Hey Everyone! How's your week going? Mine is going pretty well. This week I want to talk about my 2025 Film Photography Project. Last year I brought film back into my photography and had a great time doing it. I relearned how to process my own film and create negatives.  How to scan with my camera to get digital copies into my computer where I could do editing and send to screen or print. The whole point of that project was to relearn and perfect those processes to get nice film shots. Images through chemistry not electrons. I got to use some old camera's of mine and purchases a few more camera's. I got to shoot with camera's from the 1960's , 70's and 80's. Perfected using in camera meters (when they worked) and hand held meters to get the proper exposure. I got to see how less critical some camera settings were for certain
film stocks. It put me back in time when I first was learning photography in the 1970's. I truly enjoyed the experience although there are some parts that I didn't like. The price of film is very expensive. Especially for professional film. So I shot mostly on consumer based films which weren't too bad but still pricy. But I was lucky I had most of the equipment that I needed to develop the film and found the best way for me to scan the negatives that I created into digital. It was a great learning experience. But this year will be different.

Last year I shot mostly 35mm film stock. I shot it full and half frame. I took lots of photo's and even made a book of my prints. This year I'll still shoot a little 35mm but mostly 120 film. Medium format. Last year I purchased a Bronica ETR SI 645 camera . I got very lucky in the purchase and you can read about it in this blog. Bronica ETR SI first thoughts With an almost new vintage 1990's camera I plan on taking this camera around with me on other photo projects and trips and using it to make images. Hopefully I will get well thought out and planned fine art photos. This is not the camera for taking snap shots. I hope to take Landscapes and Cityscapes of places I travel to. It will be going on my big trips with the club but maybe not on trips where I have to travel in a plane. It's fairly big and bulky .  I've got at least one trip that I'm in the works of planning that will require plane travel. But mostly everywhere else. I really only took test shots last year with the camera to test the camera gear and my ability to process the film. I took the camera out today and started playing with it again and I'm not ashamed to say that I had to pull out the manual a few times to figure things out. The 645 format of this camera is the smallest of the medium format and it gives me about 2.5 times the surface area of a 35mm. I did this size to save on film. I'll get 15 shots per roll instead of 12 of 6X7 film or 6x6 film. I do like the format of 6X6 so maybe a camera will be in the future but until I find a great deal I'll be shooting this Bronica.  I plan on shooting black and white and Color film. For color I will be shooting mostly Kodak Gold 200 a consumer film stock. Maybe a roll of Kodak Portra every now and then a professional film stock. And for black and white most likely Illford, Kodak, or Shanghai film. I do like the look of color but will have black and white with me always. What's nice about this camera is the removable film backs so I can switch between color and black and white in mid roll to save on film. Hopefully my skill will improve and I get some dramatic Landscapes is what I'm hoping. 

Hopefully at the end of the year I'll have a book made of medium format film shots made with my Bronica. Until next week Get Out and Shoot! 

Hey if you want to check out my photography go to my instagram account Max Stansell Photography there are over 2000 post there. Here is the link

 Max Stansell Photography Instagram Link