[All the above images were shot on Kodak's Tmax 100 B&W print film, high contrast copy film 5069 or Polapan instant B&W slide film]

Another long term benefit was that the process was a real process. I learned a lot about photography quickly and it had such a strong impact on my photographic style that it still affects it today. I had to take every step carefully and purposefully to be rewarded with a good range of tones in my negatives. If I screwed up the exposure or the development time, my image quality suffered. It was very exciting when everything turned out just right.

I also had to handle the wet negatives carefully so they would not get scratched or full of dust. I had a special dust proof hanging bag in my apartment where I could be sure the rolls of film would be left undisturbed until they were ready to be cut down and sleeved.

When I photograph in B&W I see my images in B&W. When I frame something in the camera I am only looking at the range of tones, specific design elements and the composition. If the scene is flat as in an overcast day, I know I want to underexpose and over develop my entire roll of film to boost the contrast a bit in all the frames. Many of these types of technical details are taken into consideration before the image is even made.

I also decide which film to use depending on the amount of grain I want in my photographs to help with exposure times and tell the story better. Most of the time I use Tmax 100 or Tri-X 125 but sometimes I love using Tmax 3200.

However, even though I can make adjustments before I make my image in the camera, I know that the vision of that scene I have in my mind can be enhanced in post production as well. Ansel Adams made most of his iconic images this way. He knew how he wanted the final image to look in print and would make even more adjustments in the darkroom by dodging and burning specific areas of the image. But he could not do this effectively unless he created the perfect negative first.

Since the inception of digital photography one can now literally shoot one frame in color and the next in B&W, adjust color temperature or contrast range from frame to frame and never worry about scratches or dust! It still blows my mind when I think about it and even though I love digital photography and the challenge of making a magnificent image is still the same, my heart longs for the substance of film.

However, when I am considering image processing for my current clients whom I shoot all digital for (it’s more cost effective for business), I always think through my conversions to B&W.

—I don’t convert all the color proofs from a session and show both color and B&W for images. Each image is specifically selected to be converted to B&W for a reason. You are the photographer and you should make the choice.

—I do convert an image to B&W if the colors are distracting to the eye or are insignificant to the final message.

—I don’t convert an image to B&W if the colors in the photograph are symbolic, powerful or are an important part of the story.

—I do convert an image to B&W if the design elements and the subject stand out better making the image stronger in B&W.

—I do convert an image to B&W if the session I did speaks to nostalgia or is photo-journalistic in nature.

—I use careful consideration in using the new “B&W film” type presets that are so popular now. They are fun to play with but I carefully select them for only certain clients and projects.

The following images were converted to B&W for similar reasons. I feel they are both much stronger as B&W images. The original colors tend to distract the eye, disrupt the mood and distract from the composition. In both images, I felt the color was not important and did not contribute to the story I wanted to convey.

The important elements (the heart being carved in the dirt and beam of light on the ground and the pool of water with boy and his shadow) are emphasized in the B&W versions of each. The elements that pop out to the viewer are white. White jumps out to the viewer while black falls away so the contrast makes the image more readable. This is how our eyes and mind read photographs.

There is so much more to consider when converting your images to B&W. I will be discussing this with other important style, story telling and visioning thoughts in my LOUPE Photography Workshop this May. Join me and other photographers interested in realizing their vision to find out more.

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ALOHA HOUSE
from Leaves from A Grass House
by Don Blanding

Green are the hills behind my home;
White are the clouds that froth and foam
To the high blue sky where the rainbow’s veil
Is a gauzy Scarf. There’s a winding trail
Through fern and guava and waving ti….
…A pleasant jaunt when you visit me.

Deep and cool is the broad lanai;
The place to sit as the days slip by
Watching the surf that is madly hurled
On my coral reef from the edge of the world.
Broad and soft is the hikiea
Where lazy souls can loaf all day
With a drink or book, in a gorgeous sprawl,
For talk or sleep or . . . nothing at all.
While the idling sun-gold hours ooze
Like bubbles through an old Chartreuse.

On the ceiling and down the wall
The little jewelled lizards crawl
Where the hug-me-tight has left a maze
Of leafy pattern. The sunlight plays
At hide-and-seek through the heart-shaped bloom
Of the chain-of-love. There is always room
For another guest in Aloha House,
The sort of guest who will not grouse
If he has to bunk with several more
On the hikiea or perhaps the floor;
Who does not mind if the meals are late
And he has to dine from a broken plate
At the pantry shelves you’ll see just why
Old Ah Goo’s curry will make you sigh.

There are jars of chutney and pots of cheese,
Ginger with syrups and dried li-chees.
Bowls of mushrooms, fat and brown;
Weird, strange spices from Chinatown.
Condiments gathered from near and far,
(I don’t dare ask him what they are)
Leaves and barks and roots and seeds.
Everything that a good cook needs
For suave rich gravy and spicy sauce.
He’s a heathen Chink and burns much joss
To his kitchen gods in a grinning row
In an honored place. Now, I don’t know
Just how much good the joss may do
But as long as he make a soup or stew
That is sheer food-magic, why, that’s enough
And I’ll buy him a bale of the smelly stuff.

In Aloha House there is not a key
For the big front door . . . nor will there be
For it’s open wide from night ’til morn,
By the many feet that have trod its weave.
All who visit the place must leave
A care-free laugh or a friendly smile
As a souvenir of the casual while
When we shared a smoke or a lively tale
Through a tropic night ’til the moon grew pale
And the mynah birds on the dew-wet lawn
Gave strident greeting to the dawn.

