A list of FREE 35mm Film Photography resources!

A handy roundup of all the helpful info I've shared so far.

A Fragment Of Time - a little snippet of the portrait shoot with Misa+Mel - Camera: Ricoh KR10 - Super, Lens: Rikenon 28mm f/2.8 with Cross Screen filter, Film: Kodak Ultramax, Lighting: RGB and Gel Lighting by Jordan Turner. Self Developed.

Hey Film Fam, welcome back!

[Update 2024 - Some of the resources within this guide are no longer accessible due to Instagram removing ‘guides’ or the Substack has been archived/paywalled. Apologies!]

This fortnightly newsletter is a little different. I’m currently going through some rather traumatic stuff if I’m being completely honest and I just have zero energy to dive deep into some of the topics I wanted to share.

I’m chipping away at creating some really incredible resources and Photography Guides which will be available to purchase in the very very near future, and I’m still working away promoting my first in-person 35mm Film Workshop which is happening in November! So it’s all happening here behind the scenes, don’t you worry.

I’ve been blown away by the response and there’s only 2 spots left to the workshop which is really really exciting too. I truly was worried that nobody would want to learn more technical Editorial Portraiture techniques from me hands on and I was having some major imposter syndrome until finally the spots started going!

I turned 29 last Thursday and it’s been really rough since just before then. I won’t go into specifics of it but it’s been a lot and my C-PTSD symptoms are through the roof. So I’m sorry that my energy is off. I’m not quite my usual bubbly self and I don’t have a lot to share with you this fortnight. I’m running on empty but will be back to normal soon.

Still despite this, I hope you find this newsletter helpful, and a nice little space where you can flick through all the cool free resources I have made available and easy to access so far :)

So, let’s get into it!

Photography Resources Roundup:

Not to toot my own horn but I have some cool stuff on offer completely FREE which has really allowed me to test the waters and figure out what you want to see from me moving forward. Because of my ability to share my knowledge so openly on such an awesome platform I’ve had the opportunity to chase after some major dreams/goals, work with incredible people, and connect deeper with the film community.

Thank you for giving me a platform and a space to be an absolute nerdy gremlin about all things film, I really appreciate your support. I’m so excited to share future resources with you as I take it all to a new level and really lean in hard to becoming a Teaching Artist.

I truly hope there’s something here in this curated list that is helpful whether its the first or second time you’ve seen it!

• Time Capsule - Expired Film

I look back at this and I can see the bones of what ended up shifting into an idea of creating a Substack, but it would be more than a year before I dived into it and committed.

Read the Guide Here!

Yes, I still have two boxes of film crammed in the bottom of my freezer that say I cannot open it until 2027 - there’s a bloody roll of Portra 400 inside which I haven’t been able to get my hands on in over a year which I am DYING to open up and use already!

Who even knows if 35mm Film will be alive in another 3.3 years time, let alone if chemicals to develop it will be available… or if I’ll be alive? But at the same time, how bloody cool will it be to crack it open in January 2027 and be able to shoot some of my all time favourite film stocks that have been long discontinued - like the Original Fuji C200 and Superia 400 stocks.

It’s SO tempting to break my own promise, but I also love a challenge to see how long I can wait before using a really cool and ‘rare’ film. I feel like if you’re a Knitter or perhaps into Sewing as well like me, you’ll understand that desire to save ‘the good stuff’ until the perfect project. Film is the same for me.

• Slide Film - Kodak Ektachrome E100

This was one of my first successful Instagram resources and it was the first time I figured out how the hell to get Canva to work for me. I spent DAYS designing these slides. It became the template that I tweak for carousels now but it’s really great to be able to look back at where it began.

josie.on.film

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This was the first time I decided to lean more towards sharing my knowledge and skills in a friendly and easy to digest way and I really enjoyed the process! I’m currently scheduling a few helpful carousels and of course will share those when they pop up on my IG in the near future.

I also am endlessly proud of this photoshoot concept and the entire roll of film was full of bangers! I revisit it often to remind myself of how far I have come as this was one of the first ‘fuck it, let’s just experiment and have fun’ shoots I did with a scary new type of film. Not long after this was when I decided to go all out and learn to develop my own film too. So it’s kind of a major milestone marker for me.

It’s soaked with nostalgia and sprinklings and first steps towards what eventually became absolutely bonkers film experiments and adventures. So I’m grateful I took a chance, and even more grateful the feedback encouraged me to push ahead and keep trying.

‘Red Samurai’ - my first ever roll of E100 and I adored how it turned out, lens flares and all! Camera: Ricoh KR-10M, Lens: Rikenon 50mm f/1.7, Film: Kodak Ektachrome E100. Lab Developed and Scanned by SilverHalideStudios - December 2021 - I was also the Makeup Artist for this Photoshoot and it was one of the first BIG Editorials I did back then. I’m still so proud of it!

I still have a box of E100 floating around somewhere. I paid $16.50 for it back in March 2021, and currently it costs about $52 per roll. Although the amazing Ikigai Film has some bulk rolled for as little as $26 which is as cheap as you’ll find it! They also develop E6 film which is great because that’s the one film type I don’t develop myself - although the team did tell me I can cross process E6 in C-41 chemicals… so I might just do that to the expired roll I have as an experiment.

Previous Substacks -

• One of my better performing Substacks (a total surprise!) is the one where I tried a Voiceover or ‘Podcast’ style one. I’ll be making more of these and am waiting on some audio equipment so hopefully I can go full podcast mode and record it visually as well!

