Holiday Shipping Deadlines - CLICK HERE

Shoot Film Co. — Film

T-Max P3200 is Confirmed By Kodak to Be Returning

T-Max P3200 is Confirmed By Kodak to Be Returning

IT'S BACK!

In a Tweet early this morning, Kodak confirmed the return of T-MAX P3200, a high-ISO black and white negative film.

The tweet didn't offer any other details about schedule, pricing and availability, but a press release with more details can be found at EMULSIVE.ORG.

I'm personally happy to hear this news as this is a film stock I've never shot myself, having grown up with and stuck with color negative most of my photographic life.

Good on Kodak for seeing the market trend and bringing back a well-loved emulsion, I can't wait to shoot it!

 

VIDEO: Surprise Vintage Camera Unboxing

I bought a sealed box of vintage cameras without having any idea what was inside. I couldn't resist the temptation. A lot of the fun in discovering this stuff is in the surprise, and when the opportunity presented itself, I couldn't say no. I thought it would be fun to get a video of the unboxing, so here it is!

 

 

See photos of the contents here: https://flic.kr/s/aHskzfxdJf
Vintage Camera Collectors on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/vintagecameras/
Help keep these videos coming! Support me here: http://www.shootfilmco.com

In the Frame: Royce Stevenson

In the Frame: Royce Stevenson

Today, I'm glad to feature film photographer and radio DJ Royce Stevenson. He has a passion for taking 35mm film photos around Kansas and the midwest. Let's talk to Royce to see he's all about.
Image by Royce Stevenson
Your work could be easily characterized as "street photography" but there's also a lot of attention to shadows, structures, architecture, and reflections, too. How would you characterize what you do?
Royce: At first I characterized my photos as street photography, but anymore I try to just take cool photos.  Landscapes, street photography, portraits…  I love them all!  Anymore I try to capture more of a feeling.  Plus I am always trying to capture different moments and events, so as I grow as a photographer I think I focus less of the style of photography that I do, and more on taking good photos.
Image by Royce Stevenson
You have a real commitment to capturing the time you're in and the world around you. The work has a feel of being in the middle of something great and vibrant, like a "right place/right time" vibe. Is this on purpose? How do you choose what you shoot and why is it important to you?
Royce: Wow that means a lot to me that you say that.  My mother was very much into photography.  Growing up she always had her Canon AE-1 program and was taking pictures with it.  My most prized possessions are all of her photo albums.  They mean so much to me because it captures not only my life but everything that was going on at that time.  She passed away 5 years ago and I started getting out and taking pictures with her Canon 50d.  In high school and college I took dark room classes and I wanted to get back into film photography.  One thing I noticed was around my city there were not that many people capturing what was going on.  I live in Wichita, Kansas and I see lots of building photos and landscapes, but I really wanted to capture the people, places and times and of city before they are gone.
Image by Royce Stevenson
You seem to be unafraid to get close and shoot people pretty intimately. Have you always done this? Does it intimidate you to shoot so close to people?
Royce: Shooting people up close terrified me at first and quite frankly still does every now and then.  One thing that helps is I try to go to events that have people I know there.  I have been taking pictures long enough that they are used to seeing me with a camera now so they let their guard down.  I also have a bit of an advantage because I work in radio and people are more apt to let you take a picture of them.  Something I always work on and am getting better at is not holding the camera up all the time like I am trying to get a photograph of a person.  I might catch them not paying attention or in a zone.  Most of the time, the person doesn’t even realize I took a picture of them. But yes I still get nervous and anxious when shooting people.
Image by Royce Stevenson
Your work also has a real sense and reverence for history, specifically the "Kansas Travels" series. What attracts you to those types of places and scenes?
Royce: I love traveling!  One thing that I don’t think most people in Kansas realize is how many awesome places there are to see in Kansas!  I was also a history major in college so when I drive around and see these small Kansas towns I think to myself, who used to live here and why?  The smaller the town the better!  Plus Kansas has quite a few ghost towns so there is always something cool to see.  A great example of this is my ongoing Kansas Carnival project.  Many of the county fairs and small festivals with carnivals are the biggest event for some of the small Kansas towns and counties every year.  They wait for them to come every summer and it is an event they save up for!  If you ever want to see want the soul and heart of Kansas is about, go to one of these county fairs.  Also being born and raised in Kansas, it is who I am and I am so proud that I can represent the state by showing it off in photos.
And finally: You're a Radio DJ! How does this influence your photography?
Royce: Yes.  Many times I am able to get access to places and talk to people that normally I would never be able too.  Also working in radio, you have to be able to feel comfortable talking to strangers and dealing with people.  Having people skills is such a part of it for me.
Make sure to check out Royce's work and connect with him on social media:
Snapchat: royceontheradio

