Before anything, I’d love to welcome you all to my website/blog. Here you’ll follow my journey in the world of Analog Photography, a journey I started 7 months ago after shooting solely on mobile phones for a couple of years.
Here, I’ll share my thoughts on the cameras & film stocks I’ve used. Uncensored, unedited, or whatever you would like to call them! I’m just here to have fun and share what I’m learning on my journey. And I just hope that this might be helpful to someone someday!
Enough with the small talk, and let’s start!
I bought my film camera on the 25th of October, 2019. The beautiful Yashica Mat-124G, a TLR camera that uses 120 film format. One of the nicest Medium Format cameras I’ve used, but that didn’t last long!
As smooth as its controls were, I was shocked when I got the scans back from the lab. Why you may ask! I did an amateur mistake - which is totally okay - and instead of testing the camera with one film roll, I shot 7 film rolls before sending them to the lab, an expensive mistake if you ask me! :D
Turns out the lens had haze in it, which ruined all of my shots! So I had to return the camera on the 29th of November, 2019. And on the same day, I bought my first 35mm film camera, from another camera store of course! But that’s another story for another article!
Back to the Yashica, I’ve learned recently that you can fix the hazing issue in the images using photoshop, so I gave it a shot because there were a few shots that I really loved and I wanted to see if I could save them or not!
I kinda like the results, considering it was my first time ever using a camera!
Anyway, I’ll leave you to some of the pictures below -all of them will be posted on my Instagram- and I hope you’ll like them:
1 - Fujichrome Velvia [loaded on October 31, 2019]:
The first roll I shot was an expired Slide film. And I think I underexposed it by half a stop or more, but that's okay!
2 - Ilford HP5+ [6 - 9 November 2019]:
This was a happy accident! An accidental double exposure, and I love it! : )
3 - Ilford HP5+ [9 - 15 November 2019]:
Another accidental double exposure! : )
4 - Kodak Ektar 100 [15 - 16 November 2019]:
5 - Kodak Portra 400 [16 November 2019]:
My dear motorbike!
6 - Kodak Ektar 100 [19 - 22 November 2019]:
7 - Kodak Portra 400 [22 - 23 November 2019]:
Joe in his apartment.
In the end, I’d like to share some of the lessons I’ve learned using the Yashica Mat-124G:
1- I don’t like the 6x6 format, it’s not my cup of tea!
2- Test rolls are important! Never shoot more than one roll with any new camera you purchase! Wait until you get the scans, and check if the camera has any issues or not!
3- Film is expensive, but it’s definitely worth it!
4- Shooting film teaches you to be patient, and to think a lot about your shot before pressing the shutter.
Thank you for making it to the end of this article, I’d love to hear your thoughts!
Take care & stay safe! <3
This is simply amazing and informative, keep up the good work brother ❤️