charming personality.

Knowing a bit more about the contrasty nature of Phoenix 200 firsthand, I gave Tariq the heads-up that we would need to be working with a very tight lighting ratio. I suggested something close to a 1:1 ratio, meaning that the key/main light and any fill light hitting the subject was to be at the same intensity. With modern films and/or digital cameras this look often feels “flat” and sometimes even boring. Harman’s experimental color film managed to eek some drama out of an ordinarily lit scene.

Pictured above you can see the results of a simple 5-shot bracket with the Sekonic Exposure Profile Target. Metered for the box speed of ISO 200, the shots are in order of Exposure Values: -2, -1, 0, +1, and +2. Now I can see why Harman kept mentioning that this wasn’t a film meant for pushing! This film packs some contrast, even in flat light with a simple greyscale chart. There were two big surprises in this test. First off was the blown highlights; only the EV -1 and -2 had highlights that weren’t showing significant magenta halation; this film has a mild anti-halation layer compared to other color films on the market. The second surprise was that the EV 0 exposure, essentially ISO 200, looked more like one would expect from an underexposed chart (looks about 2/3 stop under IMO). Overall I found the colors rather pleasing in the overexposed charts (essentially ISO 50 & 100), so I’d recommend rating Harman Phoenix 200 somewhere around ISO 100 - 125. This feels like a film that would pull process well, so more testing to do on that front when I purchase some more.

But enough about grey boxes and a still life, how does this higher contrast film translate to a sitting subject in the studio? Well Tariq and I had the better part of 24 exposures to mess around with in that same lighting setup, and we each tried a few poses with each other as the model. That light coming in from camera-left in the portraits is only 1/2 stop over the the key light, something big to keep in mind when working with subjects with deep-set eyes (like yours truly!). Fill, fill, fill. If you’re shooting portraits with this film, do it in dead-even light and bring that bounce card or fill light in annoying close to make sure you get something in those shadows. Phoenix 200 is about as forgiving in the shadows as expired slide film, meaning if it’s not there at the time of exposure, the only thing that will be there after processing is grain.

Closing Thoughts

Phoenix 200 is everything Harman said it would be in their FAQ sent out to testers, I just wish they would have sent out more data (more film wouldn’t have hurt either!). Thanks to a great contact in the industry, I was able to obtain a digital copy of the film’s datasheet < 24 hours before launch day and releasing an overview video on the subject. My personal gripes with Harman’s marketing aside, this is a film that I is going to be polarizing. Within the first day of launch there are already reports of retailers worldwide already running out of stock, while online many are flocking to the comments section to rail on the fact that this film isn’t God’s gift to photography. There’s no way that a brand new color film (made in just this past year!) is going to beat the nearly 100 year lead that Kodak has perfected over countless iterations. And to be perfectly honest, we don’t need another Portra. If we want something unique, and if the film community truly wants innovation, THIS is how it starts.

If you’d like to pick up a few rolls to support the industry in a positive direction, I’d recommend checking out your local camera shop, wherever Ilford and Harman products are sold. For the convenience of shopping online, there’s no better place I know of than The Film Photography Store. My buddy Michael Raso over at The Film Photography Project is offering a special discount of $1 off of each roll of Harman Phoenix 200 color film that you order. Simply use coupon code “LFF” during checkout; the deal ends December 15th, 2023.

Over the last ten years I’ve been a Columbus, Ohio resident, the Greater Columbus Arts Council (GCAC) has played a big role in helping me: develop new skills as a photographer, network with other creatives, and even purchase some of those expensive sheets of film I like to run through my camera! And while Individual Artist Grants are such a valuable thing to any working artist, I was even more excited to learn about a more community-focused opportunity from the GCAC, the Neighborhood Arts Connection (NAC). Every six months, there will be a round of grant funding prioritizing artist-led events that engage the residents of specific Columbus neighborhoods. I was pleasantly surprised to see my neighborhood, the Hilltop, as one of the first selected for 2023’s NAC program. It’s time to give back to the community that I’ve been a part of and share the love of all things photography!

