A Little Film Photography

Some of you who follow my ramblings on Twitter may know that I’ve been on a 10 week photography course at my local college. In my last ‘photography post’ (if you can even call it that), I touched base on my passion for the art of Photography and my particular love for how wonderful I believe film photography is. (How many times am I going to say photography in this post?) Photography, photography, photography.

When my lovely boyfriend kindly purchased me my first DSLR I thought it best that I start to learn the ropes – properly. I didn’t want to be using it on automatic and I wanted to make the most of the piece of kit I had. So I thought what better way, than taking a course that focuses on the basics? Little did I know that it would not only teach me everything I needed to know about digital, but it would also delve into the likes of film, and pinhole.

For my final project, I have to produce 6-10 images around a particular theme (of my choice). Being the morbid little sod that I am, I’ve picked Graveyards. To me there’s something really quite beautiful about them, let alone all the different textures and colours available to snap. I’ve taken the majority of the photo’s on my DSLR, to showcase the techniques we’ve learnt over the past 9 weeks, but I wanted to take a few on film too, just to see how they would come out really. I also took a few snaps of my beautiful friend (nothing to do with the theme), she is ridiculously photogenic (hate chu) and I was pleasantly surprised at how they came out. I may even pop a few of them in my final project!

I haven’t edited or enhanced any of these images, as I wanted to show you how naturally beautiful film can be on it’s own. I had so much fun developing these in the dark room – although it does take an age to get it right! These ones are actually the original negatives from the camera – scanned on to my PC! Pretty nifty eh? I think I’ll pop down to boots on the weekend and get the rest developed properly.

This film camera is ancient, and as you can see has lots of scratches on the lens – but that’s something I really love, it gives that vintage feeling and I think adds character to the image. This was all shot on a standard 35mm black and white film. Although it is expensive to have films developed, and it’s not something we can all afford to do on a weekly basis, I think it’s lovely to have a go every once in a while, and there’s something really quite exciting about waiting for them to be ready, you never know what you’re going to get! Plus you can pick up film camera’s from your local charity shop for next to nothing!

What do you think? Did I do okay for my first attempt at Film photography? And would you like to see my final project when it's done? :)

Fancy a Fisheye? | Photography Post

Since I was a tot, photography has been an avid interest of mine. Whether I’m behind the camera, in front of it or spectating, it just gives me an overwhelming feeling of happiness. I don’t profess to be particularly good at it, but I’m certainly trying my hand at becoming a better ‘photographer’. I can’t quite believe how fast technology is coming on, and it never fails to amaze me that when I was younger everything was done on film – digital didn’t even exist. Personally, I think film photography will always have a closer place in my heart – not only does it show excellent photography skills but there’s something rather nostalgic about flicking through ‘real’ photographs. Having said that, film is an expensive hobby and not one that I can personally keep up with on a weekly basis. Which is partly why I am such a huge fan of digital – I’m the girl who is head over heels in love with her DSLR and couldn’t wait to get her hands on the iPhone (blackberry I hate chu). All the accessories and possibilities with digital really excite me! It’s revolutionary to be able to take a photo, and then look at it straight away – I think we really take that for granted sometimes.

Everyone that has an iPhone, will more than likely have instagram. It’s pretty much the done thing right? Enhancing photographs at the tap of a button is fun, and far simpler than the likes of Photoshop. But have you thought about accessories for your iPhone? I was recently sent a Fisheye Lense for my 4S and I’m seriously impressed with the results….

Fisheye photography in my eyes is wonderful. It can make a mundane photo so much more interesting and appealing to the eye. This one comes with a nifty little black case to slot on the back of your phone and then you just screw the lense on to the back, so simple and such great quality. They’re a bargain at under £15, so if you want to pick one up you can do, here. 

I think it just shows that you don’t need to fork out thousands of pounds on a digital SLR when your iPhone can do such a fantastic job, providing versatile pictures.

What about you? Have you tried any accessories for your camera phone? What sort of photography interests you?

I recently bought this lense too for my Canon DSLR, would anyone be interested in seeing a post about it?