angie + marvin wedding photos

December 28, 2019 in film, wedding

my cousin angie asked me if i could take some photos of her and marvin on their wedding day. “we don’t want much. just a few of us in the ceremony and around the courtyard”, she said. so of course, i said “yes”. this was an opportunity to service them, and for me to get outside of my comfort zone and learn something new through the process.

for wedding photoshoots, its pretty common to have wedding dates booked months in advance (sometimes over a year!). considering there wasn’t much to be expected (although there always is, especially for your wedding day) other than some “basic” photos , five weeks notice was fine i suppose. :)

we had 30 mins before the ceremony to take some pictures, and about 30 mins after the ceremony to take a few more plus the obligatory extended family pictures. no planning, no scouting. just the three of us walking around to find good well lit areas to make some photos.

in hindset, i wish i’d have been a bit more prepared with some high speed film to capture the ceremony since it had very low light. its an absolute must if you’re shooting film. film definitely has its advantages with the unmatched tonal range and color, but it really isn’t as versatile as digital, particularly in this case where there was no advance prep time with limited time.

all in all, it was fun and a good experience. i’m happy with some of the photos we made. below are a few favorites.

cameras:

mamiy rz67
mamiya 7

film:

kodak portra 400, 120mm
kodak tri-x (400tx), 35mm

autumn in the sierras

December 05, 2019 in travel, film, documentary

november 2019: autumn / eastern sierras

here are a series of photos made from a trip to california’s eastern sierras in november 2019.

my friends zak, phil and i took a trip up to the sierras this past november in hopes to catch the autumn colors in full bloom. due to its unpredictable weather, every day counts when chasing colors.

we explored parts of bishop and mammoth over the course of 3 days. in mammoth, we noticed immediately that we were maybe about a week too late as the leaves had started to turn brown and wither. there were a few areas around convict lake that were just past peak, which was good enough to capture some color. in bishop, we couldn’t have come at a better time! it was at full peak and the colors were outstanding. this was interesting because last year bishop peaked before mammoth! with the help of @monocountytourism, we were able to time our trip to near perfect.

note: if you don’t already, i would recommend you follow them on instagram as they give you up to date “autumn color” reports, among other useful information based on season. their page can save you a trip or two!

gear: i brought with me about 15+ rolls of 120 film and a handful of 35mm film (color & b&w), and shot all of them before the end of my trip. bummer. in hindsight, i should have brought more 35mm film and paced myself with the 120 film. all in all, i’m happy with the outcome of some of these photos.

excited to head out there again in a few weeks! its snowing a ton. :)

enjoy the photos!

-j

medium format/120 film

cameras: mamiya 7 and mamiya rz67
film: kodak portra 160, kodak portra 400, and ilford delta 3200

lake sabrina, bishop ca

35mm film

camera: contax g2, 28mm lens
film: kodak portra 400, and kodak tri-x (400tx)

Drive-By: Big Sur on Film

September 05, 2019 in film, travel, documentary

It’s been a little over a month since my family and I relocated to Los Angeles. Things are going very well, and we’re really excited to jump into life over here!

A couple weeks prior to our move, I made a solo trip to LA to prepare the home for our official relocation. I drove down HWY 1 with my cameras and some film and took as many photos as I could. I arrived in Monterey, CA around noon, and slowly made my way down south until sunset and created a “drive-by” photo log of what I saw. Time was of constraint since I needed to get to my destination later that evening.

It normally takes me approximately six hours to drive down from the bay area to Los Angeles, but this time it took me well over ten hours due to all the stops I made. I was tired, but an opportunity like this won’t present itself again for a while!

Things went generally well, but never perfect. If there was one thing I could have wished for was a nice spot for sunset. I made my way to the SLO area for sunset, but was quickly met with intense fog which ruined my plans. I also wished I had more time to linger in and around other coastal spots within Central California, but time was limited.

All of the pictures I took were shot on:

Contax G2, 35
Mamiya 645, 120
Mamiya 7, 120

The film stocks I chose for the trip were:

Kodak Portra 400
Kodak Portra 800
Solaris Ferrania 400 (expired)

Anyways, here are some stills from the short trip. Comment below and let me know what you think!

Cheers,
j

Featured

BTS: Camping in Yosemite National Park

May 25, 2019 in camping, film, behind-the-scenes (bts)

Earlier this month, we and some friends took our families to Yosemite to camp for 3 nights. 6 adults, 10 kids total. For some of our friends and their kiddos, it was their first time visiting the National Park. Needless to say, they were blown away by the beautiful landscape and the natural beauty that surrounded us.

We had a lot of fun! We visited the main scenic spots, hiked Mist Trail to see Vernal Falls, and biked through and around the park (yes all 16 of us!). All 3 families meal prepped and split the meals for our entire trip. I’m not sure why, but camp food always tastes great. I’m sure it has something to do with the excitement of being outdoors, especially with loved ones. After dinner, the kids gathered around the fire and made s’mores. For breakfast, I attempted to make “good” coffee and it was terrible. Friends were gracious and still drank it.

My goal for the trip was to be purposeful behind the camera and document the time we had together in this beautiful place — all on film.

Cameras: Contax G2 and Pentax K1000
Film: Portra 160, 400, 800 and Ektar 100

As always, if you like the content, like and comment below and please bookmark/subscribe! Thanks for reading.

Cheers,
J

New York on 35mm Film

April 26, 2019

This past November, I visited New York City for the first time. I’ve always wanted to visit the city to experience the sights and sounds we’re all accustomed to seeing on the big screen. As a photographer, I’ve always thought it would be an amazing opportunity to capture the city through the lens of my camera. There is so much culture to capture.

We spent a few days walking around Manhattan and Brooklyn, just enjoying the company at hand and taking in the beautiful city as we moved from one block to another. Walking through Central Park had to have been one of the top highlights of our trip. Not only was the park grand and beautiful, but we also experienced the season’s first snow while walking through the park. Talk about a moment from a movie scene!

Here’s a short set of stills from a roll of Kodak Tri-X 400. The camera used was my Contax G2 with 28mm Biogon Carl Zeiss f2.8 lens. Film was scanned and developed by Indie Film Lab.

This was my first trip shooting film. Happy to say I’m glad how things came out and excited to share more.

Would love to hear from you in the comments box below. Let me know if you have any questions.

Enjoy!

Cheers,
J