#walkingworkshop3

Two Cameras, One Workshop

Usually I bring way too many cameras along on my adventures, but lately I’ve been trying to just be happy with a couple of cameras and focus on what I want to shoot.  At the Walking Workshop I brought my SX-70 with some expired film and my new favorite concoction: A Holga 120N that I calibrated to a Telex Rangefinder affixed to the hotshoe.  I put a 46mm-49mm filter on the front with a Red Filter. 

I calibrated the rangefinder to the Holga by taping the ground glass from one of my Ciro-Flex TLR’s to the back and then matching the rangefinder numbers to the pictures on the Holga.

It Is So Simple, It Sets Your Free

Shooting Ilford XP2 with the Holga is SO nice.  Just shoot...don’t worry, get the focus right and just shoot.  Even with the red filter it’s still super simple during the bright California sunshine to get great pictures.  I do wish my Holga had a larger aperture, and maybe I’ll get one from Randy at Holgamods later, but for now, it’s just such a simple setup I just look for great frames.

Getting “The Look”

I’ve been wanting a certain look to my Holga images, and tried no mask, light leaks, wide angle, you name it, but never found anything that I liked.  When I combined Ilford XP2 and a red filter, it was just what I was looking for.

...but enough of the talk, check out the pictures from the Holga at the FPP Walking Workshop:

I was framing this shot when the lifeguard looked at me and said: “What’s with all of you with cameras?”  I chuckled...it must’ve been strange seeing all these people with cameras, but not just digital SLR’s...no, there were tiny 110 cameras, chunky Medium Format ones, Polaroids, and everything in-between.  I told him it was a workshop for film people and he just looked at me confused.  I then asked if I could take his picture and he said no problem and went back to work.  Perfect.

I was fascinated by the people playing in the surf and the angle I had from the pier.  The red filter has the perfect contrast to this scene and I love the tension in the wave getting ready to crash on the kids as they try to get out of the way of the wave.

Another surf shot. The father was yelling for his kids to come in from playing out deeper in the water.

This is the side of the bus that took us down to the pier. I have no idea what it means, but liked the words.

One of the things I love about this setup is that it's light and I don't have to do anything other than frame and shoot. It makes me explore changing angles and getting different perspectives. I climbed up on a retaining wall and saw the bikes with the train in the background...and then noticed the number of the train.

They really wanted to fly away, but I talked to them...reassuring them it was just a cheap plastic Holga and they had nothing to worry about. It worked.

I did have a thought on this one...I wonder how crisp will this be. I really wanted to capture the intricacies of the hut.  I’m glad it did.

And The Act Of Finishing The Roll

If there is one thing that I notice about me shooting film that others seem to not have is not shooting enough.  I still had 4 shots left on my roll of 12, but I was so tired at this point, I just didn’t shoot any more.  We got a nice shaved ice and talked to people before heading back.

East Coast Meets West Coast

One of my long-time favorite podcasts is The Film Photography Podcast.  I’ve been listening to it since the very beginning and have always found it enjoyable, educational, and well, down-right entertaining.  When they announced that the next “Walking Workshop” get-together was going to be in Southern California, I made sure I was going to be there!

Wait...you don’t know what The Film Photography Podcast is? Ahh, then you are missing out!  If you like film photography in any way, then this is a great podcast to start listening to.  The hosts break down all sorts of film photography into easy to listen to language so you can figure out what’s cool about film.  Like Instant?  So do they!  Home Developing?  Yup, Mike and the guys have really gotten into home developing and have some great tips!  Medium Format, Large Format, 110, 126, 127, the list goes on and on.  Basically, if it shoots film, then they will talk about it.  The hosts are very entertaining and you’ll find yourself waiting for the 1st and 15th of each month to hear “The Really Big Shoe” as they call it.

Check them out here: http://filmphotographyproject.com/

Reunited, And It Feels So Good

This years workshop was being hosted by “The Darkroom”, an AWESOME full service film processing store.  I never knew how close I was to such a great full-service store, but more on that in a bit.

https://thedarkroom.com/

Upon arriving, my wife and I immediately saw a table set up and a few friendly faces of my So Cal Instant Photo friends!  We set up our stuff and chatted with Toby Hancock, Sarah and James Eakins, Jessica Reinhardt, and Jay Jacobs.  It immediately eased my social anxiety seeing people I knew, so the day started off on the right foot!  Soon after, Marcelo Yanez even showed up!  It was now officially a party!

My wife and I next went over to the FPP tent not too far away and as we walked up, one of the hosts of the show, Mat Marrash, recognized me and said “Hi”. We had a brief chat with Mike and Mat, got our badges, free film, stickers and tickets for the big camera give-away.  Whoa, I didn’t know they were going to do this!  There were three big tables with all sorts of camera’s on them with red plastic cups.  You dropped your ticket into the cup of the camera you wanted and at one point in the day they were going to give them away.

We then met Phil from The Darkroom while we were picking up our t-shirts.  The shirts are awesome, and Phil showed my wife all sorts of great antique film carrying cases.  We grabbed some snacks and headed back to our table.

