LENSWORK(ISH): Weekend Emulsions 11/27/20 - 12/05/20 /
Let me take you back in time… it was 2001, and I was a young college student spending more of my time in kickboxing gyms and darkrooms than classrooms. I had no money. Just dreams of being some sort of hybrid kickboxer/filmmaker/photographer/rock and roll band singer. Being a photography-obsessed starving college student, I used to spend A LOT of time at bookstores reading entire books and magazines for free over time in my many visits. One photography publication always stood out to me: Lenswork. It wasn’t Popular Photography, Photo District News, or any other magazine that was focused on gear and technique. It felt like with every printing I found some sort of black & white religious tome. A fine art gallery in magazine form, accidentally placed on the news stands every quarter. I decided that with my last roll, I’d try my hand at that Lenswork look, that modern tin type duo tone print look. Did I get there exactly? No. But like, a boy can dream right?
That dreamy burnt and not dodged look.
Kodak Tri-X 400, pushed to ISO1600, with a 4-stop ND and a 1/4 Black Pro Mist filter. Leica M-A, 50mm Summicron.
Reinventing the broken wheel.
SAMSON WITH FABRIC SCISSORS: Giving myself a quarantine haircut with zero training. /
DTLA Noir. Weekend Emulsions 11/27/20 /
Hey theya coppash, you’re a bunch of fiulthy diurty rrrats, schee… I went and painted the town black and white so yuhs could get some sense into that thick skull o’ yers. Nyyyeaaaahhh, scheee? Really, show you wut fer.
Sorry about that, I got a little excited about trying to shoot my neighborhood like an old Film Noir from the 30’s (note: get me drunk and ask me to give you an oral dissertation on Film Noir and whether it’s a genre or a time period). I’ve been shooting a lot of golden hour lately, and decided to switch it up and absolutely STOMP through the neighborhood at night, very rapidly shooting three rolls of film at a blistering pace rather than my usual meandering over the course of a weekend. This night, I shot three rolls of film in about two hours of walking. It was nice to concentrate on volume rather than… uh, whatever it is I focus on usually (quality? sexiness?). That said, out of 108 exposures, you can imagine that a lot of it was garbage. Some shots of my city were pretty creepy, and some were creepy-pretty:
Walker, Texas Ranger.
Drip.
The least garbage of three rolls of Ilford 3200 B&W pushed to 6400. Leica M-A, Summicron 50mm F2 with a 1/4 Pro Mist filter to make the highlights bloom.
Bankshot. City Bank shot. Nothing but net.
CHANGE OF SPEED: Weekend Emulsions 11/21/20 - 11/22/20 /
Lately, I’ve been wanting to mess around with ND filters or pushing film speeds. I shot two rolls on my walk to the Piñata district. Walking through the Piñata District was driving me nuts because I stupidly went on my photo walk while I was hungry and the food smells formed the shape of a finger beckoning me like a Tom and Jerry cartoon. The two rolls I shot were…
A roll of Kodak Ultramax ISO400. The first half with a 4-stop ND filter, meaning I set my light meter to ISO25, and then over-exposing half a stop to make the film happy… the other half of Ultramax without the ND filter, so I set my meter back to ISO400.
“You are my density.”
A roll of Kodak Tri-X ISO400, pushed to ISO1600, but again with a 4-stop ND Filter, meaning I set my light meter to ISO100. Pushing the film two stops made this roll deliciously contrasty and hella freak nasty; just my style.
Nasty contrast for you nasty-ass hoes.
Kodak Ultramax ISO400 w/4-stop ND filter (metered at ISO25):
Kodak Ultramax ISO400 w/o ND Filter:
Kodak Tri-X ISO400 B&W Film, pushed to ISO1600 w/4-stop ND filter (metered at ISO100):
Between a fast lens, fast film, and an ND filter, you can really tackle a lot of scenarios hitherto undreamt of, dawg.
Morning snaps, afternoon hangovers: Weekend Emulsions 11/07/20 - 11/08/20 /
Upon the broadcast of a particular bit of news on Saturday morning, I hit the streets with my film camera and met up with a friend and her video camera.
I ran out of my usual Kodak Portra film and instead used a roll of Kodak Ultramax ISO400 film. To be honest, I maybe prefer this cheaper film. Not sure if the subject matter just elevated the look or if it’s just a better stock to my eye. Maybe cheap shit matches my blood type. I halfway regret only having brought one roll out that morning, but on the other hand, I think it worked out perfectly.
Here’s the video she shot:
Halloween Special: Amelie de Plaza Bonita. /
My wife has been super duper hella quarantined throughout the pandemic, but also has DESPERATELY wanted to see Christopher Nolan’s Tenet in theaters. So, we decided to treat ourselves for Halloween and rented out a theater for two. It’s actually surprisingly not too expensive to rent out a theater nowadays.
SECRET GARDENS AND HEAT DAMAGE: Weekly Emulsion 10/24/20-10/25/20 /
Last week, I got dressed up thinking I was going to hit the streets for some film photography with a very old roll of Lomography 800 film. For some reason, I ended up driving out to Pasadena and found a weird park/trail/garden at the top of a hill and was definitely the best dressed dude on the trail. The sun was way down, so it was actually pretty good that I had ISO800 film in the camera. I ended up finishing up the roll the next day out in Little Tokyo where I found a cool little Bandai/Gundam pop-up shop.
My film processing lab told me that not only was my film expired, but seemed to have some heavy heat damage. Can’t say that I can really tell, to be honest.
DON'T CALL IT A COMEBACK: 17-rounds of jump rope at the same time. /
A week ago I hurt my back and broke my jump rope during the same workout. After a few days of salt baths, icy hot patches, and sleeping on the floor I bought a brand new jump rope and gave my usual jump rope workout a go. Still too scared to try my HIIT workout that I usually do afterwards though.
NEON DEMON-STRATION: Babay's 1st youtubez with his new camera. /
Rather than being overly precious about making videos, I just wanna concentrate on consistently laying these down on the proverbial wax.
I did a thing, and the most important take away from all of this is that you can do a thing too.