I sometimes get bored of my "work" cameras
So when I'm not on assignment I will try to carry something out of the ordinary to have fun and practice "seeing".
The other day, I developed a pretty interesting half-frame roll of film from one of my customers and I got curious to try the format out. So I borrowed my boss' Olympus Pen FT, and also packed my newly acquired NONS SL 660, some rolls of film, 2 packs of Instax Square film, and hopped on the bus to Chicago.
My intention was to try to shoot diptychs with the half frame camera and to figure out how to get focus on the darn SL660. I think I learned something: because my stubborn self doesn't like closing the aperture, getting critical focus became very hard on both these cameras. One has a tiny viewfinder, the other has a "punched in" and off center viewfinder, and both have no diopter. I underestimated how much the diopter and the manual focus assists on my higher end cameras actually helps me (I am now in my 40s, and farsighted).
Anyway. Film was developed/scanned by me and edited on Capture One for cooler greens and a little added structure (I love grain).
The PEN FT
I had a roll of Street Savvy 400 in the Olympus Pen FT, which I had started the previous weekend during the Pride Parade (getting through 72 shots in a roll of film is hard)! This week, I began my journey by just focusing to infinity and shooting out the bus window. It was storming on and off and I thought the atmosphere was very appropriate to the event I was going to.
As I arrived and stopped at a grocery to buy snacks, the rain intensified, and I got stuck out for some 20ish minutes. But as soon as it let out, I was all into capturing the heavy contrast of the wet city. Something something wet bricks puddles on concrete something raindrops on flowers, you know the drill. This is a very goth neighborhood.
So far so good but
Photographically speaking, it was gonna get weird from here. I knew I wasn't prepared for night, I knew I didn't want to push film, I knew I didn't even want to start a 2nd roll for this trip, I knew I wasn't keen on motion blur (for some mysterious autistic reason). So when the daylight started to fade and the BBQ fire went on, I decided to open up my aperture. Decisions were made! In hindsight, I regret that choice. After I had couple glasses of the party punch and an alcoholic water I became more farsighted than usual. Why would I choose to sacrifice my depth of field? Why?
These are snapshots and not professional work, I repeated like a mantra.
(Special shoutout to the house panthers having some enrichment time in their enclosure. And the ones out of the enclosure too!)
The NONS SL 660
Now this is a particular one. 3D printed, but with a solid build, EF mount, internal light meter that suggests your aperture, and it shoots to instax square film. I got this camera a few weeks ago after ogling it for more than a year but I struggled to get a good lens, since the M42/M39 lenses I had were too soft for the media, and the EF lenses had no aperture ring. I ended up finding a Rokinon 85mm 1.4 EF version that was just right (as tested on my cats). So of course I'd have it with me. Who doesn't love an instant photo? I did not keep track of it but I think my two packs of film were gone well before 10pm.
But I don't think I got a single shot in focus with this camera. I should have trusted zone focusing skills rather than looking through the viewfinder, honestly it's this camera's major annoyance. I will have to find a +1.5 specific Nikon diopter for it (from my initial search on ebay it is rare) and I'm not happy about how much film I wasted so far. Rant aside, I think the photos still captured the vibe really well. I will never sell this camera.
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1st, 2nd: photos by Alejandra Guerrero (@corporatevampire on IG) - yes that's me on the 2nd frame
2nd: karaoke double exposure by me
3rd, 4th, 5th: more karaoke by me
6th: also by me, there was a sparkler but apparently I don't know how to compose square frames yet. Also not sure what that burn is!
To owning it
I had fun, that's what's important. Though I had to be somehow experimenting with photography because that's how I view the world, this wasn't work and I allowed myself to make dubious choices and make mistakes. I often get fixated on things out of fear of failure; I make myself little rules and follow them to a T even when they are limiting my creativity, so this was a reprieve. How can I be more flexible? How can I be more adaptable? How can I carry more of this fearlessness into my serious work?
I am so grateful for the people I met, who were non judgmental, who didn't give a fuck if I was there taking out of focus pictures for the vibes. Who still took some of them home for a keepsake. I shouldn't be ashamed of anything.
