Part of the Process is a series of posts that puts the spotlight on film photographers and DIY film developers. These features provide unique experiences and perspectives on shooting and developing film while also showcasing diverse talent and film photographers around the globe. If you are interested in being featured, feel free to contact me!
What other websites or blogs do you keep up with to feed your photographic interests?
Negative Feedback, Instagram, Flickr, and other Facebook groups.
What attracted you to film photography? How did you get started/introduced to shooting film? How soon after did you start developing?
I went to school for filmmaking which introduced me to 35mm cinema cameras. I wanted to replicate the look of cinema so I picked up shooting 35mm photos. Since then, I’ve expanded to shooting medium and large format as well.
Nikon 35ti // Lomography Color 400What do you like to shoot on a regular basis?
I mainly shoot portraits, street, and lifestyle, but when traveling I love taking landscape photos.
Nikon 35ti // Lomography Color 400What formats, cameras, and films do you shoot? What do you like about the formats, cameras, films you prefer?
Tell us about your first experiences in developing your own film. How did you muster the courage to give it a shot? What resources did you use?
The first time I developed film was kind of a whirlwind. I didn’t know much about it, but since all my local shops closed down, I wanted to be able to do it myself. I gave a half-hearted Google search on how to do it, picked up some used supplies on eBay and set up shop in my dad’s dental lab. I followed the steps laid out in a Youtube video and to my surprise, I pulled out my film and found images on it. Half amazed and half confused that I did everything correctly, I quickly bought a bigger developing tank and have been doing all of my own film ever since.
Minolta 140EX // Lomography Color 400What is your development process like now?
My current process starts with my loading all of my film onto reels in my darkroom after shooting and placing them in the developing tanks. I find it much easier to change film in a darkroom than a changing bag. My hands don’t get all sweaty and I have much more space to work.
From here I bring them over to my dad’s dental lab where I keep all of my developing chemicals and supplies. I follow a pretty standard developing process and do a final rinse with distilled water and Photo-Flo to make sure my negatives are squeaky clean.
Nikon 35ti // Lomography Color 400After my film is dry, I load them into protective sleeves and scan them in on my Epson V600. After I have digital files I run them through Lightroom where I remove dust, tweak colors, and add a little contrast.
My process is pretty straight forward and “by the books.” Although I am quite lazy with developing times and my schedule is a bit sloppy, everything tends to turn out okay.
Nikon 35ti // Lomography Color 400What’s your processes regarding scanning, enlarging, and/or printing your work?
I built a darkroom in my studio for around $400 about a year ago. I started shooting a lot of black and white and found a couple darkroom bundles on Craigslist for cheap that had everything I needed. I’ve been printing my own 35mm black and white since then and have been enjoying the process immensely. There’s something surreal about doing everything from taking the actual photo, to developing, to printing it and holding a final product in my hands.
Nikon 35ti // Lomography Color 400What equipment are you using to develop your film and why?
I use a Paterson tank with Kodak D-76 developer for my black and white and Unicolor chemicals for C41. Honestly, I just bought what had the best reviews on Amazon and haven’t looked back since, haha. They’ve both worked swimmingly and I don’t feel as though I need to improve on a well oiled system as of right now.
Canon AF35ML // Agfa Vista 200Are you content with where you are now with your shooting and developing? Do you have any future plans or ambitions?
I don’t think I’m ever content with any art venture. There’s always something more – something new that I want to try or accomplish. This year I’d love to release a very limited run zine or book with some of my work, as well as try to put on an exhibition of my landscapes I plan on taking this summer. Other than that, I just plan on exploring some new locations and trying out some new films.
Minolta 140EX // Lomography Color 400Have you completed any notable projects or in the process of creating something from the film you have shot and developed?
Photography is still just a hobby for me at the moment and I haven’t really looked to do anything beyond taking photos for my own enjoyment. I recently just finished up a collaborative zine with a small film pod I’m a part of on Instagram (Space Pod), and this summer I’m looking to take some 4×5 landscapes of Northern Michigan to sell out of my uncle’s art gallery.
Other than that, I enjoy sharing my photos with friends via Instagram.
Nikon 35ti // Lomography Color 400What advice can you give to others who are interested in shooting and developing film but are apprehensive about getting started?
