Large Format + 35mm + Polaroids

October 20, 2023

I love shooting NYFW. It’s fun. It’s exhausting. The outfits are insane. You meet cool people. The energy is fantastic. So when my friend, Burke, asked me to shoot some BTS alongside him at the Inherent fashion show at NYFW back in February and said “bring whatever cameras you want”, I was in.

So with that much flexibility... I’ll share a bit about the cameras I ended up bringing for those interested…

I’m always up for a challenge, so I brought my Graflex Super D large format SLR camera with some BW film pushed to 1600 since I figured NYFW isn’t often captured on large format these days and now is the time to make it happen. Then I had my Canon AE-1P with the Lomography 85mm Petzval lens with CineStill 800T and as a silly last thing, I brought a Polaroid Passport 2-lens camera and some very expired Polaroid 669 peelapart film for some diptychs.

Unfortunately, I could only stay for the setup as I had plans that evening but it was great just capturing the models and the show BTS in those moments.

I posted most of on my instagram already but with NYFW having just happened again at the beginning of September, figured I’d get these up on the blog.

Paloma // Polaroids + Large Format + 35mm

December 29, 2021

I have kinda been failing at this blog for the last couple of years (wonder if there’s…. something happening in the world that’s stifling creativity lately? Hmm…) so I figured might as well sneak in one last post into 2021. A brief shoot with Paloma on everything from tiny 35mm up to 4x5 and a couple of my earliest 8x10 portraits.

Definitely one of my favorites was almost one of the first photos of the day. Trying to get into the flow and just being goofy with posing hands and we landed on this funky pretzel arm pose and combined with the expired Polaroid 669 film, it really hits hard.

Then came the big boys. Recently borrowed a gorgeous 8x10 Chamonix large format camera from a friend and have been trying to put it to work while I have it. So a couple shots with Paloma seemed appropriate. Once I landed on a pose with 35mm, I grabbed the 8x10 and pulled off the shot below. Nothing like seeing a sheet of film bigger than your face in the darkroom.

And popped of another Polaroid of the red dress with some very bizarre Polaroid Type 79 film that came out beautifully. The colors do not disappoint. Experimented with the generally unusable negative as well. Had to cover myself with a BW shot which is at the top of the post which I really love as well.

Grabbed one last shot in the red dress with my new Lomography LomoGraflok back for large format cameras. Nice to shoot a cheaper instant film like Instax in a good camera.

Then switched up the outfit a bit and added some lace to the mix.

And again, loving the back shot, played with a variation of that for the second 8x10 shot and after messing around with the hair and buttons a bit, landed on something I loved.

Figured we could move from the studio setup and shoot around my living room with my 1940s large format camera and more Polaroids/35mm.

A few last Polaroids and look changes before the end of the shoot.

Yet one of my other favorites from the shoot was the last. A messy hair shot that came out like someone living in a foggy dream. One on expired Type 59 film (my favorite) and a test on the Lomo back.

A good shoot to cap off my 2021 year. Always shooting. Always improving. Always experimenting.

And shout out to Paloma of Crawford Models who killed it on this shoot and not only put up with the weird cameras but was itching to get her 35mm camera back in action in 2022.

Cameras used:

Chamonix 8x10 with 240mm f5.6 // Arista 400 BW 8x10 film

Speed Graphic with Zeiss Tessar 165mm f3.5 and Fujinon 210mm f5.6 // Arista 400 BW 4x5 film / LomoGraflok with Instax Wide / Expired Polaroid Type 59/79

Graflex Super D with Zeiss Tessar 150mm f3.5 // Arista 400 BW 4x5 film / Expired Polaroid 669

Polaroid 195 // Polaroid 669

Nikon S2 // Arista 400 BW 35mm film

Leather Curtains & Trenchcoats with Caity & Rachel // Super 8 + Polaroids

September 19, 2020

Back in February juuuuust before the pandemic really locked down NYC, a few friends and I got together to hang out and shoot a bit. I was showing my buddy. Jordan, who shoots more Polaroids than even me, how to use a large format 4x5 camera with Polaroid film. Caity was a friend of his who modeled and was kind enough to hang out in front of the camera for some of the night.

I shot several Polaroids of Caity on my smaller Polaroid 110B camera as well as one on the large format camera with Supersense’s ONE INSTANT film (the orange one above), a reincarnation of a dead Polaroid film format. She was serving the retro looks in the trench coat with those glasses and the film just matched those vibes perfectly.

Also, as I do, I brought along a Super 8 camera with a bit of expired film in there to shoot. Near the end of the night as we were switching up outfits, she found a leather curtain of sorts and fashioned it into a makeshift outfit. Why not? And with that, I shot a bit of the Super 8 and threw together a quick edit with the footage for fun.

