personal : just me & my contax

I can't seem to put down my Contax 645 camera. I have been shooting a lot with it at weddings recently, getting a handle on the exposures and compositions that I like with it, since every camera is so different. I have been playing with different films as well to find the ones that I like best (so far Kodak Portra 400/800 wins). I shoot everything wide open (f2 whenever possible) to achieve the yummy shallow depth of field that I love so much. Anyone who has assisted with me knows that if I have to go higher than f4 I whine a little...

This is a personal shoot I did a few weeks ago. It was early evening and I was wrapping up work at the studio. The light pouring through my windows was that incredible late-in-the-day light that photographers swoon over.  I grabbed my Contax and wandered around near my studio and in the Warehouse District of Minneapolis. I looked for colors, textures and contrast that caught my eye. When I got this film back I was so excited! The true beauty of film is that if you nail the exposure in camera and get great scans (I get mine from Richard Photo Lab in L.A.), you don't have to touch the images in post-processing. For someone who shoots thousands of images regularly, this is a dream. The goal is to always spend less time processing images and more time shooting. The bottom line? I LOVE FILM! I included some little captions about each image too, since I always love to know what is behind an image. 

Enjoy!

(This is an old, weathered table outside my studio.)

(I loved the color of the door and the strong contrast of the shadow of the tree.)

(The soft even light on these benches and the remnants of snow felt so dreamy. Film has such a lovely range of tones that is hard to achieve in digital.)

(This street lamp was tucked in between two buildings. The wind was howling and my hands were freezing, but I had to make a picture of this. The subtle pinkish tone and the even light was gorgeous! The way they were standing so tall and silently, tucked away from everything, made them feel like a secret.)

(I saw these yellow flowers inside this window as I walked by. They seemed to long for warm Spring as much as the rest of us)

(The same kind of street lamp but in strong sunlight. Again, the tonal range blows me away and I love that shadow!)

(Something about this shot/location reminds me of a movie set. I want to bring a cute couple to this spot pronto!)

(I saw this on a poll near where I parked my car. I loved the remnants of other letters above and the subtle sense of the city in the background.)

(This funky little thing was on a side of a building in the Warehouse District.)

(I saw this lamp in the window of a shop and loved the shapes, colors and reflections.)

(This beautiful old tree is at the edge of a parking lot. I wonder what was there before they paved it all, and who decided to keep just this one tree. I hope it stays for a long time.)

(The colors and textures of these intrigued me.)

(I saw this bathrobe hanging in a window and loved imagining someone playing house in this store!)

(What photography is to me.)

(What I strive for at my studio.)

 

(I saw the bird print in the window and all of the amazing light reflecting off the buildings. I love looking in windows of shops that have closed for the day. Everything sits perfectly still. There is so much quiet beauty that I am drawn to.)

(This feels like Christmas to me. I wanted to see how the colors would render on film. It feels nastalgic, which is a quality I am always striving for in my images.)

(The contrast of the blue wall and the white snow was interesting to me. I have learned along the way that overexposing film by one full stop will give it a lovely quality, so that is what I do with all of my film work. I love the shapes of the snow and the muted colors here.)

(This was sitting against a wall on a sidewalk and stopped me in my tracks. The subtle colors with the even, warm light drew me in. I love the little pop of blue!)

Photo Adventure / Loppett

My friend Kaja and I had been talking about going on a photo adventure together for awhile. We finally found a day that worked and it happened to be the day of the Twin Cities Loppett which is an amazing cross country skiing event on the lakes in Minneapolis. Neither of us had ever been to it before so we grabbed our film cameras (I think we had 6 or 7 between the two of us!) and ventured out. I shot with my Hasselblad and Contax 645. My favorite was the kids race, those guys were cruising around and kept falling down but were having so much fun! This is exactly why I love Minnesota in the winter-people make it fun. 

Saturday Morning

Becca, my sister, said "we should definitely go to this little place in our neighborhood for breakfast. They have the most amazing egg and cheese sandwiches on homemade buttermilk biscuits and the space is lovely. I think you'll like it." And I did. I love small spaces with a lot of character and New York has plenty of them. This place had so many little things to enjoy...the handwritten menus on chalkboards, the fresh baked goods on the counter, the mason jar light fixture, the wall of windows pouring natural light in....I made one picture in this place and this is it. When I took it, I was a little disappointed that I didn't have color film loaded but now that I see the black and white, I love it. 

Afternoon Beer in Brooklyn

I recently bought a Contax 645 film camera. On my recent trip to New York, I left all my digital gear at home and grabbed this bad boy along with my Hasselblad. This was the first shot on my first roll of film in my new Contax. I was at a long, wonderfully lazy brunch with friends and saw this rustic table behind where I was sitting bathed in soft window light. I took my freshly poured beer and set it up with the group of friends in the background, although you can't make them out, I wanted to have a sense of movement back there, a sense of wonder. I knew this shot was going to be soft since I had to shoot at 1/15 of a second at f2. I LOVE soft, ethereal, imperfect images.