Super 8

October 17, 2018

Last winter, I got to shoot another very special wedding to me, my own sister! I actually shot both Super 8 and digital (Alarming I know!) during the wedding which took place on the beaches of Key West, Florida! You can see their wedding film below!

Packing light as I had just come from a trip to Argentina, I arrived with my wife and just a small backpack. But given that it’s on a beach, tons of clothing isn’t really necessary. This was a small, intimate ceremony with just close family and friends on the beach and officiated by our dad. Given the casual nature of the wedding, it was easy and fun to roam around with my sister and her future husband and capture the day.

I shot the Super 8 wedding film and the digital photos as a gift to my wonderful and sometimes feisty sister. I love her and was happy to help in any way I could to make her wedding day special. Enjoy the film and the rare occasion for me to post digital photos here!

Upstate NY Hike with Mono No Aware // 16mm + Polaroids + 110

September 25, 2018

I obviously shoot a ton of Super 8 film as anyone who's ever visited my website or Instagram can see. So it was a real treat to find out last spring that while I was at a Mono No Aware fundraiser, that I won the raffle for a Mono No Aware workshop where a group of people would take a van loaded with cameras, film and snacks upstate to Hudson, NY and Kaaterskill Falls to shoot some 16mm! My first time!

Our first destination was the Olana State Historic Site along the Hudson River, home of Frederic Edwin Church, who was a landscape painter from the Hudson River School. There we had a brief chat with our guide and filmmaker, Fern Silva, and Steve Cossman (founder of Mono No Aware) about the history of the area both in painting as well as 16mm film. Peter Hutton was a filmmaker that shot many serene landscapes of the Hudson Valley and American cities on 16mm film and lived in the area until his passing in 2016. And so, inspired by those who came before us, we set out to create our own portraits of the landscape. We left the historic set and went over to Kaaterskill Falls to start our hike.

We were provided Bolex H16 REX5 16mm cameras, courtesy of Mono No Aware, to use and some Kodak Vision3 50D color negative film. Given the bright sunny day and gorgeous springtime colors, it was a perfect match. I also brought along my Minolta Instant Pro, which is a Polaroid Spectra camera, and a Pentax Auto 110, which I found fitting as it's a 110 camera which is actually just 16mm film cut down for still cameras. Unfortunately, that camera has some winding issues aaaand I may have dropped it at one point on the hike so the photos are cropped a little funny. But so it goes...

We hiked around with our fairly heavy Bolex's, chatted a bunch, saw some waterfalls and very cool landscapes and ate delicious food Steve had prepared. Overall, a great way to spend a day. I just received a “K-3” Krasnogorsk-3 16mm camera and I'm now very eager to shoot more of the format. I already shot a some test rolls and a little music video with it a few weeks ago. And just shot another music video this weekend! So lots to look forward to including Kodak re-releasing Ektachrome in 16mm!

Jazz Age Lawn Party 2018 // Super 8 + Polaroids + 120

August 17, 2018

Michael Arenella's Jazz Age Lawn Party on Governor's Island in NYC every summer is such a fantastic time. People dressed to the nine's in 1920's outfits (some authentic!), great jazz, old cameras... it's a great combo. So getting to help out the Penumbra Foundation shoot tintypes at the event and capture it all on Super 8, Polaroids and 120 is a swell time for sure. Take a gander at the Super 8 I shot below!

This was the 4th year I've attended the event and the third time helping the Penumbra Foundation's Tintype Studio out at the event. (You can see my previous Super 8 and film photos for 2017, 2016 & 2015) Penumbra shoots actual tintypes on location at the event using 4x5 or 5x7 cameras and people can walk out of the event with a tintype in hand. People are always quite surprised that the format is still around similar to their reaction to me shooting Polaroids and Super 8. Some of the Penumbra crew like to call tintypes the 19th century "Polaroid" as it takes merely a few minutes for the finished photo to be seen.

