Black-and-White Film: The Selective Photographer...

'Across the Seine'  (2013)
Zoë Bull

Summer. Holidays, sun and photographs. 

The magic thing about photography, now with it's instancy, is that it is so accessible. You can just reach into your pocket or your bag and whip out your phone or tablet and take that picture of a beautiful Parisian building and edit it within minutes of it's capture. But then it just sits there for a while or a little longer while yet, collecting invisible digital dust. It sort loses it's value, don't you think? 

Sometimes if you have a collection of images, such as from a holiday, you may transfer them to your computer, before another couple of months, before they actually get printed. Do they ever get printed? Really? How often these days do your holiday pictures get printed and returned to you in the post, enclosed within an envelope? There is such excitement in that and it rarely happens anymore. 

The present alternative seems to be a photo-book. They can look good, but where is the tangibility; the feel of those thick self adhesive pages, lightly covered in clear film, protecting each individual print, that you have taken time into thinking about and capturing? Is it more about the collection of photos as one, rather than the individual photos that make up the collection? It's hard to tell, isn't it? 

'Stacked Chairs'  (2013)
Zoë Bull

However, regardless of what the modern norm seems to be and how agreeably affordable it is, I wanted to do something a bit different for my recent holiday in Paris. It was hot and the sky was blue, but I had in mind, from the very words that initiated the trip that I wanted to photograph in black-and-white film. 

It had been a while since I had photographed with Ilford HP5 film seeing as the darkroom seemed to be too long winded for me when you would only achieve several decent prints after a whole day in there - I contradict myself with some instancy that I do need. So I have been using Kodak coloured film instead, for the meantime. I do however, adore the aesthetics of black-and-white film, with it's fine grain that gives it that timeless look and the purity in the tones of the highlights and shadows. 

Digital photography is still fantastic and I use it a lot, but it's only crisp. The image of the chairs I captured, would still be beautiful in a digital crisp in black-and-white form, but for an artistic purpose I personally think that the fine grain of the film, brings some little extra magic. It brings value to the image, that I know wouldn't be there if it was a single photo within 200 other photos I took that day.

'My Notre dame'  (2013)
Zoë Bull

I only took two films with me and got about 65 well developed images back, by sending them to one of the few labs in the UK. When it comes to black-and-white film, there is no point going to Snappy Snaps or Boots, because they won't be able to do anything about it. It's not like coloured film where the negatives are digitally developed, so it felt quite special knowing that these films would be developed in a different way. I even got a CD with my prints, along with the negatives.

'Eiffel in Seine'  (2013)
Zoë Bull

The magic of film is that you have about 36 exposures, 36 chances to capture your holiday in the way you want to. You can really think about what you want to take and what would make the moments away from home special. There is more of a reason behind why you took them, rather than just working on impulse. But nonetheless, you can work in the same way with digital photography if you really want to. I like working like that when I can. I ask myself *What do I really want to capture?*. I want my images to have a purpose and not just sit around on the drive of an electronic device or computer.

I want to make the most of my photos, we all should.

'Let us play'  (2013)
Zoë Bull

If you recently have used some black-and-white film and you are looking for a lab to get them developed, try B&W Film Processing based in Plymouth, UK.

The Classic Tourist and Their Camera...

Hipstamatic
Buckingham Palace
England, UK

It's funny being a tourist in your own country. Many people all over the world come and visit Britain and during the Summer, Buckingham Palace is a popular destination. My family and I have always wanted to go on this 'Royal Day Out' stated on our tickets. It was absolutely delightful and positively British in most the respectful sense. We then rounded off the day drinking tea out of paper cups which couldn't be more of a contrast; quirky though.

Hipstamatic 
Buckingham Palace Garden Cafe
England, UK

Onto more of a photography note now that was the spark that inspired me to write this post...

Hipstamatic
Royal Crown
England, UK

I had a home-bought picnic lunch and ate it in St James' Park just around the corner from the palace and watched foreign tourists take pictures of this immaculate trimmed bush of a royal crown...

 It was extremely interesting because they would walk round all angles of it, finding their place and perfect composition of this...well bush. I wrote a little about Tourist Photography on my trips to York and Venice back in Summer months and it is fascinating how we want to take a picture of the same view a million other people have taken. It could be easy enough to type into Google and search for this sight. After all we all know what the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco and the Hollywood sign in LA looks like, even if we may have never seen them in person. After thinking about this a little, I have come to the conclusion that we want to put our personal mark on things. We go somewhere like the Grand Canyon and we have had the memory of it but we want a picture to be taken to validate what we saw. This crown, this Buckingham Palace, no matter where you live, this picture is a reminder of what you did on a certain day which enhances other thoughts and feelings that were part of this day. I guess that is why Photography is so great. We just want to remember. 

People. Places. The World. Life.

Hipstamatic 
Leaf
England, UK

Venice, Coloured Film and Tourist to Professional Holiday Photos...

colour film
Venice (2012)

colour film
Venice (2012)

colour film
(Venice 2012)

Venice is beautiful. I'm a lover of Italy and I have travelled to various famous cities that include Rome and Florence.  There is something about the reddish hue in the landscape and the buildings, that really fascinates me and that it would look stunning through the slight enhancement of coloured film. I use a pretty standard coloured film of 36 exposures with an ISO varying from 200-400 that you can get from somewhere like Jessops or other photography shops. The problem with film is that it is running out, the is less and less of it these days and comes at a price. I think it is important that have a purpose for it. Earlier this year I remember thinking how I was going to take a single roll of film on my next holiday and to try and capture subjects that were not so tourist and were more unique and professional. However I think every person with a camera wants to make their shots interesting and professional as possible, whether they want to get involved with the industry or not.  As I have mentioned before: Everything has been done before and ideas have been created before. 

The fact that I made conscious effort of deciding what I wanted to capture rather than just going 'Oh that looks nice' was what differs the amateur to the professional. The first photo I took is of the water's wake frothing in an almost solid form which I thought looked rather beautiful. I also liked that I was at a lower angle compared to be high up on a cruise ship, looking down at the 'V' . I then found that once I had taken that picture, it gathered interest from my family and they started taking pictures of this scene too. That had selfishly frustrated me a little because I didn't think they were really thinking about what they were taking and they had merely imitated my ideas. The amateur photographer is at lust with their scene. They look into the camera and feeling instantly attracted to this sight, ignoring all else in the frame apart from their chosen subject. Once they press the button, the scene is captured, they move onto another, before being re-aquainted with that scene on their home computer screen, giving it a blank look, feeling forgetful that they took that picture in the first place. 

It doesn't mean to say that enthusiasts and professionals don't have this problem too. It just means that they can handle the situation better, probably capturing more what they want too then what they don't. 

I have tried my best and some of my photos, yes do have those tourist qualities but I was a tourist as well as a photographer. Afterall, we are always learning.