Catching Up Instantly

I had been on a photowalk with Toby, Sarah and James before, but had only chatted with Jessica and Jay online, so it was great sitting down and “tweeting” in real-time!

Jay, pictured above, had the coolest LED goggles.  They were programmed to do all sorts of colors and patterns.  He had his Land camera with Fuji FP-100C, a Holga 3D camera, and a wine-colored SX-70.

I asked Jay if I could borrow his goggles and had my wife hold them up to her face.  I had brought my SX-70 and my Holga (with red filter and rangefinder), and some expired PX70 Cool film. 

Most of the shots had a big divot of undeveloped area, but the color of the film was super impressive.

The Instant group had a great discussion of the current state of the market, and how much we all still love shooting our SX-70′s and Spectra’s despite any feelings we have about how the instant world is being run.  We were all shooting interesting film.  Round Frame, Poisoned Paradise, Black Frame, Spectra, Time Zero, FP-100C, SX70 Cool.  That’s one of the nicest things about IMPOSSIBLE film...all these different formula’s and frames can really match the personality of the Instant Photographer.

Mike and the gang started giving away some film, so as everyone was standing around seeing what was being given away next, I snuck up behind Toby and took a portrait of him in a way I’d never seen before.  

Oh, and it was sunny...sunny and pretty hot too. Our cameras all migrated into a large pile in the shrinking shade of the umbrellas over our table, but hats and sunscreen were quickly adopted by most of us when we ventured out from under the umbrella.

The Tour of The Darkroom

The Instant group then all went on the tour of The Darkroom together.  All I can say about this place is...wow.  They really really care about film, and they have a great facility.  I’ve been thinking about what I’m going to do when I start shooting more Film Ferrania slide film, but after the tour it’s a no-brainer...I’m sending all my stuff to The Darkroom.

As we were getting a demo of the “dip and dunk” room, my wife got this cute picture of Sarah and James.

The Darkroom has some great stuff, and even a dedicated 110 film scanner.  It was cute, especially the tiny professional 110 film tray.  Impressive indeed.

And they will even not cut your negatives if you ask them.  I like having my strips in 6 so that it fits best in my Epson scanner.  Most places won’t cut into 6 image strips, and you wouldn’t believe how hard it is to get some places to not cut your negs...so I take it pretty seriously.  I’m glad they have this option!

Photowalking the Pier

We decided to take the second bus down to the Pier for the Photowalk and there was a lot of cool stuff to take photos of.  

We crossed the tracks, a gaggle of film photographers...so, we were inconspicuous, right?  I did wonder at one point how many thousands of dollars of film equipment were wandering around San Clemente that day.  Rolleiflex’s, LOTS of Mamiya 7′s, Hassy’s, RB67′s, Bronica’s Fuji 6X7′s, Leica’s and more.  It was drool-worthy.  I had brought my Bronica ETRSi, but decided today was an SX-70 and Holga day, so I felt a little out of place, but a lot of people were asking questions about how I had my Holga set up.

And that’s what cool about the FPP crowd.  Nobody really cares about gear, even though we all have GAS and love gear.  It’s all about the tool that you love to take pictures with.  It’s that commonality that brings us all together.

Unfortunately for me and my beloved SX-70, most of the rest of my PX70 COOL was dried out, but I did get this shot of some surfboards before heading down the pier and the rest of a bummer of a pack. 

Our group was with Mike and Mat, so we all headed down the pier to see what good things there were to photograph.

I switched over to my Holga and continued on down the pier and saw someone shooting a Pentax Auto110 and Pentax SLR.  We chatted for awhile, but for the life of me, I can’t remember her name.  Here she is setting up her shot.

We met up with her boyfriend and he and I chatted about how I hooked up a rangefinder to my Holga (with a red filter too) so that I can be very precise on my focusing.  They were very nice and if you see this blog, let me know who you are, I’d love to see your work! 

We all headed back to the beginning of the pier to meet up with the rest of the group.

Obviously, Mat is sponsored by Diet Coke, Mike by Canon, and James by Impossible...or maybe not...

Speaking of Mat.  My wife and I had a great time talking to Mat.  Come to find out it’s a really really small world.  We all came from different parts of the US, but my wife and Mat went to the same school, he knows my photography teacher from college where I went, not far from where my wife and he went, and all sorts of other things that make you go, whoa...small world.  Talking to Mat was definitely one of the highlights of the trip, and it really did show you how close we all really are to knowing each other.  Super COOL!

After a nice, refreshing shaved ice and a bus ride back to The Darkroom, we said goodbye, exhausted, hot and satisfied.  It really was a great day with so many people that I wish I could have talked to longer, or didn’t even have the chance to meet that I wanted it to go on longer.  But the day ended and we drove off, happy to have met the FPP crew, The Darkroom crew, old friends, and new ones too!  I can’t wait for everyones pictures to start coming in from the day.  I am thinking i’m going to be following more and more great photographers on Flickr soon. For me, I finished up my Holga roll and will be developing it soon, so be on the lookout for it soon, right here!