If you listened to that and wanted to ‘see’ me while talking, well luckily I recorded a small BTS clip while recording the audio, so here you go, flick across to the 4th part of the IG carousel. Some bare bones raw attempt at what this blog was before it was all finalized!

josie.on.film

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I try not to cringe when watching myself or listening to myself, so hopefully this isn’t too bad… let me know if you’d like to see video in future Substacks, or if I should just stick to audio and photos like the blog above.

• Getting to know me + some creative inspiration.

This blog was a really tough one, being vulnerable always gives me an emotional hangover and makes me question if it was the right thing to do, but I’m glad I let you into my little corner of the world and showed a bit more of the artist behind the camera.

That of course sparked this easily digestible Instagram Carousel where I was able to re-use some of my blog quotes and share one of my all time favourite mini photoshoots of myself from a holiday in Oberon during Winter.

josie.on.film

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It kind of goes to show the versatility of having a blog too. You can reuse so many parts of it, and evolve it into videos, stories, quotes, etc, to share all over the place. So I highly recommend you give long form writing a crack and then try turning it into shorter pieces for your Instagram or other platforms as a way to not only cross promote yourself, but to then have a list of resources - just like this! - where there’s all kinds of formats for people to look at and choose which is best to take on board and absorb the info.

• That time I promised I wouldn’t buy cameras, and immediately broke it.

I put things into motion and did actually say that I would get a Minolta SRT series camera if I found one which I know kind of defeated the point of making a blog about NOT getting cameras anymore… And of course I found one right after.

I had to repair it myself of course and that has now opened up the world of mechanical camera repairs to me. So I take it as a sign that it was gonna happen either way, and boy am I glad that it did!

There’s so much pride in using this camera now. I painstakingly spent 3 days tearing it apart multiple times. Calibrating the infinity focus manually. Even film testing it to check everything. And she’s perfect. I finally got some leather in to customize the outside of it as well.

josie.on.film

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NOW I think I’m good. I don’t look for cameras anymore. I don’t obsess over the next sneaky purchase. I truly have enough. I’m now focusing on restoring some of the half broken ones I own, and just maintaining my current collection (of mostly Ricoh cameras lol)

• Editing Guide

This was a flop. I think I know where I went wrong but I really wish more people had the patience to sink into it and absorb the wealth of free information here. Editing on RAWs after scanning them yourself is an absolute nightmare. I think I did a really good job at breaking it down easily and showcasing simply what each part of the ass-backwards settings does and how to navigate it.

It’s definitely something you’d need to play around with while following along, and not everyone develops and scans their own film. That’s okay! The next one will be easier to work through and cover things a bit better. Less rambling and technical talk, more straight forward practical applications.

• Showing my fuck ups and how to fix them

One of the ones that scared me the bloody most to share - my imperfections and totally messed up film shots!

But since then I’ve had a lot of friends and people learning to shoot film message me and say that seeing someone like me who seemingly has their shit together completely fuck it up made them feel infinitely better about their own bad photos. And I think that’s what a lot of us really need sometimes - that reassurance that it’s okay to fail and make a mess. There’s something worthy in those moments too.

Instagram Resources:

• Inspirational Reels

Despite this one being a bit messed up because Instagram boosted the heck out of the audio, it’s one of my better performing reels and got good feedback again from others who needed a reminder that their art is good enough and that you don’t need to erase yourself or try to cram yourself into a box to be validated.

josie.on.film

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Still mad that it sounds terrible because of how long I spent cutting it together… oh well. I’m figuring out how to fix that for future reels.

• A snippet of a future blog - Macro Photography

josie.on.film

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Yes yes, I haven’t posted it yet. It’s ready and scheduled and coming soon. I’m just waiting for the moment it feels ‘right’ to share a full length blog about it.

Highlights:

I started various highlights on my Instagram where I saved stories I shared. There’s a whole heap of free and amazing educational goodies to flick through.

• Tips & Tricks
  My first big one is ‘Tips and Tricks’ where I share some really great info about various aspects of shooting 35mm Film, scanning, developing, and helpful resources for beginners.
  

• Cameras
  I share the cameras and other gears that I use and talk a little bit about why I use them or what I use them for.
  

• Repairs
  Dedicated for showcasing camera repairs as well, and will expand upon that one day and perhaps write a blog or guide about specifics.

• Film Dev ‘23
  A highlight full of Film Developing and Scanning goodies. I did have 2 other previous ones which were each 100 stories long, but I’ve removed them and narrowed it down to just the most recent stories and some educational goodies mixed in.
  

• Live Replays
  My previous blog has the links to two 1.5 hour long Instagram lives that I did where there’s SO MUCH free and helpful, super easy to understand information about DSLR Scanning.

See you next time!

Thanks for tuning in, I hope there’s at least one helpful thing here in amongst the list of some kickass freebies that I’m really proud of and happy to share with you (possibly again!)

Like I mentioned, I have a Macro Photography blog ready to go up soon. Photos from Unmarked will drop as soon as they’re finished being edited. I have one of the most incredible Portraits I recently did with Mel and her Subaru WRX lovingly called Misa to share (sneak peek at the top of this blog!) And I have created a really amazing Light Meter guide complete with photos and handy tips and tricks that I’ll have available for purchase soon!

Lots happening. I just need some time to recover from some really shitty things that crept up on me when I least expected, and I’ll be back to sharing my film photography adventures with you soon.

Here’s to a much better fortnight ahead, eh? Catch you next time!

Until the next roll, take care!
xoxo, Josie