Posts from the ‘Film’ Category

Most of you regulars know that I’ve taken to collecting vintage cameras. A big part of that is, actually let’s just attribute all of it to, my dad. We were visiting my family in St. Augustine a while back, and like normal my family busted out all sorts of embarrassing pictures of me. One of those pictures happened to have great lighting and a nice background blur, so naturally I asked, “What was this taken with?” To which my dad, after rummaging around in his closet for a minute, said, “This” and handed me a shoebox with an Olympus OM-1 inside. A few months later, when my dad asked what I wanted for Christmas, I told him I wanted a medium format camera. So for Christmas I got a Yashica D twin lens, and a month later for my birthday he got me an Argus C-44 Rangefinder and an Exacta G 35mm (1950s from Dresden Germany). On our last trip home for my nephews birthday, there was another box of goodies waiting for me: several Brownie box cameras and a fairly new Polaroid SX-70. That on top of Becka’s newest aquisition, her vintage Polaroid SX-70 Land Camera, and we’ve got quite a collection going now.

I shot some frames while Ian and I were brewing beer and last week we took the Yashica and Olympus out to DeLeon Springs in DeLand and Becka did an amazing job on her first try using a manual film camera.

Brewing Beer | Fujicolor Pro 160 on the Yashica D by me:

DeLeon Springs | Fujicolor Pro 160 on the Yashica D by Becka:

These images have not been retouched at all. We just scanned them into the computer from the prints we got from the lab and sized them for the blog. Becka is kind of in love with the natural tones of the color film and refuses to mess with them. It has a quality you just can’t replicate in photoshop. But as great as all the cameras are, the real joy for me has been spending time with my family, finding something new to bond over, and sharing in the excitement with each other. Using the cameras isn’t too bad either. I know Becka has been feeling a bit guilty that we don’t take many personal photos of our life, and she’s enjoying shooting more day to day with these new (old) toys. Hopefully we’ll build up a nice collection of images for our future children and grandchildren to look through and mock us about. I wish it hadn’t taken so long for me to realize how valuable my family can be, and how valuable they are to me, but I’ve definitely started taking advantage of every opportunity to spend time with them. Was there something that happened with you that made you really start to appreciate your family?

Also, we have a bit of a problem now. We’ve got two boxes worth of cameras and camera bits and no where to put them. Becka is imagining a guest room makeover with one of those super long floating shelves from ikea to show off all these bad boys. Do you have any good display ideas? They’re just too sexy to keep boxed up.

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PS. We’re currently updating our portfolio website so if you’ve noticed anything quirky happening on the blog, website, or anything like that, don’t worry. We’re just getting stuff moved around and will be launching the made-over site soon.

Film | Yashica D Twin Lens Reflex

Nate has taken to collecting old film cameras. For the last few holidays, his family has helped him out by tracking down some really cool old machines as well as various accessories and parts and then gifting them to him. For Christmas, Nate received a Yashica D Twin Lens Reflex camera. They were made from 1957-1973 in the Rolleicord style. Since both Nate and I learned photography on digital cameras, it’s been really fun to learn how to use these film cameras (and keep our fingers crossed that they still work, and that we don’t ruin all the film).

These were taken on two different rolls of film during our recent road trip through the southeast. The images below were taken in Atlanta and on the beach in Charleston. I have been holding out on diving into film because I feel a bit over my head with it and I feel bad ruining film but these images from the Yashica have completely stolen my heart. We did nothing to them except resize them for the blog and add a watermark. No editing was done at all except removing one dirt smudge from the last frame. No color correction, no toning, no cropping. Just look at the gorgeous tones in these frames. The gorgeous square format. I’m a believer. I can’t wait to play more with this and our other antiques…

Our favorite film used so far, Kodak Ektar 100. Such a pretty toning naturally…

This one was our favorite shot of our friend and road-trip buddy, Philipe…

That second shot was a mistake while learning how to advance the film… But it turned out really cool to look at…

These last two were from a separate roll of slide film. These two of Atlanta make me swoon…

All of these images were taken by Nate on our Yashica D Twin Lens Reflex camera.

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