
Welcome back!
Before I get started - if you are new here, welcome! Go check out my About page to learn a little more about me, and you can see my previous Newsletter if you want to know my Origin Story!
I hope you’ve had a lovely holiday season, and without further ado, let’s get into this Newsletter!
P.S - This one is long, and quite photo heavy, so grab a coffee and let’s get stuck into it!
Here I go again with the damn Portra stock…
Almost everyone froths a roll of Portra. It's the go-to film for most photographers, and frankly if you weren’t shooting Portra in the studio or even out in the field, you were questioned about whether or not you’re a “real professional” - but I’ve always found Portra to be kind of, well, blah.
Besides it being sold out every single time I try to grab a roll, it’s also ridiculously expensive and will cost you a small piece of your soul. A price I’m not willing to regularly pay when I get such fantastic results from ‘consumer’ stocks at 1/3rd the price.
But I too was bitten by the Portra bug, briefly at least. Previously I’ve shot Portra 400 in both studio conditions and outdoors during the start of a thunderstorm - an experience that I will say was a little terrifying and yet so much fun! However I wasn’t blown away by it and if anything have found it to be one of the most difficult films to scan and edit so far.



(Hint: Click on the thumbnails to view the full images in the galleries!)



Recently I’ve been playing around with some more night time photography. While I’ve had success in shooting with 200 and 400 ISO films during Blue Hour, it starts to become trickier to keep a shot steady as it gets darker and the shutter speeds start dropping below a speed I’m comfortable with.
Plus I had an idea for a moody night time series and I really needed to get my hands on a roll of 800 ISO film.
Yes, I did consider shooting Cinestill 800T for the glowy halation that everyone is obsessed with - and I can see the appeal when I’m standing in front of a petrol station at 10pm contemplating life as the neon signs glow on my car - but alas it too was sold out. So Portra 800 it was! I snagged the one and only roll I could find online for a cheap-ish $24… plus $10 shipping, ugh. (That price has since gone up to nearly $40 a roll before shipping, yikes!)
I made sure to not get too over my head for once. As tempting as it was to buy a pro pack, or go all out and get a brick - which I usually do before I even decide if I like the film stock (looking at you MFS Cinefilm!) - I convinced myself to just test the waters with a single roll instead, especially knowing how I felt about Portra 400 previously.
Taking a leap of faith…
I’ve been taking risks with not just my photography, but my other hobbies and in my personal life. If you didn’t already catch on,