Later this Summer along with half a dozen other Columbus creatives, we will be hosting an interactive Cyanotype Day here in the Hilltop neighborhood. The tentative date is set for Saturday September 30th from 12PM - 5PM EST. Thanks to the NAC Fellowship from GCAC, admission and materials for the Cyanotype Day event will FREE for all Hilltop residents. More information for outside attendance to come.

What is a Cyanotype? The Cyanotype is an Alternative Photographic Process that involves hand-coating a liquid emulsion onto a porous surface like paper or fabric and then exposing that emulsion to UV light. After a good amount of time under the sun, the print is developed with a plain water rinse to reveal a lovely, deep blue image that can last a lifetime! Unlike many of the early photographic processes, it has low toxicity and is safe for creatives ages 5+. For more information, please check out my how-to episode on Cyanotypes below:

Spending time online reading, watching, and sharing content it can be easy to gloss over all those things that are happening in real life. And sometimes these events are taking place right in your own backyard! While the last couple of years haven’t made it any easier, one of my goals for this year was to become more active at the local level. If you’re a photographer in the extended Central Ohio region, here are some of the upcoming events to keep an eye on:

For the remainder of July it looks like all of the action is slated for Saturdays, especially the 23rd! That’s how events tend to happen, all at once or nothing at all. If you know of any events in Central Ohio that revolve around experiencing, sharing, or teaching the art of film photography, please let me know in the comments and I’ll get that added to my upcoming calendar. This blog series will update periodically, but the real action will be happening over on the “Events” tab of this website.

Why’s this showing up on your feed? It’s because we need to talk. This is an issue in the large format community, but pervasive among most photography and any technology-based visual arts. I’m talking about gatekeeping. You know the thing where you make other people sharing your hobby feel bad about participating? Yeah it sucks, and if it doesn’t stop, our hobby will. 

Gatekeeping comes in all shapes and sizes, but really seems to thrive in niche communities that celebrate activities and practices that haven’t always been in the mainstream. The more popular the hobby becomes, the harder long-time users will start attacking newcomers as if it’s their job to hold the gate for those truly “worthy” of the title. This isn’t me accusing you, but sharing a decade’s worth of observation. 

There’s other hobbies that I’ve been into longer than photography, and the further I got into them, the more I noticed how toxic some the hardcore fans were. If you don’t know me as a person outside of a screen, it may come to surprise you (or not) that I’m a giant nerd that loves anime, cosplay, and rhythm-based video games. I’ve been into all of these for at least twenty years, and each new platform that fans have migrated to has created larger fan bases, but also larger push-back to that same progress. Of my non-photographic hobbies, anime has got to be the most polarizing of them all. 

Every 5 years or so a new animation will come out of Japan that will set the world of anime ablaze. It will hit a new audience that’s in that target demographic of early to mid teens, and a slew of new fans will discover the wide world of anime fandom. As quickly as new fans can join social media groups and start attending conventions, they’re greeted with the vitriol and outrage of veteran anime watchers quick to dismiss them as “not true fans”. Excited newcomers will share how much they love their new hobby and their new shows while old timers will stop at nothing to make them feel lesser and unwelcome. I noticed this happening when I was in college, again immediately following college, and a couple more iterations since. Admittedly, I was on the wrong side of it the first few times, but once I became a newcomer in photography, my perspective shifted. 

I was a beginner at something again. I had no knowledge, little experience, and I was grasping for ways to feel like a “real” photographer everywhere I looked. All at the same time there was a battle raging as digital photography was taking over the world of film and camera systems from the 20th century were being abandoned at record pace. When I found film photography, there was a rapidly shrinking community, and I was fortunate to have a supportive pair of college professors that fostered my growing interest. One granted me darkroom access, while the other loaned me his 8x10 camera as long as I promised to learn. If I had started by going onto an online forum or social media to ask questions, I definitely would not have made it as far into my photographic journey. 

