Paris, France on Kodak Tri-X at EI 1600

I visited Paris, France in 2022 and recently again in 2023. For night time and indoor photography I shot Kodak Tri-X at 1600. To continue my theme of "don't just shoot film the way influencers tell you to," I figured I'd go over the different ways I used Tri-X on my trips and some other...

Instagram Scam – Fake Your Way To Fame

This morning, while enjoying a coffee and doing my social media routine, a message popped up in my Instagram inbox. All that the message said was "Hey!" If only more people were so succinct! Intrigued, I responded "Hey to you too!" Now, I have been using Instagram for a few years and have made 577...

There’s More To Shooting 3200 Speed Film

by Johnny Martyr Shooting 3200 ISO film may seem like little more than putting a faster film in your camera and setting the ISO dial accordingly. But it's not that simple. There are a lot of differences in how film handles in very low light, and indeed, how to handle film that has been shot...

How To Deal with Problems from Your Film Lab

Recently, a fellow film photographer posted a hastily-taken snapshot of an envelope of loose negatives. They stated that a well-known and well regarded lab had scratched all their negatives. It wasn't clear if the problem was just how the negatives were packaged, causing a potential for scratches or how bad the scratches, if any, were....

Rapid Firing With Manual 35mm Cameras

"I guess I've shot about 40,000 negatives and of these I have about 800 pictures I like." - Harry Callahan One of the major differences in the way that I see digital and film photographers approach each medium is how rapidly we shoot. A common mantra among film shooters is "I shoot film because it...

Film Prices are Skyrocketing – Shoot More Film!

Turn on any news station, any time of day, probably in any part of the world, and you'll hear about it. The prices on daily consumable goods are going up, up, up! Photographic film is not immune to the global supply chain and inflation issues that are plaguing every industry. Kodak, Fuji, Lomography and others...

Drawing Attention to Street Photography

Photo work is slow in the winter - it's a time for me to explore my personal photography and email clients about shoots during warmer, upcoming months. With my free time, I've been trying to make a habit of practicing street photography on mornings in downtown Frederick, Maryland. On previous shoots, I used my 1930...

Seven Recommended Rangefinder Focusing Techniques

Many photographers struggle with focusing rangefinder cameras. Some photographers, unfortunately, tend to shoot only wider/slower lenses or give up on rangefinders entirely for this reason. But I don't think photography should always be easy and by learning to use simpler cameras, we can internalize concepts and develop instincts and reflexes that apply to any type...

What is a Snapshot?

It's what we call a photograph that appears to be made with little consideration for the tenants of imaging and principles of design. Voigtländer has a lens named after it. It's usually proceeded by the word "quick." What is really meant when we call something a "snapshot?" I started thinking about this because, when I...

Johnny Martyr’s B&W Darkroom Grocery List

If your New Year's resolution is to start processing your own b&w film at home, or you're just interested in comparing notes, I thought it would be handy for me to share my darkroom grocery list. Disclaimer - I am not a chemist! I'm just a photographer who has found some products and methods that...