The last few years, I've helped them out and documented both the event and their booth on Super 8 using a Nizo 801 Macro camera and some Kodak Tri-X film. Never one to travel light on cameras, I also like to bring along other cameras since portrait worthy people are plentiful so I brought my Polaroid 110B with my Instax Wide back and peelapart back with some expired Polaroid 664 film which had mixed results. Also brought my Polaroid 680SLR and then a Mamiya 7 I borrowed from a friend for the weekend to try out since I've never really shot 120 film. Needless to say from the results below but that camera is sharp! Combined with some expired Tri-X and some Fujifilm Pro 400H film in there, it really shined.

Jazz Age 120 portait - Mamiya 7 (Kodak Tri-X).jpg

This year I opted to process the Super 8 film I shot myself with some help from Steve Cossman of Mono No Aware (which is a great cinema arts non-profit based in NYC which teaches tons of workshops on filmmaking on actual film). I used an old Russian processing tank called a Lomo tank which is similar to Patterson tanks for still photography. I was nervous but the processing went great and you can see from the results above the Super 8 came out well. Eager to process more film now!

I'll be missing out on the festivities this weekend but I'm sure I'll be back in 2019! Many thanks to the Penumbra Foundation for the opportunity! And I'll leave you with a few shots of my Penumbra buds for the weekend.

MODE EN COULEUR - Fashion Show // Super 8 + Polaroids + 35mm

July 27, 2018

A few months ago I had the opportunity to help out with a local fashion incubator based out of the Brooklyn Library called BKLYN Fashion Academy. It's part of BKLYN Incubator which offers a ton of services for locals like podcasting, robotics, and photography. They had an upcoming fashion show for their program and wanted it captured in a unique way. Film and fashion are having a moment and I thought it would be a great fit.

The inspiration for the show was "the history and fashion of Les Sapeurs, a Congolese subculture dedicated to the cult of style and being walking works of art." Looking at images and stories of Les Sapeurs is truly some incredible stuff and stories of personal triumph over poverty.

I shot BTS backstage as the designers finalized their garments and shot some snippets of the models on the runway. I captured the night on a variety of formats including Super 8, instant film and 35mm. It was an extremely bright and fun show to shoot and backstage was madness as one expects with a fashion show.

But overall, the designers, models or organizers were fantastic and put on a brilliant show. Met some really great passionate people and that's always inspiring to be around.

Jessica & Jeremy Wedding // Super 8 + Polaroids

June 20, 2018

Jessica and Jeremy are a special one for me... mainly because they are related to me! Jessica is my sister-in-law and now Jeremy will be my brother-in-law. I was a guest at this wedding but as any photographer knows, it's hard to resist taking some photos and Jessica had actually reached out beforehand asking if I didn't mind taking a few. Uh... Yes!

This was a bit of a trip for me since this is only the second time I've ever been to the west coast! Last time I was out there was when I got engaged!

But anyways! The wedding took place in Camarillo about an hour north of LA, where they have been living, on a beautiful avocado/blueberry farm called Gerry Ranch. I must say farm weddings on the west coast are just about everything a film photographer could ask for. Great light. Great landscape. Obviously fantastic weather! I'm in.

Even so, I tried to not be that obnoxious guest with the big camera poking my way into the shots and had a great time shooting alongside Brittany of BKM Photography. She quickly fell in love with the Polaroids and Super 8 and was even shooting a bit of film herself. I was going around with my lovely Polaroid 110B with Instax Wide and expired Polaroid 689 film, my Polaroid SLR680 with Polaroid Originals color film and then Super 8 on my small Nizo 156 Macro and some glorious Fuji Provia shipped from Japan by Retro8. I don't travel light when it comes to cameras...

This time it's a mini wedding film as I was a seated guest doing my best to behave. Also it's actually an excerpt out of the 2 rolls of Super 8 I shot during the road trip my wife and I did while in the LA area. One day I'll get that up on the blog! You can see Jess's mini film below!

Overall, a really fun wedding with family and I was more than thrilled to capture a few moments of it on film.