That hala mat is most discreet,
It has known the feel of many feet.
Saint and sinner have lingered there,
A princess stood by that Chinese chair.
Laughter and sorrow have each been a guest
In Aloha House. They have paused to rest
For a while with me, then have gone away
And they’ll both return on another day.

Night and morning and all day long
The wandering notes of tune and song
Come floating up from about the place;
Old Ah Goo with his wrinkled face
Is singing a song of far Shanghai,
Thin and wavered the minors cry
Of a homesick heart in a stranger land.
Then later a drifting minstrel band
Of beach-boys stop for a few stray bars
Of hula tunes with their steel guitars
That sob and cry with a liquid tone
While the hot rich voices sigh and moan
Of love and moons and sad good-byes;
Then Taki-San with her almond eyes
And her fan-doll smile sings a little tune,
In a thin falsetto aimless croon
As she dusts the chairs or sweeps the hall;
From the banyan tree comes a mynah’s call,
A darned poor song as a singing goes
But the only song that the mynah knows.

   Aloha House is a quaint old place,
Big cool rooms and lots of space
For the stray trade-winds to blow and roam.
It’s more than a house, it’s a real true home
In Hawaiian style. And when I say
That any time of night or day
When you’re drifting by, just stop and chat.
There’s a bowl of poi and a hala mat.
The door’s wide open, and when you care
To say “Hello” there’s Aloha there.

As much as I love the images I made with my Nikon D700 while we were in Hawaii, the few images here are my favorites. These images express the “Hawaii” we lived and experienced while we were on the North Shore and the feel of this classic Don Blanding poem: the local people, the beautiful beach at Ehukai, the relaxed time we spent together at Dave Yester’s (long time north shore lifeguard) beautiful home. I am sharing ALL the frames I took with film. I made them with my twin lens reflex Yashika Mat 124G. I literally downloaded the scans from Richard Photo Lab today, sized them with my custom action for the blog and posted them. I was using Kodak Portra 400-an absolutely yummy film.

Each photograph is a little gift. When I compose the image, I have to look through a very dark screen to manually focus and it’s really difficult to tell if the subject is in perfect focus. It comes down to intuition most of the time. It’s clearly not an action-shot camera. I would truly LOVE to have a more modern medium format camera but I just can’t justify it for now. But I really do enjoy my Yashika.

Shooting film makes me slow down to compose an image and really see what is happening (and in some ways be more involved in what is) in front of me. I have a habit of doing this anyway since I trained myself using film, but ever since I started using digital, I have noticed myself being more rushed and reliant on being able to see what I took. The last wedding and portrait sessions I did, I took fewer frames than usual because I was in the mode of slowing down for the shot I wanted.

If you are a photographer, I really think being able to shoot film is an important part of the art that can train you better in your craft. It gets you back to the core of the way photography began: “making” an image is definitely a large part of the process. If you want to know more about the amazing films that are out there, how to shoot film and how to become a more refined photographer, be sure to check out Jonathan Canlas’ Film Is Not Dead Workshop and Guide. I was very fortunate to meet Jonathan at last years Wallflower Friends Retreat and he is a photographic inspiration and a really cool person too.

This is some of my favorite work lately. It’s the type of work I really love and the type of work I’ve always loved. I am not quite sure why it stands out other than it is beautiful to me. Both images are technical disasters. I know I wouldn’t be able to sell this work to clients even though I love it and it’s really me and I want to see them both HUGE on my wall. I mean, who is going to get it anyway? Especially not the “friend” I went to grade school with who unfanned my Facebook business page and who tried to tell me I should be offering those cut-out stand-up photo thingys. Well…she’s not a client anyway.

But, I digress. I recently came across this article by Kirk Tuck when I went over to the Wallflower Friends Facebook page to maybe start a conversation about something that I lost the gumption to start a conversation on. At the same time, I’ve been writing a “play” book for a photography workshop I am planning later this year which addresses some of the issues he discusses in this blog post. He asks,

“What really needs to be published is a guide to help you find out what you want to photograph, why you want to photograph that subject and how to make a vision that is unique to you.  Any takers?  Who’s teaching that one?”

Well, I probably won’t go into massive detail about this in the workshop because as he stated, “…if you are selling a learning experience centered around technical stuff you can nearly always pack the house.” But, I will touch on all the important points about how to find your style before you try to sell your work to others and highlight why it’s so critical to stay true to your personal vision. I barely got exposed to this idea in an art degree program at a university so 20 years later, I am still trying to nail it down! I guess it’s not bad that it is a life long process. What’s difficult is all the distractions along the way to be like “the other photographers” who are so busy they can’t keep up with their own “processing and blogging.”

That isn’t what I want for my art. I do want to work with clients who understand and appreciate the work I create for them and for myself. I don’t want to be overwhelmed by swarms of exuberant mothers wanting the latest, greatest photographic prop in their kids’ shot. I want to make images of real people who are content with themselves and those around them. And I want to have time for real, personal moments with those around me. And I am doing it right now and I need to stop forcing the organic process.

So, if you are trying to find your personal style, keep on trying and don’t worry too much about what camera you have, what flash you use and what you’re good at. Just follow your heart and do what you love most.

Shot on expired Kodak BW400CN film with a Nikon EM and 50mm manual focus lens. Because you can’t use electronics during take-off and landing, I decided to carry my completely analog 35mm camera to WPPI. I bought this camera to take with me on my sailing trip in 2002 just in case my electronic film camera went out on me (just like it did when I was in a Schmetterling Haus in Austria back in 1991 and had no metering system for the better part of my trip through Venice, Italy. Live and learn).