Japan Camera Hunter Introduces StreetPan 400 Black & White Film

Japan Camera Hunter Introduces StreetPan 400 Black & White Film

Japan Camera Hunter StreetPan 400

In a world where megacorporations like Fujifilm want out of the film business, and the makers of Betamax and the MiniDisc are selling you a new digital camera with higher megapixels and faster frames per second every six months, one man has introduced a new film:

Japan Camera Hunter has announced JCH Street Pan 400 black & white film!

Not merely a repackage, but a resurrected emulsion developed, and since discontinued, by Agfa, Street Pan 400 is available for preorder now in 10 packs, and expected to ship in May or June.

Because it is made in small batches at a considerable cost, Japan Camera Hunter needs support and preorders so that he can produce higher batches at lower cost in the future.

I personally pulled out my wallet and placed my order the minute I learned about it, and I can't wait to try it out!

Get the details, including order information and even developing times by clicking here.

In The Frame: Photographer Dave Hill on His Book "Barstow" and Shooting Film on Commercial Jobs

In The Frame: Photographer Dave Hill on His Book "Barstow" and Shooting Film on Commercial Jobs

From Dave Hill's book,

For many photographers with commercial aspirations, one of the names that will invariably come up as a source of inspiration is Dave Hill.

Earlier on in his career, he was known for creating complex, high-concept composite images with digital photography and Photoshop, with which he became synonymous.

His personal work harkens back to something much simpler--most of the personal images he shares on his site and social channels seem to be shot with his Leica M6.

More recently, we have gone behind the scenes with Dave on big commercial jobs he shot on film, such as for Honda and Jeep (watch those Behind the scenes videos--seriously, we'll wait), and quiet lifestyle images using only natural light.

He's obviously been very busy shooting commercial jobs--and that he has been able to convince art buyers at such high levels to approve campaigns to be shot with film is nothing short of amazing today.

But late last year, he quietly launched a book of his personal medium format film work chronicling his travels through the city of Barstow, CA. It is a quiet book full of revealing images and moments of peoples' lives in a small town. Dave took a few minutes to tell us about the book.

Tell us about yourself and your commercial work

My name’s Dave Hill. I’m from Carlsbad, CA and now live in Los Angeles with my wife and 15month old daughter.  I got my start in photography in high school in the 90’s, shooting my friends skating and snowboarding.  I went to UCLA for History and they had an amazing daily newspaper.  I joined freshman year as an intern.  We had to roll, process, and scan all of our own film, mostly TRI-X 400.  The UCLA newspaper is were I really learned how to approach people without fear.  It was a wild time. I became the Photo Editor my senior year in 2000.  I got to spend our entire photo equipment budget that year on the new Nikon D1, so I had a very early start in digital.

That led me to spend the next 4 years after college really getting into Photoshop and compositing and creating worlds.  I was also in a punk band at the time and started shooting a ton of music groups.  No one was really compositing in the music scene yet, so I started to get meetings and attention from bigger artists and labels.  From there, it led to a bunch of rappers and lots of CD packages, and then eventually, into the advertising world.

The entire time, though, I was regretting my obsession with Photoshop and really yearning to get back out and just shoot film with natural light.  My longest break in shooting film was from 2003-2005.  After those couple years of gaining weight and living in Photoshop, I bought my first Leica M6 and 35mm f2 lens on Craigslist.  That was my first film cam purchase since my Nikon N70 is 1998!