To everyone interested in shooting/developing film but are apprehensive – GO DO IT! It’s a very strange leap and is going to take a lot of trial and error, but the beauty of the art is that it’s all about the journey along the way. You’ll learn a ton and really get to see life through a different perspective. Sure, it costs a little money, but it’s worth it. Money’s just a tool – so use it on something that’s going to build your character and leave a legacy.
Today’s piece comes from Ryan Berger. Ryan tells us about his humble beginning in photography; fast forwarding through his digital cameras, our friendship that has been cemented through photography, and his new-found love for his Fuji GA645zi that breathes new life into his creative expression and hobby to record his daily life.
Reader Excerpts allow those who read Now Developing to become part of the collective by sharing a written piece alongside their images on a topic of their choice. If you are working on a project, would like to display some of your work, explain your creative process, or have any other prospective ideas for a personal perspective piece and would like to have it featured here, feel free to contact me!
Forty Eight Hours in Tennessee, Written by Ryan Berger (Blog, Instagram)
Forty Eight Hours in Tennessee
I remember my grandmother’s love of disposable cameras. Growing up, every trip we went on, we packed a 10 pack of those cameras so my grandmother could snap away and gather the memories that defined our family vacations. I thought it was silly at the time, and always got a kick out of the developed images – 80% of them including her thumb in the corner of the frame. She’d always throw me a few, and I would take pictures and then always be excited to see how they turned out as we waited to get the developed film and prints back from Walgreens.
Looking back now, even as imperfect as those images are, they’re super meaningful and they make me remember things that I’d otherwise forget. It’s not that the photos are anything special (Sorry, Grandma, but those cameras are really terrible), but they’re real. Capturing the everyday moments that otherwise get filtered out by the constant fire-fighting we do in our lives. I never really thought about it until I sit down to write this up, but without a doubt, her style of photography, inspired me. A simple goal: to try and capture my life through a lens: my everyday life.
I remember asking my mom for a digital camera when I was 14. We were getting ready to move to a new town and I wanted a hobby other than video games. She got me a Canon PowerShot ELPH, a very simple digital point and shoot. Honestly, I think it was 3 megapixels. I loved that camera, it went everywhere with me and I took pictures of everything. This continued on until I got to the point where I felt like I wanted to pursue photography more seriously and move into shooting with a DSLR. For my 18th birthday, I ended up with a Nikon D40, and the kit. I met Dylan about 10 years ago, through our current admiration for edgy streetwear brands and photography alike. Still shooting with the D40, but using a 35mm prime lens. We both lived in the same town where it was hard to make friends, even harder to make ones that shared similar interests. We grew up together, taking photos. The cameras we shot with changed, but we always took pictures. I stuck with digital, moving to a full frame system to shoot some menswear-fashion work for a blog I was running at the time. As the commissioned work kept coming in, I got more and more tired and burnt out of taking photos for personal enjoyment.
After starting to feel myself lose interest in photography, I decided to switch back to a pocketable point and shoot, a Ricoh GR digital. This camera brought my heart back into photography, and made me want to go out and just walk around the city and take pictures of whatever caught my eye.
Me and Dylan got an idea to show some work at a coffee shop in our city, and it was a huge success. Everything I showed was from this tiny camera that was always in my pocket. I loved the idea of that. That I could make images that people enjoyed from a camera like the GR. It was simple. Just a 28mm 2.8 lens, no fancy glass or interchangeable lenses needed.
After three years of shooting with the Ricoh, and seeing my work alongside Dylan’s, I could always see the difference of medium format, the unexplainable depth that the photos had, compared to a digital sensor. Ever since Dylan had made the switch to just film, I was always inspired by the process and the end result as well. Finally, I showed an interest in trying out a film camera and after a pretty quick conversation, decided on a Fujifilm GA645zi. It was the perfect gateway from digital to film that fit my shooting style: a medium format camera, but still a simplistic enough for my personal shooting style.
Quickly going through a roll of film the day the camera arrived from across the pond from Japan, I was anxious to see the results. Without a doubt, I knew there would be a learning curve. No on-screen focus confirmation, no 7-shot burst on the same subject, and most importantly — no instant gratification. Just a quick look to see if my lens cap was off, and the hope that I focused on the right distance. It was weird not being able to get home, move over 30 photos, pick 10 of them, edit, and post them to Instagram right away. I liked that feeling though, I had to slow down and really think about the things I took pictures of and how I composed the shot. This camera made me be careful with photography, but in the best way. It’s quirky, and I’m still learning to embrace those quirks, but I’m stoked.
