Captured #09: October 2024

This month I dusted off my old Yashica FX-D the first proper camera I owned, back in the 80s, and it still works fine! I tried shooting some street photography on film.

In many ways shooting on film isn’t that different to shooting digital, it just requires a lot more patience and restraint.

My Yashica is manual focus, so this is the first thing you need to get your head around when it comes to street. If you’re trying to shoot quick candid shots, this can be a challenge and you’ll have to learn to zone focus zone focusing. This isn’t my strong point (and the lens seems quite sensitive from 2-5m) but fortunately I don’t do that much of the ‘from the hip’ sort of street photography. The kind of shots I like to take I can take my time with, although I still find getting the focus right kinda tricky!

This camera has its own built-in light meter which seems reasonably accurate. I don’t have a separate light meter, but I compared what the camera thought was the right exposure with the Lightme app on my phone and they seemed to agree.

With focus and exposure (sort of) figured out, everything else is the same. I really like having to be choosy with shots. A lot of advice from experienced street photographers is “take hundreds of photos”, which I agree with for digital but you can’t do that with film unless you have very deep pockets. You have to be really selective, and I think that helps you focus on scenes and your surroundings a lot more.

I also like the fact I can’t ‘chimp’ (looking at your screen to check the shot right after you’ve taken it). It’s going to take a while before I know whether the shot worked, and there’s something special about that. I’m starting to understand why Leica created the screenless M-11 D!

I also really like that I can’t lazily put my film camera into a burst mode to try and catch people walking in the right pose – I have to really concentrate to hit the shutter at the right time (the decisive moment!), and the results suggest that this isn’t quite as hard as I thought it would be.

Here are some of my favourite shots, taken on Ilford HP5 (the first two) and Kodak T-Max 400 (the second two). I’ll definitely be doing more of this in the months to come!

Into the Darkroom

I’m a member of the Edinburgh Photographic Society (founded in 1861, one of the oldest in the world!). It’s great – you get darkroom access and there are super-friendly members who are more than happy to help you learn the ropes. You also get full access to their studios if you pay another £100/yr. If you live in or around Edinburgh I’d definitely recommend it.

I’ve done a bit of darkroom printing before, but I went into EPS this month and had a go at developing my own film. It’s not easy, far from it, but it’s definitely doable. The cost of developing in professional labs is pretty high so if you want to shoot a lot of film, anything you can do to bring the cost down is good.

When you develop your own film, you get the negatives (this is the actual film from the roll), but you’ll then need to scan them. This is actually non-trivial! You’ll need some specific kit (which the EPS doesn’t yet have) so I visited Stills, which has some really fantastic production facilities, to learn how to scan them myself. Stills have several scanners, but I opted for the Valoi Scanning System which is basically a tethered Sony A7RII pointing at a lightbox which you feed the negatives into. The results (of the process, not the actual photographs which were test snaps!) were pretty good:

If you developed a couple of rolls yourself in the darkroom (£4) then scan them at Stills (£9), the cost will be £13 compared to about £35 if you get them developed and scanned as high-res TIFFs at a pro lab (I use the excellent Gulabi). In time, as you get better, you’d be able to get this cost down further by developing more and scanning more in one go – I reckon you get the cost down to around a fiver for developing and scanning a roll this way. The 35mm film itself will cost an additional £10 or so, depending on your choice (Ilford HP5 is about a tenner).

The only thing to bear in mind with doing this yourself is the time cost. It would be a day of work to develop and scan several rolls, so depending on your situation it might be better to do a full day’s work and suck up the cost!

A Few More Photos from October

Here are a few more of my favourite shots from this month. Plenty more on the ‘gram.

I Made a Street Photography eBook!

If you’d like to buy the book, you can get £5 off throughout November using the code CAPTURED at the checkout. I’d be super-grateful if you could support my work in this way, and I’d love to know what you think!

Win a Free Website for a Year!

I was featured in Amateur Photographer magazine earlier this year and I won a Gold Portfolio Series website from Amazing Internet for one year, which is worth £300. I write and host my own website, so I’ve no need for this but I don’t want the prize to go to waste. If you’d like to take it off my hands, please drop me an email! I’d be delighted if someone could make use of it.

If I get multiple responses I’ll pick one at random. Good luck!

Reading Matter

Some articles I’ve found and enjoyed on the web this month:

• I love the idea of astrophotography but, iPhone aurora pics aside, I don’t think I have what it takes (plus I live in cloudy Scotland so…).
• Fortunately, there are plenty of people who do have what it takes, as the incredible photos in the Astronomy Photographer of the Year show.
• The Comedy Wildlife Award always brings a smile to my face, and this year’s is no exception.
• I wrote a blog post about my photography workflow – how does it compare to yours? My Photography Workflow
• Bruce Gilden, the renowned American street photographer, is skint! Is the era of the pro photographer over? Is the Era of the Pro Photographer Over? You can definitely still make money as a photographer in 2024 (I know a few people myself who do), but I don’t think you can make money as a street photographer unless you’re primarily making YouTubes or have somehow found a market for your prints – possibly via getting big on Instagram before the advent of Reels.

Instagram Accounts I Like

Say what you like about Instagram, it’s still the best place to find inspiring photographers simply because of the critical mass of people on there. It would be nice if less irritating platforms like Bluesky or Foto could compete, but right now they can’t (but we should keep using them as an alternative imo).

Here are some accounts I’ve discovered recently which I really like:

• @alternative.exposure. Wonderfully blurred images from Glasgow.
• @ninapapiorek. I came across Nina’s work via FujiLove magazine. It’s really incredible B&W and minimalist work. Wow!
• @niallmcdiarmid. Niall takes absolutely wonderful colour street portraits and candid takes on the streets of London. His use of colour is striking. Love!
• @illkoncept. I came across Michael Szpot’s work via YouTube and he has quite the following on Instagram. He takes wonderful street and documentary photos from around NYC.

Books I Liked

Weird Shit

• pure. A screenless camera app where you point your phone but can’t see anything on the screen. Tap the screen to take a shot and, presumably, hope for the best 🤷‍♀️

Viewing Gallery

Some ‘Tubes I’ve watched and liked:

• I Dedicated One Week to Street Photography. I like this because it was pretty interesting to see someone shooting street with a monster lens. I don’t think it’s for me though.
• I really like Matej’s channel and it was good to see Roman Fox on the other side of the camera in Behind The Sensor: Roman Fox.
• I’ve mentioned Eren Sarigul’s work before, and Night of Street Photography in Osaka is another fantastic cinematic film. Love his style.
• Peter McKinnon is a bit of a legend. I’ve been trying to learn more about portraiture recently so it was fascinating to see all the prep he put into a photo shoot with Keifer Sutherland where he only had 5 minutes to get the shot. How I Pulled Off a Celebrity Photoshoot in 5 Minutes.
• I liked Illkoncept’s Film Photography in Red Hook, Brooklyn. Never been to Red Hook but it does look like a great place to shoot street.

Listening Party

What’s been on my pods this month?

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Until next time…

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