His friend, Rachel, was modeling that night as well and I got some pretty stellar shots of her on the various Polaroid cameras we had around to test.

Looking forward to being back in NYC and in the studio again soon! 2020 can’t stop me!

And for the film nerds reading… the specifics of the cameras used:

Large Format - Cambo 4x5 View Camera with Polaroid 405 back (Polaroid 669 expired ~01, Supersense ONE INSTANT film, Ilford FP4)
Super 8 - Canon 514XL (Kodak Vision2 500T expired - Dev/Scan by MetroPost)
Polaroid - Polaroid 110B modified (Polaroid 669 expired ~08)

An Italian August in Sperlonga // Super 8 + 120 + 35mm + Polaroids

August 18, 2020

It’s hard to remember now but there used to be a time that one could travel and it was rather lovely. Last year around this time I had the chance to travel with some friends to their family’s vacation home in Sperlonga, Italy and I couldn’t pass that up! It was a brief but relaxing trip just hanging out in this small beach town halfway between Rome and Naples. A bit different than American beach towns and I am for it!

I did, of course, have to bring some cameras and, if ya know me at all, it wasn’t just one. I did manage to fit them into a small shoulder sling though so it wasn’t too bad. A small Super 8 camera with Ektachrome, a friend’s TLR medium format camera, a little 35mm compact and my favorite Polaroid camera with some expired film.

(Click any images for full size)

Had some fun with the Super 8 throughout the week and mainly just chose to shoot little Italian scenes and then the occasional wild boat ride. I hand processed the film at Mono No Aware in Brooklyn, a great little non-profit I help with sometimes. Also shooting medium format while traveling was different. Given the slow pace and fewer exposures, the photos weren’t quick snapshots but I think the results were worth it.

We didn’t do much, which was a change of pace for Stephanie and I but we quickly adapted and enjoyed it. Italian life is totally foreign (for lack of a more fitting term) to us Americans. The streets were empty before 10am (which now makes the photos give off erie COVID era vibes) and an early afternoon coffee break was the norm. Not much of a coffee drinker myself but didn’t mind the pace of life. Nightlife even for kids continued pretty late in the streets which explained the deserted mornings.

Our friend’s family home was quite vertical and narrow but so quaint and had an incredible rooftop view of the town, especially at sunset. Many evenings were spent drinking wine and have some fresh mozzarella there. I miss it!

We rented a small motor boat a couple of the days for some brief excursions to small coves and even a little island for lunch and wine. Just getting off of the land and looking back at the cute little town was amazing. Things may have gotten a bit rowdy on the boat as we sped around. Not going to lie. And we did run out of gas at one point on the water which was a bit awkward but we survived. We also made a brief stop in Naples to see the city of Pompeii which was pretty amazing and of course for some fantastic pizza and a speeding ticket as well. What can ya do!

These days, such a trip seems like such a fairy tale, and even then it was. Looking forward to more goofy and relaxing travels with friends in the future when we all can travel again! Until then, still lifes with my plants will have to do. I’ll leave ya with a portrait of Stephanie and I on the TLR courtesy of my friend, Alex.

And for the film nerds reading… the specifics of my little film travel kit are

Medium format - Mamiya C330 (Lomography CN100. Lomography F2 400, Kodak Ektachrome 100 expired, Fuji Pro400H)
35mm - Olympus Infinity Stylus (Kodak ProImage 100, Kodak Ektar 100, Kodak Tri-X)
Super 8 - Canon 514XL (Kodak Ektachrome 7285 expired)
Polaroid - Polaroid 110B modified (Polaroid 669 expired, Polaroid 689 expired)

Lexi Todd - "Madonna" // 16mm + 120 + Polaroids

October 29, 2019

Excited to share the single artwork and music video along with some press images for Lexi Todd’s newest single, “Madonna”. Lexi is a local Brooklyn musician who has a very soulful yet pop sound and I was beyond thrilled to work with her. Halla Creative did all of the concepting and design for both the single artwork as well as the music video.

The single was very much about being your own queen and ditching to the status quo, which is where the name “Madonna” came from with her genre-defining and defying music and performances. So with that in mind, Halla Creative and I set out to create a concept that would mesh both Lexi’s vintage-y, soulful sound with strong “queen”-type imagery. Stephanie Haller of Halla Creative also directed the music video.

The art for her single artwork, promo materials as well as the music video were shot on a variety of film formats including Polaroids, 16mm, 120 and 35mm. We also had shot some additional photos for press, socials, etc and were really in love with the results.

With the music video, we wanted the vibe to match the single artwork in the vintage vibe and powerful, straight-on posing. Shot on expired 16mm Kodak film with a Bolex H16, the look blended beautifully meshed with Lexi’s aesthetics. You can watch the music video below.