Getting back that first roll, despite forgetting to take the lens cap off for a few photos, was such an amazing feeling. I always take photos to remember a feeling I’m having, so that whenever I look at that, I can go back and remember why I took it to begin with. This hasn’t changed in my transition to film, but the internal result for me was amplified by seeing my photos in a new format and essentially a new medium all together.
I don’t know all of the film lingo, as this is all extremely new to me, but the tones that came through just blew me away. Gradient coloring like I’d never seen in my digital photos, and image depth that I think surpasses a full frame sensor in its own right. I was sold, so sold that I told myself I should just shoot film for a few months and learn this new world inside and out.
Shortly after those first two rolls, I had a quick weekend trip to Nashville upcoming. Camping in the mountains with my girlfriend, and then just spending a day in the city. With the decision already made to just shoot film for a while, I stocked up on some Portra 400 and Ektar 100, crossing my fingers that I wouldn’t take a bunch of blurry, improperly exposed, or out of focus photos.
Out of the 4 rolls I shot, I took 3 photos with the lens cap on, 13 photos that were either blurry or underexposed, and 48 usable photos. Out of those usable photos, I loved all of them. Unlike my easy to throwaway digital photos, to me, these were all great photos, even with their imperfections. Whenever I look at them, I’m taken back to how I felt the second the shutter clicked. From taking the photos, having them developed, scanning them in, and then proofing them, it was just a really great feeling to see the images come to life. I’m excited to continue down this road, learn as I go, and hopefully make some really rad photos in the process.
All photos were taken using a Fuji GA645zi on Portra 400
Today’s visual-narrative piece comes from Michael Ivnitsky. Michael shares a project entitled “Somewhere Between Waking and Sleeping.” A documentary of his time while transitioning back to life in Tel Aviv explores and visualizes his struggles with insomnia and the constant battle to keep the wheels beneath him moving while transitioning between the dynamics of two very different cities.
Reader Excerpts allow those who read Now Developing to become part of the collective by sharing a written piece alongside their images on a topic of their choice. If you have any ideas for a piece and would like to have it featured here, feel free to contact me!
Somewhere Between Waking and Sleeping, shot and written by Michael Ivnitsky (Website, Instagram, Blog)
This project was birthed upon my return to Tel Aviv after living in Dublin for 18 months. I moved to Dublin for a while after growing tired and emotionally drained of Israel.
Tel Aviv is an intense and polarizing place, especially after the sleepy and polite city of Dublin. While in Dublin, the first six months were filled with insomnia, visiting old friends and meeting new people, finding old places I liked (closed or worse, changed), and being dragged to places I don’t know. Generally this consisted of trying to get accustomed to the killer pace of working hard whilst partying harder with an occasional visit to an island for serenity.
This majority of this project was shot with a Leica M4 and 35mm Summicron f/2 on Foma Creative 200, developed in D-76 1+1 for 9min @ 20c. Other shots were taken using a Nikon EM with a 50mm f/1.8 E.
Part of the Process is a series of posts that puts the spotlight on film photographers and DIY film developers. These features provide unique experiences and perspectives on shooting and developing film while also showcasing diverse talent and film photographers around the globe. If you are interested in being featured, feel free to contact me!
What other websites or blogs do you keep up with to feed your photographic interests?
Magnum Photos, Japan Camera Hunter, The Phoblographer, Wasteoffilm and anyone I find inspiring on Instagram.
What attracted you to film photography? How did you get started/introduced to shooting film? How soon after did you start developing?
I got interested in film photography when my dad found his Olympus and gave it to me to play around with after I had been shooting digitally for a year or two. I didn’t love it at first, but for whatever reason I kept shooting and now I’m completely taken with film and use it for all my shooting. I was shooting film for about a year before buying my own developing equipment because I realised it would be cheaper to learn than to keep sending to a lab.
Olympus OM2 + 50mm f1.4 on Ilford HP5
What do you like to shoot on a regular basis?
I like taking inspiring from all different areas, but documentary, portraiture, and landscape are the three areas I find most captivating and they are the three styles I shoot the most.
Olympus OM2 + 50mm again on HP5 @800
What formats, cameras, and films do you shoot? What do you like about the formats, cameras, films you prefer?
