There was a time in my life when I shot nothing but film, never professionally but only for my pleasure. My weapons of choice were Nikon F3 for 35mm, a Yashica Mat-124G for 120 film and a Graflex Press 4-¼ x 3-¼ sheet film cameras. Then, came the digital age and like almost everyone else, I used a digital camera exclusively. My film cameras were placed on the shelf, as relics of the past, relegated to conversation pieces and having to be dusted off about once a month. Never to be used again, or so I thought. I guess I should also mention that I shoot about 50,000 frames per year in the medical industry, shooting digital of course, kind of boring.

My Yashica Mat-124G, Mondo Morales

It has been quite some time since I shot artistically and for the fun of shooting. But, I find myself being drawn back to the analog media of photography’s origins. It wasn’t until recently, when I had finished restoring hundreds of old and forgotten family photographs, most of them in black and white, that I remembered my old Yashica Mat-124G. It was no worse for wear and just needed a little dusting off. It has been over two decades since I have shot on black and white film. But after picking up my old film camera, I quickly remembered why I love working with this medium so much. After shooting and developing the roll of 120 format ILFORD DELTA 400 film, the first roll of analog film I shot in about 20 years.

After seeing the preliminary results hanging in my makeshift darkroom of my creative work, I could see my old friend did not let me down. The images were surprisingly sharp and with near-perfect exposure. After all these years that old shutter still functions like it was just taken out for the first shoot.

The level of details that the Yashica produced were just as I had imagined it would be. Although I have shot many types of subjects, I tend to gravitate towards the abstract and micro abstract. Today, I have selected five subjects in the greater Houston, Texas area that will hopefully showcase my style and my love for black and white photography. My film of choice today is ILFORD DELTA 400, shot at ISO 400. The film was developed using Ilfosol 3, mixed 1:9 at 68 degrees. Then, the images were digitized with a Sony A77 and inverted in Photoshop with only slight contrast and brightness changes made to the image.

~ Mondo

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