My Photography

I grew up taking pictures.

At age eight, I had a darkroom in my basement; at thirteen, I acquired a camera of my own; at nineteen, I ran a photography program for girls at summer camp. In 2007 I began carrying my camera around with me wherever I went, and I’ve hardly stopped since.

I love photography, and I love film especially.

These are the cameras that I am taking to Turkey:

PENTAX ZX-50

This was a gift I received when I was thirteen and it is still my primary camera. It has a lot of automatic features, but otherwise functions as any other film SLR. Most of my pictures come from this camera. No fancy equipment, nothing flashy; a basic lens, some interesting film, and the Pentax.

Polaroid Sun 660 Autofocus SE

I found this Polaroid camera for a dollar at a yard sale, which was a deal until I realized how expensive film is. I only have 10-15 pictures left for this camera, unfortunately. So I will lust after the pricey Impossible Project film and ration what I have.

iPhone 4

Sure, it’s a phone. But it is also most definitely a camera—in fact, that’s one of the main reasons I got an iPhone at all! This is my smallest and most convenient camera, as well as my only digital one. If you’d like to see more of my iPhoneography, follow me on Instagram: @katrinkasasha .

I have a lot of different kinds of film for the Pentax, primarily:

Ilford 400, both XP2 Super and HP5+

These are black-and-white films, and the main difference between these two kinds of Ilford is the chemicals they are developed with. While HP5+ uses regular black-and-white chemicals, XP2 Super can be developed in C41, or color chemicals. Practically, this means that I can get my XP2 developed at CVS instead of a proper photo lab. I don’t yet know if it will make any difference in Istanbul.

Fujifilm Superia X-TRA 400

This s a regular color negative film that is good in most light and that I like because of its strong reds, greens, and blues. It’s not the only color negative film I have, but it IS the freshest, and the one I have in bulk.

Kodak slide films (mostly Elite Chrome 100, but also Ektachrome 100G, Ektachrome 100VS, Ektachrome +)

These films will likely be cross-processed. For those unfamiliar with the terminology: cross-processing occurs when you develop slide, or “positive,” films in the chemicals for negative films (which, you might recall from the Ilford paragraph, is called C41).  You end up with negatives with skewed or vibrant colors. Because I shoot film, I do very minimal adjustments to the images once they’re on the computer, so if you ever see pictures posted here with wild colors or intense saturation, it is likely cross-processed slide film. I favor the Kodak films because they tend to come out highly saturated and full of contrast.

Chinatown, Boston

All of these different tools create very different images. And because the film images from the Pentax can’t be previewed before the roll is developed, there is some mystery inherent in film. While I have learned through experience what is LIKELY to happen, that doesn’t always mean it happens.

The unknown is always exciting.

That’s probably the same reason why I’m in Istanbul, actually.

Do you use film? What are your experiences with film and film cameras?