I use a 35mm Olympus OM2n and a 50mm f/1.4 that belonged to my dad. It’s not very expensive online, but the images are beautiful and it’s smaller and more compact than most film SLRs.
Olympus OM2 + Zuiko 50mm f1.4 on Fuji C200
I also shoot 120mm film with a Yashica 635. Again, not very expensive and it’s certainly no Rolleiflex, but the images are still very sharp and very pleasing to my eye at least.
Yashica 635 + 80mm f3.5 on Portra 400
What types of film do you develop?
I develop B&W film myself but have never developed C41 or E6.
Tell us about your first experiences in developing your own film. How did you muster the courage to give it a shot? What resources did you use?
I knew the basics from Youtube tutorials, and had my first experience through school, which went surprisingly well. After that, I bought a Paterson kit and started developing in my kitchen. I’m a very cautious person, so I planned my first attempts meticulously. That has now become habit and so far I haven’t ruined a roll of film (thank goodness!).
Yashica 635 + 80mm on Ilford FP4
What is your development process like now?
I develop my film in my kitchen using times from Massive Dev Chart with all my lovely brand-loyal Ilford chemicals. Then, I scan them with a little-bit-outdated-but-does-the-job Epson V330 scanner. After that, I choose which negatives, if any, I want to print and then I get to work printing. I test strip, dodge, burn and all that until I am happy with what I see. I then stash them away so my photography tutor can’t see them and persuade me to use them for my school work, and finally mount them in a sketchbook.
Olympus OM2 + Zuiko 50mm f1.4 on Ilford HP5
What’s your processes regarding scanning, enlarging, and/or printing your work?
I scan my film at home for use on social media, but printing in the darkroom is my absolute favourite way to ‘finish’ the image. It’s also my favourite part of the film process. Don’t get me wrong, the scans are useful and nice to have, but the satisfaction of making a print, the look, the process, and the experience of it is really special and I don’t feel like I’ve truly captured an image until I take the time to print it.
I know that can sound really artsy and pretentious, and that side to film photography gets on my nerves, but printing is a lot of fun and I wouldn’t enjoy photography as much without it.
Yashica 635 + 80mm on Tri-X
What equipment are you using to develop your film and why?
I use Paterson tanks and reels and a changing bag because that seemed the most available brand, nothing really to do with loyalty. Brand loyalty does come into play with my chemicals because I am an Ilford user, down to being a student who lives in England where Ilford is based so can get it way way cheaper than something like Tri-X (Not to mention I like the look of Ilford’s film!). So I use Ilford ID-11 (after a brief affair with Rodinal) in a 5 litre jerry can, and then Ilfostop and Ilford Fix, too. The darkroom I use has Fotospeed developer, stop and fix for printing which work perfectly well when paired with Ilford Multigrade paper.
Yashica 635 + 80mm on Ilford HP5
Are you content with where you are now with your shooting and developing? Do you have any future plans or ambitions?
I’m pretty content for now I think. My main focus is to put together some kind of body of work that I’m really happy with. Maybe in the future I’ll look at publishing and perhaps expanding on my developing and learning colour printing or something like that, if I can find the opportunity to do so.
Yashica 635 + 80mm on Fuji 400h
Have you completed any notable projects or in the process of creating something from the film you have shot and developed? Feel free to give a solid summary of each project.
I’m currently working on a documentary project focused around a Victorian seaside town near where I live because of it’s strange mixture of run-down areas and up-market posh middle-class places crammed in next to each other, which I find really interesting. Alongside that, tomorrow (from the day of writing this) I’m going to shoot the first part of a portrait project on film in the studio which I was inspired to do after coming across the work of Alvin Langdon Coburn and Irving Penn.
Olympus OM2 + Zuiko 50mm f1.4 and Ilford HP5 @1600
What advice can you give to others who are interested in shooting and developing film but are apprehensive about getting started?
I would definitely say just go for it, if you’re worried about getting it right, you’ll never know until you try, so why hold yourself back? And there’s always the friendly internet to help when you’re stuck. If you’re worried about cost, then there are always loopholes and hacks you can find. You don’t need the best of the best equipment. Look on eBay for good deals and find what works for you.
My final piece of advice (not that this is unique) would be to make yourself an amazing Spotify playlist for when you’re printing!
dylan barnes | blog 