Why I Still Love Film

The lack of posting does not reflect a lack of what we've made. In fact, we have been too busy making things for our show next month at The Artist Within to have time to post. So here is a quick post about film. Stay tuned for an on-line version of our show.

I shoot many pictures digitally these days, as many photographers do, but I still prefer film. Recently I developed some B&W and got back some slide film that reminded me why I still love film.

1. Ilford SFX - This film has an extended red sensitivity. Almost infrared, but not quite. Here are some recent nature examples. I also like to use it for people as it makes for a nice milky skin and dark spooky eyes. These shots were taken at Boyce Thompson Arboretum.

2. Kodak VS100 - This saturated slide film is my favorite slide films. Awesome colors with a little bit of warmth. These are also from BTA.

3. Kodak Technical Pan - One of my all-time favorite films. Also, the second of my favorites that Kodak has decided to discontinue! I still have a few rolls & buy them whenever I find them. Tech Pan is a wonderful film that can produce a high or low contrast negative with varying amounts of grain depending on what exposure & developer you use. I go for the high contrast side. You could also even make it into high contrast B&W slides, before there was Scala. So now that Tech Pan is gone, I will have to shoot some other Black and White, and use photoshop to try to get the contrast I used to love from this film. Here are a few of my last TP shots. These are from Sedona, Lost Dutchman State Park, and Papago Mountains looking over Phoenix at sunset.

Steve