When it comes to classic films, Kodak has plenty of options that you can still get. But one of my personal favourites is a genuinely classic film, and that is Efke 100. Any Efke. But of all the Efke flavours the one I’m most familiar with is Efke 100. The 100 flavour is a silver rich film, fantastic tones and gives you that mid-century look that you see in the snapshots of your parents in your grandparent’s albums. These days while no longer produced if you check on eBay and find the right seller you can get a great deal on some new-old-stock that theRead More →

This year’s fall vacation certainly wasn’t only the Disney Parks. If we’re going to Florida, might as well do it right and take a day to visit Universal Studios in Orlando as well. Both Heather and I are big Harry Potter fans, both the books and the movies. And the main purpose of our visit to Universal was to visit the two areas dedicated to Harry Potter. Like Disney, the folks at Universal have designed two immersive worlds that bring both the books, but mainly the movies to life in two interactive and immersive environment that will have you shooting a lot of images asRead More →

Wait, you’re probably thinking what is a Disney Travel Blog doing here since you mostly expect photography, film photography at that. Well don’t worry, there’s plenty of both some beautiful images from Walt Disney World and some handy tips from one photographer to another when travelling to Walt Disney World (or even Disneyland Park). And if you’re thinking all you can capture at Disney is family snapshots, think again. Disney is immersive, you honestly feel like you’re a world traveller especially in Epcot and Animal Kingdom. So don’t be afraid to bring your cameras, but I do suggest following a few tips that I’ll outlineRead More →

If you’ve seen this camera before in my reviews, you’d be partly correct; the Leica R3 is the cousin of the XE-7; both are internally the same camera with some external differences (also the obvious being the lens mount). The XE marked a new era for Minolta as it introduced the idea of a semi-automatic camera and a confident professional air to their cameras, not to mention a unique style of names, the X rather than sticking with the old SR nomenclature. While many companies went with smaller form factors in the 1970s, Minolta stuck with their bulky designs, at least for a while. ButRead More →

I remember the first time I encountered a box of Panatomic-X and seeing the film seep of ASA-32, my mind was blown. I had never seen a film slower than ASA-50 (Pan F+). And then I sent it off to the lab to develop it and was even more amazed at the results. Panatomic-X is a fine-grained general purpose film and it seems the slowest of the X-Series of films (Plus-X, Tri-X, Double-X). And what a film Panatomic-X is, while some are hung up on Plus-X, which is itself an amazing film, I’m more a slow film junkie and enjoy Panatomic-X far more than Plus-X.Read More →

When it comes to slow films there are only two that matter in my book; the first is Rollei RPX 25 the second is Ilford Pan F+. Pan F+ was the first real slow film I ever used and fell for it right off the bat. Great when you’re shooting in bright light and want that fine grain, smooth tone look for your summer images. In fact, I don’t think there’s a developer that the film doesn’t like. But for me, it’s always the film of choice for the summer months of the year when I’m out shooting landscapes and urbanscape both on and offRead More →

It’s always interesting to see what you can do with what Adox calls a ‘closed imaging system.’ CMS 20 II is a film that is specifically designed for one developer, and one developer only that is Adotech II. In fact, in their datasheet, they even discourage the use of traditional developers as they could yield poor and unpredictable results. But thanks to the power of the Internet and having a bit of an experimental side and writing these blogs for you, my dear readers let us continue and say you can use traditional developers with CMS 20, and the results are rather stunning. Film SpecsRead More →

If there’s one thing that certainly does not lack at Photostock it’s the sheer amount of beautiful things to photograph all through Emmet County where Photostock is based. There is one thing I love to do at any Photostock event is driving the M119 or the Tunnel of Trees. Sadly Saturday dawned with rain, but that didn’t matter as the morning saw the Portfolio Review (Which I should have brought my finished War of 1812 project book for) and the Print exchange. But after a lovely lunch down in Harbor Springs with Heather the rain stopped and the skies started to clear so I grabbedRead More →

While not many people would notice it, but when watching a film, and you come across this amazing sequence in black & white, the rich tones across the board, and just a classic cinematic look and wonder, how can I make my still images look that good! Well if you are watching a film shot on traditional film stock the answer is rather easy, Eastman Double-X 5222. Chances are you’ve seen a film shot on this stock, such as the opening sequence of Casino Royale or Shindler’s List. I first came across Double-X a few years back when I purchased some rolls through the FilmRead More →

Other than the location, one of the best parts of Photostock is the people! This being my fifth event and having missed last year’s event for an awesome reason (having just gotten married), it was good to get back and see old friends to reconnect and to meet new friends in the process. While I did spend more time away from the Birchwood than I did at the hotel itself. The weather on Saturday morning kept me in (both to take in people’s amazing portfolios and the Print Exchange) I managed to capture many of the faces at the event. Photostock is first and foremostRead More →