Recently I came into possession of a "Wonder-box" thanks to the beautiful people at Analogue Wonderland. Basically in the cardboard box i was sent were six different rolls of film ranging from a classic Kodak colour film to a Lomography purple film (I will be writing about this film as soon as i have the courage to get it developed). This enabled me to shoot in black and white for the first time in 35mm film. A process which i was nervous about as my work usually relies heavily on vibrant colours to tell a certain story.
The first thing to note is that this film is an ISO 100 film so compared to other film it has lower grain. The above image is taken at the canal in Edinburgh on a particularly cold and dark day, and the ISO seemed to hold out well allowing me to shoot at an aperture of 5.6 and keep my shutter speed at an acceptable level to avoid any blur.
Black and white In my experience is best used in gritty street scenes or in portrait photography but i decided to kind of push the boat out (no pun intended ). Taking street scenes kind of bores me these days and i used this film as a way of documenting my own daily life instead , my walks , trips and sledging mishaps.
The black and white made me have to think about what the subject was that I was aiming for , focus on a specific object or person and not rely on the overall environment as it would not give me that dynamic range to work with. Black and white film film shooting seems complex, but the only reason it is is because it weirdly simplifies the art of photography to where your actual eye for a scene is the only thing that you will be judged on. Lack of colour in the images then renders the image to be quite one dimensional in a technical sense but the simplicity of the images that are produced create a raw sense of nostalgia that I cannot really put into words. This extra layer of thought and process taken by using a manual camera to shoot all these shots and pick the moments i shot them in for specific reasons make them and the subjects in the images feel more special. Kind of like I chose to take a picture of you in this moment and It was a gamble and it worked out, digital cant give you that satisfaction. (I still love you digital though plz don't hate me i need you for my colourful quick couple snap shots)
The roll had only 36 exposures on it, but i weirdly took it beyond that. I don't know if the film spool stretched or ripped but i managed to get an extra shot or two. The one below is the final shot and is of a snowy hill and actually framed in the top section is where Arthur's seat used to be but that it is missing, it looks like it is being engulfed into an abyss of darkness- as Bob Ross says , we don't make mistakes just happy little accidents.
Big love
Tom x
