A sneak peek of what's to come...
I’m back and better than ever baby! Nope, definitely not. But soonish?
Hello Film Fam, and welcome back!
As you may have noticed I’ve been gone for almost 6 weeks now without sharing any info on what’s going on unlike last time I took a break. Thank you so much for your patience as I navigate a bumpy few weeks, and have some more rough patches ahead of me through my medical recovery.
A big welcome to all the new subscribers, we’re now officially sitting at 101 of you, wow! My mind is truly blown! I never thought more than a handful of people would tag along on this wild adventure but here we are. I appreciate each of you more than words can express.
I hope you’ve had a better few weeks than I have, leave a comment at the end of this and let me know what fun film you’ve been shooting, or a camera you’ve got your eye on, or just how you’re really doing - I’d love to know!
As always these newsletters usually can be quite rambly, photo heavy, and have the vibe of catching up with that one friend you haven’t seen in a while who’s just very passionate about all things film. This time it’s a little shorter but the general vibe of my friendliness you can find in previous newsletters like my last one is still there.
Grab a coffee, settle in, and let’s get into it!
Where are you?
(And I’m so sorry… heh, if you know you know.)
Well, right where you left me if I’m being honest - I haven’t strayed very far! I’ve had a few setbacks and haven’t had the energy or drive to sit down and write about some of my 35mm Film adventures like I wanted to.
I planned to share a blog last Friday to kickstart the Fortnightly schedule again by showcasing the first roll of my 21 Day Challenge - Black and White film only. I ended up extending that challenge until the end of April as I was really enjoying it. I decided I’d hold off on sharing any of the photos till they were developed and ready - and for when I had the energy to write about all the things I got up to over the last month.
I’ve recently decided to shift towards shooting more B&W films overall, including for portraits again. I forgot how much I genuinely enjoy the process, and how differently I have to compose photos compared to colour film - but more about the technical side of that will be coming in future newsletters.
So… what were you doing instead?
Things I really shouldn’t be doing quite yet but decided to do anyway!
Last Thursday I was at Bombo Quarry on the South Coast of NSW where I did my first proper portrait shoot in almost 6 months. I tagged along on a fun collaborative Editorial which featured strong masculine dynamic vibes and some fun props like milk crates - which I snagged from my Dad’s camping stash. It was the first time I wasn’t the Makeup Artist and Hairstylist, and I was more or less doing it as a test run to see how my body handles doing just the Photography side of things let alone anything else.
I wasn’t even main shooter, I was assisting and second shooting but then as always my partner Jordan encouraged me to try some new techniques and oops, it turned into a full blown shoot by the end of it! I had so much fun I completely ignored my injuries and kept pushing myself right through till my body simply couldn’t handle it and I crashed and burned really really badly.
I have since been recovering from that shoot as I had an intense Fibro flare and my spine really wasn’t happy with me ignoring it sending pulsating pain signals to my brain. It’s a bit of a setback for sure, I’ve been told by my medical team to ‘not-do-the-thing-again-please’ and if I absolutely have to shoot, then no more than 20 minutes and ensure it’s the day before an appointment so if I hurt myself it can be immediately addressed.
All this happened just in time for me to step into the next stage of my spine recovery as well. So while it was a whole lot of fun, it looks like I’m back to focusing on healing for a while longer. The next time I’ll try again I’ll pick something a little less intense perhaps, oops?
A brief glimpse into my current (in)sanity.
Other than that I have been rescanning my entire film archive - so far I’ve rescanned 90 rolls over the last month and have a lot more to go! And yes I really mean every photo I’ve ever shot, every single negative I have, every portrait session while ‘Josie On Film’ was up and running, every landscape and photo walk, every road trip and family candid’s, every test roll, even the failed ones - are all being rescanned with my latest upgraded setup.
I’ve really dialed in all the settings perfectly right across the board from the DSLR on board settings, to the kind of lighting used, a new film mask, right down to the actual conversion software and settings/editing - that way everything matches from this point onwards. I’m finally thrilled with how the scans are coming out and my work is looking truly consistent, especially from the portraits starting in 2020 till present.
Some film rolls such as a portrait shoot I did with my best friend Julia (pictured below) a while ago just weren’t scanning right and always had strange colour shifts. It didn’t seem to matter what diffusion sheet I used, or film mask, or conversion settings - it just didn’t work for some reason. One particular roll of Kodak Ultramax has now been scanned five times and finally with the new setup it’s actually true to colour without banding, streaks, weird rainbow grain or any of the other symptoms of a bad scan/conversion.
The relief I feel is so great let me tell you! I feel confident enough with how the scan has turned out and I’m genuinely excited to edit these now.
I have massively improved my workflow after overhauling everything and I edit my film in a completely different way. No more reducing the grain, softening the images a little, or avoiding tweaking any settings to keep it ‘clean and fresh’ like I used to. Now I have a very in depth editing process that provides gorgeous photos I’m truly proud of. I don’t touch the grain or try to erase it anymore - instead I celebrate it and highlight the gloriousness of it, amongst other features unique to each film stock.
It’s always so interesting to see how my work has evolved the more I play with techniques and learn new things through trial and error, or better and more efficient ways to shoot and edit film. Long gone are the days where I would panic and feel like I’m a shit photographer if I dared to tweak and edit the scans and “ruin them” - if anything I’ve learned to make them just a that much better! I’m truly looking forward to sharing some of these photos to not only Substack but to my Instagram and Website soon so stay tuned for that.
Something to look forward to…
Next newsletter I should have most of my rolls from my April challenge finished and ready to share in full size images. I haven’t entirely decided if I’ll do separate blogs or if I’ll pick the best 10 from each roll and put it together in just one… we’ll see how many bangers I end up wanting to show off, eh?
I should also have a few photos from my sneaky roadtrip out to Glen Davis in the Blue Mountains ready soon as well. Here’s just a single B&W photo on Fomapan 400 - which I have purchased in bulk and accidentally wound 44 frames on each of my cassettes instead of 36 because I miscounted while turning the bulk loader handle for all 16 rolls. But more on that another time…
As of the next newsletter I plan to be back on my Fortnightly schedule and things should be back on track from here on out once my energy levels stabilize again and I start feeling like my usual self.
Thanks for tuning in to this brief ‘filling you in’ style of newsletter, I know it’s super short and a little less enthusiastic and detailed than usual but this is all I have left in the tank after a rough month and a bit. Still, I appreciate you spending some time here with me today and I hope to catch you again on the next one.
Until the next roll, take care!
Xoxo, Josie