Hmmm.  Where to start with this post?  First off, let me say thank you to Kelsey and Mackenzie for being my guinea pigs.  Guinea pigs you say?  It all started when…

I began to fall in love with film.  When I started becoming a photographer, digital is what I began with.  Over the past year, I’ve been looking closely at the work of renown wedding photographers such as Elizabeth Messina, Jonathan Canlas and Jose Villa among others.   There are a bunch of practical reasons pertaining to me and my life specifically that make film a nice medium to work with for the simplicity of the workflow, but there is a look to the work that soooo appeals to me on a level deeper.  Don’t even get me started about the skin tones.

With the gospel of film spreading far and wide by the likes of Mr. Jonathan Canlas and his Film Is Not Dead (FIND) workshops [more on that later as I attend one in July, 2011], I’ve taken the bait hook, line and sinker; I have begun to immerse myself in the use of film for daily personal work and I am beyond smitten.  Smitten with the results, smitten with the workflow and smitten with how it has affected my approach to shooting and honing my vision.

OK.  Thanks for staying with me.  I had been doing a fair amount of personal work with medium format cameras like the Contax 645, Hasselblad 500c/m and even a Holga as I’ve briefly touched on in the previous Exploring Film and Family Camping at Lakedale Resort on San Juan Island posts, but had yet to take the plunge and do a shoot on film for clients.  Enter Kelsey and Mackenzie.  I grabbed a bunch of Fuji 400h, some Kodak Tri-X with my Contax 645 and my friend’s Nikon F4 to head out towards Snoqualmie Pass one fine October day with the two cool cats and force of love called Kels and Mack.  That shoot is below.

I’m happy with the work.  I’m happy with the process.  I’m not happy with the lack of sharpness in some of the images due to my 3.5 year old prescription in my glasses at the time and the resulting soft manual focus.  Good news:  I have new eyes and I have fallen in love all over again.  Hello film.  Let’s do this.  You and me.