I have mentioned the Framed Network when I discovered it during its premiere season.  If you are a photography buff I can not recommend this site enough. It’s a well produced show of  interviews with today’s most celebrated photographers and up & comers. The photographers are culled from every aspect of contemporary genres-maternity-children, seniors, wedding, family, commercial, fashion, beauty, action etc.  They are on season 3 now, so you will have plenty of interviews to go through and you will leave their site duly inspired!  They recently released a set of episodes under their ‘Film’ series which is hosted by film photographers Ryan Muirhead, Tanja Lippert and Tia Reagan (who is also an amazing stylist + make-up artist).  I am going to give you fair warning here, please do not judge the episodes immediately by the hosts being a bit goofy, some of you will roll with it and others may be like, ‘what the what?‘. This trio is super talented, very generous with their knowledge and you will learn so much, especially about working with light.  The #15 Episode at the penitentiary blew.my.mind.  You really get to see how light will effect the end image. I loved that episode and if it’s the only one you watch of their series you should walk away from it a lot more inspired to shoot in more interesting lighting conditions. For me it just made me want to shoot! Throughout the episodes they will discuss what type of cameras they are shooting with, the names of the film and settings.  It’s even great for those that have no desire to shoot film but just want to learn how professional photographers and shoots go down, it’s definitely a behind the scenes look and you do feel privy to information that you usually aren’t readily exposed to.

I grew up when film was the only option for photography, but I never took a class, although I wanted to.  It came down to budget. When I was in school you could only take a photography class if you had access to a 35mm manual camera, unlike now where you could get one (a good one at that) for under $20, cameras were very expensive and since I knew nothing about photography other than I had an interest in it, it seemed like something out of my reach. As a young adult I was still interested, but photo classes at the time ran hundreds of dollars. What I LOVE the most about the internet is that it is very democratic, you don’t have to be part of the elite to be able to explore your interests. There’s a plethora of information at your finger tips and I hope in a small part that I too am now contributing to that.

When I met my boyfriend (now husband) the one thing that impressed me the most was how intently he listened to what I was interested in. I told him I always wanted a camera and for my birthday he gifted me one. It changed my life, it wasn’t just a camera but a new set of eyeballs. I will be forever grateful. Now as an adult, a little older than my younger self, I am thrilled that there is a whole subset of photographers out there embracing the film medium and making it accessible to people like myself.  I was initially very frustrated with the information that was available about film photography.  When I first started dipping my toe into the analog photography waters I checked-out books from the library, but they all seemed over my head, I wanted to know how to be able to use film in the 21st century. As  I researched further, one name continued to pop-up time after time and that was Jonathan Canlas. Jonathan had started teaching workshops called Film is not dead.  The workshops were way out of my price range, since photography for me is a hobby and not my profession, I couldn’t justify the investment.  I did sign-up for Jonathan’s mailing list and was glad I did. The day his book with Kristen Kalp became available he announced it and I bought it.  It is by far the best book for a newbie to film in these modern times.  Jonathan’s style is more masculine than what I would shoot (or could shoot), the book is very no-nonsense and conversational.  He goes through everything–film, cameras, settings, film development with beautiful examples of his work throughout the book, all in a voice that is very easy to comprehend. If you have any interest in film photography buy this book!  I say buy rather than check-out at the library because I often find myself going back to it and looking things up, it’s a reference and I would be sad if I couldn’t have it at the ready.  It has made me covet medium format photography and I want a Contax 645 camera more than just about any camera (including the Canon Mark 5D III). If you are scratching your head and wondering where to start get the book!

I love details. What details? All of them, on everything. I think simple is very beautiful, but sometimes the addition of a subtle detail like deckled edges on your stationery can elevate it to another level. Years ago I found an interesting ruler at the craft store that would create the edges I coveted.  It was a hideous looking tool, bright metallic purple (why are all craft tools purple?), I spray painted mine gold. It comes with two edges for creating the deckling. One edge you’ll need to ignore, it will make your stationery look like something from the Flintstone’s, not the elegant detail we are after. What makes this tool so remarkable is the simplicity of use, you are basically tearing the paper or cardstock against the fine jagged edge. You just place the ruler (really, I write ruler but I have never measured with it and neither will you) on top of the item you want to create the edge on, leave a bit of paper sticking out so you can grasp it and just rip against the edges.  Viola! You have a beautiful, organic edge. Could you use a straight-edge ruler? Yes, but your tear will be more uniform and will be absent of the interest created by the jagged edges on the deckled ruler and it will look like you just ripped your paper and that’s not very elegant right?  It will take a few times to get the hang of how much pressure to use, but after the fourth time you should be able to zip through stacks of paper. What paper is best?  Light-weight paper to medium weight cardstock seem to rip the easiest. This looks great on photos if you print on matte paper. If you want to tear your own watercolor sheets, which usually come with only one deckled-edge you will now have in your arsenal the ability to tear on all four sides. Think of the possibilities–place cards, gift tags, menus. This is perfect if you are doing any sort of DIY event from weddings to holiday parties.  I think it’s another great tool to have and I use mine all the time. It would be especially great if you are a chronic d.i.y’er, photographer, event planner, or artist, so basically the entire blogosphere. Have you ever tried anything like this before?  If so any tips or tricks that I have missed here?

Last week I mentioned we were moving again and a lot of emails and phone calls ensued asking where? When? Etc.  I can tell you that I quite don’t know yet, but I do know we will be leaving our country home in the South this May. I have the opportunity to attend Jen Huang’s Photo Workshop next week in Santa Barbara and decided it would be the most perfect time to start scouting potential locations for our next home.  I will start my adventure in the City of Angels, drive to Santa Barbara for the workshop and perhaps get the good fortune to meet a long admired friend I met via these interwebs. I will fly to San Francisco (my favorite American city) and get to meet another lovely new friend, more scouting and then off to Seattle to scout some more and meet even more amazing people!  Yes, being isolated in the country has made me extremely social on the internet, I have broken out of my hermit shell and am blossoming into one of those people that takes initiative and actually meets people IRL (that’s in real life), how very novel!  I now know that I want to be living in a place where there are people and I can walk to get good coffee in the morning. Not too much to ask for, right?

But back to the workshop! Once I finally share my goals with you (one of which is to work on my procrastination problem), you will see that I have actually started to accomplish much of them and we are only three months into 2013! This is a great sign. I love progress. One of those goals is to focus on becoming a better photographer and to try an alternative photo process, this workshop is a film workshop which would fall under both improvement + an alternative (to digital) process. To say I am out of my mind with excitement is a complete understatement. If you have been on the internet you have seen Jen Huang’s work, it is hard to miss as she is often featured on the very best wedding blogs in the world and her work is pinned about a zillion times an hour. She is wildly talented, smart and this is the kicker–beautiful. Really? Are you allowed to possess all three things?  Aren’t there laws in the universe against this? And she’s nice too, just an all around wonderful individual. I feel so lucky that I was able to land a coveted spot in her workshop as they usually sell out as soon as she mentions them, for good reason the word on the street is she goes above and beyond your expectations. I just feel so honored to be able to be in the same room with her. I have so many unanswered questions about working with film (which I have been experimenting with on my own for the past 8 months) and it’s going to be great being around other film enthusiasts. Li Ward a photographer + lettering artist whom I featured here previously attended Jen’s NYC workshop and had nothing but great things to say and even better results. I can’t wait to start my adventure!

P.S. Next week I will be devoting the entire week to film photography, what I have learned so far, cameras, film types, resources, inspiration and even re-creating the look in the digital darkroom!

Author / Miss Tristan B