The lesson here is nobody is picking up these big, heavy cameras and shooting expensive pieces of film just to ruin your hobby for you. More often than not, they’re just interested in this weird type of photography and maybe you should offer a helping hand. At some point you and I were beginners too. If you had a rough go of things, try and make it easier for those that come after. Don’t be someone holding the gate, be like that helpful docent at a museum. If people have questions, use your time, talents, and position to offer guidance and enhance the newcomer’s experience. 

For me personally, that’s why I started the Large Format Friday series.. I had the support and access when starting and am doing my best to make sure I’m extending that to photographers where they are at. Each week hundreds of new folks from around the world stop by to watch a video. Some will click that like and subscribe button,and  a few others will write a comment or question. And a very special group of you find this content helpful enough to become LFF Sustaining Members. Starting at $1/month, your contributions help to keep the content coming here on the channel. To all of you LFF members out there, thank you!

And if you’re still here with me at this point in the post, I have a homework assignment for you. Pay it forward to someone starting out in large format. If you haven’t been shooting for that long, share what you’re up to with friends and answer their questions, no matter how trivial they might seem to you. If you’re comfortable enough with your large format setup that you’re getting bored, reach out to local students or offer assistance to those in your area that want to start shooting. If you’re an old-school large format shooter, is there something maybe the new-school kids haven’t seen? Maybe there’s a need in the market that you can point out or help create a new product to fill? 

Late last month Kodak announced the return of Kodak Gold, a budget favorite in the world of medium speed color film, in medium format aka 120 film. A few days following that announcement, a special package arrived from Kodak with my name on it. Inside there was a pair of test rolls, and I was excited to take some out into the field for an early morning shoot. And to share the love, I gave one roll to my buddy Tariq Tarey so Gold 200 could have the proper studio treatment.

Now I’ve been shooting medium format film for 12 years at this point, the hardest part about this whole test was trying to figure out what camera to shoot! The first option would be to go with the camera that started my whole film photography journey, the Hasselblad 500C. That camera helped me re-ignite this very blog with The 52 Project, and had me running through enough film that I eventually met-up with Mike and “the gang” over at The Film Photography Podcast. Another potential option would have been a roll-film back hooked up to a 4x5” large format camera. That would keep the pace closer to my typical large format experience, and give me the versatility of choosing a different medium format aspect ratio. In the middle of trying to decide what I was going to shoot, I headed over to Midwest Photo to see if they’d be willing to develop and scan the new Gold 200 on their Fujifilm Frontier medium format film scanner. And that’s when I saw her sitting there at the used equipment counter:

The lovely thing about 120 film is the versatility of medium format cameras. There are modern, AF enabled, interchangeable lens bodies that expose 15 shots per roll all the way to giant boxes that expose nearly all the film in one go. Somewhere on the “box camera” end of that spectrum lies the Fujifilm G617. At first glance it looks like a rangefinder camera, but the Fujifilm G617 doesn’t feature a rangefinder patch. It uses a helicoid focus ring in front of its large format style 105mm f/8 lens, and has a fixed wide angle view finder to help with composition. Even more impressive than the wide field of view, the G617 captures 2.83:1 panoramic aspect ratio photograph, using 6cm x 17cm worth of real estate. The cost? Each roll of 120 film only gives you FOUR exposures! In the gamble of shooting with film, 6x17 medium format is like betting at the $10 blackjack table. High risk aside, I just had to take the G617 for a spin.

With an almost-large-format camera in hand, what better place to take it than one of my old haunts, Old Man’s Cave down in the Hocking Hills. Many of the waterfalls you’ll find in the Hocking Hills region require a downward hike through rocks carved by glaciers thousands of years ago. The valleys surrounding the sights give photographers a few extra minutes at sunrise and sunset to get the shot just right. Sunrise was scheduled for 6:30AM, and for a mid-April morning it was surprisingly chilly (I’m pretty sure it was snowing in Northern Ohio that morning!). By the time I parked the car, loaded up the camera, filmed a little b-roll, and made the trek down to the Middle Falls it was a few minutes before 7AM. The first exposure on the roll was a composition similar to one I’d made back in 2014, but this time a bit wider and IN COLOR! To get all those lovely shadow details on the rocks, my Reveni Labs Spotmeter indicated 6 seconds at f/16.

