Category: Articles
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Documenting the UK’s #BlackLivesMatter protests: London & Hitchin, June 6-7th 2020
Across one weekend in early June, I attended and documented two Black Lives Matter protests here in the UK. As a white man, I might not be able to fully understand what black people specifically have gone through as a result of decades of systemic racism but I can listen and learn from their experiences…
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5 Frames… Of Kodak T-MAX 400 on a refurbished Minox 35 ML (35mm format / EI 800)
2016 was a horrible year for me personally. I was diagnosed with a life-threatening medical condition that required major surgery to address, and me and the family had to move precipitously from Shanghai to Hong-Kong following unanticipated job issues. When we arrived in Hong Kong after the summer break (and the operation) I was convalescing…
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5 Frames… Of Athens on Agfaphoto APX 100 Professional (EI 100 / 35mm format / Pentax ME)
I’m taking photos almost all my life and even more nowadays through digital photography. I recently bought a Pentax ME and travelled years back to when film was the only option for photography. The camera is small (it can fit in a large coat pocket), light with a robust build and a large finder. It…
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Olympus OM-1 and Zuiko Auto-Macro 50mm f/3.5 – Mercedes van study
Well what can I say about the wee Zuiko lens, this little classic which I picked up for buttons. A mere 50 euros, a bargain second hand. If you can get your hands on this tiny beauty don’t hesitate on it. I took the OM-1 and the Zuiko Macro out and about around my neighbour…
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5 Frames… Of portraits and landscapes on Rollei Infrared 400 (EI 12 / 35mm format / Leica M3)
I have always been fascinated by infrared photography. This idea to make visible that part of the light spectrum which is invisible (to our eyes) has always got me. When I was a (geek) teenager, I modified my first digital camera (a Konica Digital Revio KD-220Z) to shoot infrared pictures. My parents yelled at me:…
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5 Frames… In Barcelona on LomoChrome Purple XR 100-400 (EI 400-ish / 35mm format / Leica M4-P)
I’ve joked in the past that I’m in a committed menage-a-trois with Kodak Portra 400 and ILFORD HP5 PLUS. Truth be told if this were a polyamorous relationship then HP5 would be feeling pretty put out at the moment. I’ve been shooting Portra pretty solidly now for a few years, on 4×5, 120 and 35mm.…
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Embracing accidents: An unexpected double exposure collaboration
Since my return to film photography, I made the decision that I wanted to document what life uncovered for me in terms of experiences, memories and moments and store them on a medium that lasts forever. In Summer 2019 I met Lynn, a junior colorist for one of my projects who turned out to be…
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5 Frames… With a new-to-me rangefinder on ILFORD HP5 PLUS (EI 400 / 35mm Format / Yashica Electro 35 CCN Wide)
I was in grade school when my father took a photography class at a local community college. He was an engineer and natural math whiz, so the technical side of photography came easy to him. It was my dad’s artistic side that was put to the challenge. Our family was often the subjects of his…
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The evolution of the camera as seen through X-ray imaging
It’s no secret that for many film photographers, taking photos of their cameras is as enjoyable as making photographs with them. Don’t take my word for it, just take a quick look on social media (and probably your own phone’s camera roll) to confirm it’s the norm rather than the exception. Fine art photographer Kent…
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5 Frames… Of Kodak BW400CN (EI 400 / 35mm format / Olympus AF-1)
Hey everyone! For those who know me – me and my family LOVE camping and caravanning. We’ve always done it as a family since the children have been around, and continue to enjoy it every year. We love to be outdoors, be together with our wider families and close friends, and just the feeling that…
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Making a working LEGO wide-format pinhole film camera
The purpose of this article is to guide you through my journey from a random pile of colourful bricks, to a pretty much fully functional 6×12 LEGO pinhole camera. The camera went through various versions, good, bad and ugly, each with their strengths and drawbacks until finally, I got to what I felt to be…
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5 Frames… On the greatest film in existence, Kodak Ektar 100 (EI 100 / 120 format / Zenza Bronica S2A)
So going out and making new photos has been off the table for a few weeks, well at least travelling anywhere new, interesting and not within walking distance of my front door on my daily exercise anyway, and is likely to be something I can’t do for the foreseeable future still. Because of this, I’ve…
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Churches: Places of peace, history and personality
I’ve rarely gone out to photograph churches. Not because I have something against them, or that I fear I might get struck by lightning, but because when I have the time to go out and photograph, I usually look for nature, hopefully with no humans in sight. But every once in while a church finds…
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5 Frames… Of the Dolomites on ILFORD Delta 100 Professional (EI 400 / 120 format / Bronica RF645)
As a passionate climber and long distance hiker in the mountains i was in search of a medium format camera reasonably light, affordable and simple to use in every conditions. So when I found this Bronica RF 645 in “like new” condition for no more than 500€ I decided to buy it and see if…
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Celebs selling Polaroids in the 1970s, 80s and 90s
I haven’t had cable TV in a very long time. I cut the cord almost 12 years ago and all of the ads I get now are less than 15 seconds long, skip-able and usually specific to my tastes. The only way to avoid skipping an ad when I was growing up was to mute…
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5 Frames… Of 35mm Fujicolor Superia X-TRA 400 in a 620 format TLR (EI 400 / Ansco Rediflex)
Being under quarantine has me doing all sorts of film-related experiments. In addition to following EMULSIVE’s 65 projects on what photographers can do when stuck at home, I decided to try out a roll or two of expired 35mm film in an old medium format camera, the Ansco Rediflex. I decided to use an old…
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An on-the-cheap private investigation into European BW films: ORWO or Kentmere, to be or not to be?
The whole idea behind this article started as I was looking into finding a “daily” use black and white film, on the cheap, so that I could bulk roll my own. As I’m from Europe (Romania, just one sharp right away from the Black Sea), I first looked into Foma Bohemia films, which are quite…
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5 Frames… With my uncle’s old Contax T2 on Ferrania Solaris 400 (EI 400 / 35mm format)
When I was 15, my uncle gave me his old Nikon film SLR. This sparked in me a love for film photography from high school through college. However, life got in the way and I put my hobby on hiatus. Now in my late twenties, I recently picked up film photography again out of a…
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My First Roll… of 35mm film: Fuji Colour 400N and a Zorki 6 – by Toni Skokovic
I started my photography hobby with Olympus digital cameras. First a point and shoot Camedia D-550 and then eventually Olympus Evolt E-410 DSLR at around 2007. My transition to film photography started with a single roll of house-brand colour film. In early 2015, purely by chance, I discovered the transparency scanning unit on my Canon…
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5 Frames… In remote Belgium on Agfaphoto APX 400 (EI 400 / 35mm Format / Nikon F3)
On the hunt for alternatives to the almighty Kodak Tri-X, I stumbled upon the APX 400 from Agfaphoto. The story of the company is quite complicated, but from what I understand, the films are still being made in Belgium. Which also happens to also be where I live. One more reason to try this one.…