Today’s Post by Joe Farace
“My kind of promises, Can lead to joy”—Bacharach and David, from Promises, Promises
Facts: According to the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA,) consumers bought 43 million vinyl records last year. That’s six million more than the number of CDs were sold in 2023, marking the second time since 1987 that’s happened and reflecting the steady 17-year-running growth of vinyl sales.
According to Luminate: 50% of consumers who bought vinyl (albums) in the past 12 months own a record player, compared to 15% among music listeners overall.” This means that 50% of vinyl album buyers don’t own a record player.
Much has been made by many, including by me, about the increased popularity of analog media, with the rising popularity of vinyl record often cited as an example. For us photographers this translates into the renewed popularity of shooting film. According to the CBC: “The film photography industry was brought to its knees about a decade ago but it’s experiencing a rebirth. ‘I feel like I can attach more emotion to a film photo,’ said Jasmine Orr, who owns about a dozen cameras and enjoys taking photos of urban landscapes in Edmonton. Instead of pulling out a phone and snapping dozens of photos, a photographer using film has to be much more mindful and intentional because of the limits of a roll, Orr said.”
So with that comparison with vinyl records in mind, the question arises: Do people buy rolls of film and not shoot it? I’ll plead somewhat guilty to that because over the past year I’ve accumulated more than a few boxes of interesting film emulsions that I haven’t shot yet. You can read about some of them here. But I plan to real soon now…
How I Made this Portrait: This image is what, for me, passes as “street photography.” Hey, I made it on a street in Downtown Denver! The camera used was my original Contax 167MT, that’s similar to the one I purchased from Japan a few years ago, with a Yashica 28-80mm f/3.9-4.9 MC zoom lens in C/Y mount. This is an inexpensive but quite wonderful lens that’s easy to find in Japan* but harder to locate in the USA. (If you know of a clean lens for sale, let me know.) The exposure on Kodak Tri-X film was unrecorded. Scans were made with Kodak’s defunct Photo CD process and the file was opened using Lemke Software’s Graphic Converter that’s not without its quirks when used with older OS and computers.
Buying More Film? Shooting it less…
Mea Culpa. My excuse for not shooting that growing stack of film boxes, and maybe it’s a lame one, is the weather. Here in Colorado we’ve have had a longer than normal winter with lots of really cold days and snow. This has been a snowy—more frequency than accumulation— time and it’s been cold. I’ll admit to not liking to shoot until the light and ambience, as well, are “right.” I’ll need to wait not just for a sunny day but also for the leaves on the trees around here to burst forth so I can shoot that roll of Rollei’s Infrared 400 film I purchased from B&H.
I prefer to have a nice sunny, warm day to make photographs. Keeping in mind that April is the second snowiest month of the year, the days are getting warmer each day as real Spring finally approaches. If I’m shooting outdoor portraits, I want the subject to be comfortable as well because it makes for better photographs. I had hoped to shoot a roll of Ilford HP5 Plus black and white film during my last model shoot in my home studio but while the film remains loaded in my Canon AT-1, the model canceled the day before the shoot . (It happens) Or maybe all this is just excuses for being as the song goes…”a sleepy bozo”—Misheard Lyrics:The Lovin’ Spoonful’s, “Daydream”
I’ll make a promise to you, I’ll shoot some of this new film I bought and get back to you with the results. I promise.
If you would like to send a roll of film for me to review or other stuff for these posts and my videos, click the CONTACT tab about and drop me an e-mail, I’ll send the email back toy you as quickly as possible.