One of the first things I noticed about the “look” of Gold 200 is how well it handles the mixed, reflected light throughout the Middle Falls of Old Man’s Cave. There’s a hint of warmth is the backlit sunrise peaking in through the upper middle part of the frame, with the rest of the cold, blue-green light bouncing off of the mossy rocks and trees. There’s some added vibrance to the green and aqua of the rocks, but nowhere near as much as I’d expect to see with Ektar 100 or Portra 400. As for grain, forget about it; these negatives would need to be enlarged 20x or more to start to see grain.

With the first frame down and the sun coming up, I needed to make the call whether I would venture towards the Lower Falls or go against the grain and check out the Devil’s Bathtub and Upper Falls. Both trails have their merits, but early in the morning I find it best to head further down into the cave. Following the water down through Old Man’s Cave, I arrived at another very familiar scene, one that I’ve photographed at least a dozen times (even a few in color!). Surely a new film would offer it’s own unique rendition. Out the corner of my eye I saw the sun start to graze the tops of the staircase to the upper left of the frame, so I needed to hurry. The added light reduced my exposure by nearly two stops, but also increased contrast. With Kodak Gold 200 being a negative film (C-41 process), it didn’t bat an eye at the overexposure, leaving me with readable highlights and delicate, low grain shadows.

This shot of Middle Falls was my favorite from the morning. It wasn’t too warm or too punchy, but it did a great job rendering the subtle tonal shifts as direct sun started to overtake the cold, reflected morning light. A piece of advice I’d received over a decade ago from a photographer working in panoramic formats came in handy here,

”If you place interesting subject matter along the edges of your frame, the rest of the picture will take care of itself.” - John Powers, Photographer

At the half-way point on the roll of Kodak Gold and one major location left, it was time to take the stairs down to the Lower Falls. The sun had been up for an hour at this point and I was starting to hear the sounds of other folks on the trail. Being the last waterfall stop at Old Man’s Cave, Lower Falls tends to have a higher rate of flow as well as a bit to wade through when setting up the camera. I don’t recall ever having made it this far on the trail with color film, but I was excited to see how Gold 200 would render the contrasting cool and warm tones on the rocks underneath the falls.

This is first photograph of Lower Falls is a great example of where I’d love to have access to some “rise”. In large format (sometimes other formats), rise and fall are movements that allow the photographer to shift the lens plane and/or film plane. This has the ability to change the perspective and shift the vanishing point in the photograph; an incredibly useful tool in landscape photography, especially with wide fields of view. In my opinion, a few millimeters of rise on the 105mm lens would have really elevated this composition.

Three photographs down, one to go. With this last frame I wanted to take another stab at the Lower Falls, hoping to find more leading lines for the panoramic frame. Fortunately a hundred meters or so away there was a downed tree that was calling my name. It took some stepping over flat rocks and fording ice cold water, but I found my frame and started to lower the tripod to accentuate the lines of the tree. Somewhere between all of that tripod shifting and the two second exposure I must have bumped the film door of the Fujifilm G617. Were it not for that little light streak, this would have been my favorite shot of the day.

Overall I’m really happy with how my first roll of Kodak Gold in 120 developed. These results are making want to grab a few more rolls and keep experimenting with color. The next time I’m out with some Gold 200, I’d like to try it with more creative filters and some different light. But will the next time take place with a 6x17? Probably not; I loved the panoramic look, but I need to give the Hasselblad 500C a workout with some portraits.