So it’s taken me about 10 years from when I got that Leica, to now being finally hired for some natural light commercial jobs.  It was really, REALLY tough to break out of the compositing world.  At some point, I just had to accept loosing the bigger budgets and retouching fees and just go for it.  The past few years I’ve really been trying to push film and at least non-composite lifestyle images to all my clients.  It’s been a tough trying to impress anyone these days.

The bonus from my lack of Photoshop time has been more exploration back into street photography. I used to love shooting street and journalism stuff in college and the past 1-2 years, I’ve been taking random weekends off, documenting areas that fascinate me.

From Dave Hill's book,


Your book "Barstow" is quite a departure from you commercial work. What is the motivation for it?

I love the desert.  I always have.  My dad used to take us camping to Anza-Borrego in East San Diego camping.  We’d go dirt biking, shoot guns, bond with my brothers.  It was awesome.  We’d pass lots of random towns, including Barstow, from time to time.  

As an adult, I’ve passed through Barstow on the way to Vegas like everyone else, but always had a fascination with it.  My wife is awesome and a few times, we were bored in LA and decided to drive to Barstow, watch a movie at the little ghetto theater in town, and stay at the Ramada. It’s an experience.  After doing that a couple times, I really wanted to explore the down more.

My wife had a baby shower weekend and I knew that was my chance.  I packed up my iPhone and just my Mamiya 7 and 80mm lens and headed to Barstow.  I spent the next two days walking around the city, getting yelled at and getting called a pervert.  I found Barstow to be a really rough town.  People didn’t respond well to me walking through their neighborhoods.  I’m still fascinated why people would live in a desert town like Barstow.

Shed some light on the creation of the book

My edit was really focused on people.  Sure, there were some cool/depressing old buildings out there, but I wanted to include as much of the people as possible.  It was hard to toss out some of the landscapes, but I felt like my strength was how I approached the people.

I had it printed at A&I here in North Hollywood.  I did a test of the bigger on-demand printers and A&I’s paper really kicked everyone else’s butt.  They are a little pricey, but I felt it was worth it. I only did an initial run of 50 copies and still have a few left for sale.  I feel like I’d have to sell 200-500 copies to actually make any money.  With a run of 50, I actually lost money when selling the book for $30, but I did it more for art’s sake, and really wanted people to have the book in their hands, whatever it took.  In the future, it might be nice to go big, print more, and make a profit!

Why did you choose to shoot this project using film?

Film was a no-brainer for me. Film looks better than digital, hands-down.  The colors are unbeatable, no matter your Photoshop skill level.  I shoot all my street and personal stuff on film.  With projects like this Barstow book, I shoot so slow anyway, it’s not like I’m blowing through a ton of rolls. Call me silly, but I feel like when I shoot a photo on a negative, I’ve really created something. With digital, it feels like a robot just collecting data.

From Dave Hill's book,

Do you plan to use film for any commercial work in the future, if you haven't already done so? (Editor's Note: I asked this question before his amazing Honda and Jeep behind-the-scenes videos came out!)

Yes!  I’ve been spending extra money to have a camera-man come along on recent commercial car jobs, capturing the experience of shooting film.  These videos have been getting a little attention in the photo world online, but my primary goal was to be able to show art buyers, who are always a little skeptical, that film on a commercial job isn’t stressful, but can be just a simple part of the workflow. Film doesn’t need to mean HOLGA/blurry/artsy/grainy/window-light nudes. Film can mean commercial shots in high-res,  with beautiful colors and skin tones.

A huge thanks to Dave Hill for talking to us and helping to keep film alive and a viable option in the commercial world! Please check out Dave's website and Social profiles below, and make sure to pick up a copy of "Barstow" while you still can.

www.davehillphoto.com
instagram.com/davehillphoto
davehillphoto.tumblr.com

Link to Barstow Book - now only $15! :-)

http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/0990786706