Analog Love Letter: Ms. Bell

I took this photo of my friend Melissa during my birthday revelry in 2011. Another photo in my Turn on the Bright Lights series that's inspired by Interpol's first full length album of the same name.

Taken on a Holga, the red color in this photo came by way of a gel filter that's built into the camera's flash unit. It also has other colors like yellow and blue.

This particular photo has more of a heavy red compared to other photos in the series because of the slide film I used. Slide film, or positive film, is more or less a transparent image. In film's heyday, photographic slides were placed in specially made projectors (which were called slide projectors amazingly enough) where a light bulb would shine it's light on any given slide and thusly would be projected onto a screen. The photos were "as is," compared to color negative film which produced film negatives. In terms of film, you've probably seen film negatives more so than you did slides. They were cheaper to buy and develop. I digress, but if you use a flash, slide film will take in and saturate/fill a photograph with highlights more so than color negative film. So if you use an artificial color source over the flash, such as the color red, the resulting photograph will just be full on red, like holding a red, plastic looking...film.

I have so many small projects and series on my plate it's not even funny. I have yet to set a deadline for completion on this project. When I feel I have nothing left to add to it is when it'll be done.

"Bright Lights on Melissa" / 6x6 medium format Fuji Astia 100F / December 2011

Analog Love Letter: Me & Melissa

This is another photo inspired by Interpol's Turn On The Bright Lights album of myself and my friend Melissa. 

I forget who took this photo but it was during my birthday celebration many moons ago at a bar called The Woods which is located in the city of Hollywood. Much of that night ended up being a blur to me. 

It's been awhile since I've seen her face and we've been trying to get together sometime in the near future. Not sure if it'll play out by the time I publish this but I know eventually I'll see her again in the near future.

It was a great night.

"Me and Melissa" / 6x6 medium format Fuji Astia 100F / December 2011

Analog Love Letter: Turn On The Bright Lights

Interpol is one of my favorite bands of all times (probably second to The Smiths) and their first full length album, Turn On The Bright Lights, had a huge impact in my life. The comparison to Joy Division was there when they first came out but they had a much different sound in my opinion.

I wanted to do start a project that is inspired by TOTBL which is what you see here. I used a Holga CFN to shoot this photo during one of my birthdays many moons ago. A Holga CFN is essentially a Holga but with a flash that had 4 filters built in, the other colors being yellow, blue and clear.

This photo has a strong red cast due to the slide film I used. You wouldn't get this strong of a color cast if you used color negative film. My guess being because slide film is "positive," it'll take the strongest light source more easily and blow out the shadows if you can't control the amount of light being produced. Holga's are simple toy cameras so there's no control over anything on it really which is what I love about lomography.

As with all my other photo projects, this series will be released when I feel like I've finished it so who knows when that'll be.

"Michael pours Guinness" / 6x6 medium format Fuji Astia 100F / December 2011

Analog Love Letter: First Wedding

A couple of years back, I was contacted by my friend Pamela about possibly photographing a wedding as her second shooter. Prior to this call, the last time I saw her was in the early 2000 before she got married and moved to New York. I didn't hesitate to say yes because it's been years since I saw her, she's a very talented photographer, and I never say no to dear friends.

If I remember correctly, she tapped me because of my documentary and journalistic style of photography and she told me the duties of a second shooter is basically what I do naturally so hey! Easy. Well not really since there's a lot that goes into photographing a wedding, as a main shooter or second, but it wasn't an alien concept for me as far as what she was asking from me.

This was my first time photographing a wedding and I'm thankful it was with Pamela as she made the experience easy and with less stress and fuss. The wedding was for her friends in Camarillo, Calif. and as I was doing my fly on the wall thing, I saw this woman talking to what I'll assume were her friends and they were all having a grand time. I liked the sound of her laughter and the way the sun lit up her auburn hair. 

This wedding wasn't the last I did with Pamela. There were many more after this and whenever she gives me a call about shooting a wedding with her, I'll always say yes.

"Having a laugh" / 6x6 medium format Fuji Asita 100F / September 2007