Now THIS is something I didn’t have on my bingo card for film photography in 2022. Kodak Gold, the king of consumer grade film stocks is returning to medium format, starting today! Let’s start off with the press release:

Kodak Moments Announces New 120 Format GOLD 200 Film

ROCHESTER, N.Y. March 21, 2022 – Kodak Moments, a division of Kodak Alaris, continues the expansion of its color film portfolio with the launch of Kodak Gold 200 film in a new 120 format 5-roll pro-pack for medium format cameras, satisfying consumer demand.

“The 120 film format was introduced back in 1901 for the Brownie No. 2 camera,” said Thomas Mooney, Manager Film Capture Products, Kodak Moments Division.  “Although it’s been around for 120 years, it’s still one of the most popular film formats in use today.  One main reason for its popularity is that the larger film negative can be enlarged significantly without losing image quality. This is a great opportunity for aspiring photographers looking to make the jump from 35mm to medium format photography.”

The new 120 format KODAK PROFESSIONAL GOLD 200 is an affordable, entry-level color film featuring an ideal combination of warm saturated color, fine grain, and high sharpness.  It is designed for any level photographer for daylight and flash capture.

Starting today, the 120 format GOLD 200 Film is available for dealers, retailers, and distributors around the world and is intended to be priced 25 percent lower than the comparable PORTRA and EKTAR offerings.   

To learn more, please visit www.kodakalaris.com/go/profilms

Follow us on Twitter @kodakprofilmbiz and Instagram @KodakProfessional

Like us on Facebook www.facebook.com/kodakprofessional

  Kodak Moments is a leading global provider of photo products and services to retailers, consumers, and entertainment properties. We inspire consumers to bring their memories to life—delivering innovative, high-quality photo products and experiences they find truly meaningful. Powered by over 100,000 consumer touchpoints across 30 countries globally, it’s our mission to be the brand consumers choose to celebrate and preserve life’s memories, from the big events to the everyday moments that matter.

©2022 Kodak Moments Division, Kodak Alaris Inc. The Kodak trademark and trade dress are used under license from Eastman Kodak Company

Okay, now for my takeaways from today’s announcement. For the last several years now we been seeing consistent growth in the film photography space. The market for used cameras and even expired films has ballooned in a way retailers and resellers have been struggling to keep pace with. This popularity has allowed for the growth of other niche film brands to come in partnering with or modifying Kodak film stocks as their business model. Bringing back a film stock with as much brand recognition as Gold 200 is a great move at the right time.

While I don’t have any of this lovely film in hand yet, I hope to have some to test out soon. Pricing isn’t concrete as of the time of posting, and I’ll be sure to update the post once those are announced at retailers.

Springtime is right around the corner, and now is the perfect time to get in the reps on that new piece of kit or photographic process. Back by popular demand, One-on-One learning opportunities have returned! If there’s something in the analog photography, digital photography, or video world that you’re looking to improve, these a la carte lessons are the perfect way to jump-start your journey. Booked in convenient 60 minute sessions, these One-on-One’s are tailor made to help you get out there and making work quickly and confidently.

Now with a streamlined online booking process, it’s easier than ever to book an hour of time that works for your busy schedule. All you need to do is follow the three step process at the bottom of this page: 1) Choose an Appointment, 2) Fill Me in on Your Goals, and 3) Confirm the Appointment.

Tomorrow, Sunday January 2nd, I’m going to try something new. As a thank you to all the folks that have supported my work over the years, I’m hosting my first ever Birthday Print Sale. Here are the rules for the sale:

All 8x10” RC prints and 8x10” Inkjet prints are ONLY $36 - No limits, no minimums, no coupon codes needed!

All other prints are also on On Sale…but not quite $36. If you’ve been waiting for a chance at a steal, this is it!

The Birthday Sale runs Sunday January 2nd, 2022 through 11:59:59 EST - If you’re late, there’s always next year.

Shipping - Orders will ship out as prints are completed and in the order they’re received. Silver Gelatin and Alt. Process prints will take a bit longer than inkjet.

I’ll also be hosting a LIVE printing session from my darkroom space up at 400 West Rich. Feel free to stop by, I’ll be making Kallitype prints and answering questions from the chat during the livestream.