My Favourite Way to Shoot Film

I don’t shoot as much film as I used to. So I have to make it count these days. And I don’t mean make it count like make sure I’m doing good pictures. That is a part of it, of course. But I more mean, if I’m going to spend time doing this, it’s got to be worthwhile. It’s got to be a good use of my time. I’ve got to enjoy it.

A few years ago, I enjoyed doing stuff like going to a ruined abbey in England and taking my time shooting it with some Ilford Delta 100 in a Yashica Electro (that I actually bought years ago from Dmitri, who runs this very site, no less).

Shooting a sharp film in an old camera with a sharp lens. Good for showing off the quality and qualities of both. But not something I enjoy doing anymore.

Here’s an image from that day.

It’s fine for what it is, but it’s not really the kind of thing I want to spend my time doing anymore.

I prefer getting out into a town or city. Ideally on a sunny day. Load some contrasty ISO 400 monochrome film into an easy-to-use camera and get a bit dirty.

I really like the original Soviet Lomo LC-A. When it works, I mean. And it doesn’t always work. As I write this, I need to get mine fixed. But it did work on the day I shot these images on some JCH Street Pan 400.

Mostly.

You’ll see later when it didn’t.

Let me walk around a town or city — like Nottingham as I did here — with a camera and film combo like this when the light is good and I’ll be a happy man.

I’ll shoot the first few frames of the roll to warm up, and then I’ll probably go for a pint.

And then I’ll come back and shoot some more.

People might look at you, but that’s cool. The Dutch courage helps me look confident back.

But most of all, and what I find makes my photography better, is that it makes me care less.

I don’t mean careless.

I mean more carefree.

I feel like the Lomo LC-A is often misunderstood and underappreciated.

A vehicle for pop colours and vignettes, happy accidents, and crap pictures considered something because Lomography.

It might be some of that, but it’s a whole lot more also.

It’s my favourite camera for the kind of photography I’m publishing here, and it's capable of better pictures than perhaps a lot of people who have never played with one realise.

The best advice I ever got regarding photography was that the subject of a photograph is always the light.

You can disagree with that, you can dispute it, you can find exceptions to the always bit. I don’t care. As a general rule, it’s helped me more than anything else I’ve heard when it comes to taking photographs that I like.

To me, an interesting thing in crap light will never make a more visually pleasing image than a mundane thing in good light.

Juggling chainsaws is more impressive than walking, but we’re not talking about human feats here.

We’re here for the art of photographs, and someone doing something as ordinary as walking past an ordinary shop, but in good light, will always be more visually pleasing from a photography perspective than something exceptional being photographed in flat light.

As I said earlier, my Lomo LC-A is my favourite camera when it works. But with it being a Lomo LC-A, it doesn’t always work as well as I wish it did.

I’ve had an issue recently with it not advancing frames properly.

I’m getting some overlapping. Like on the right and then the left of the ones here.

What’s good, though, is being able to stitch them together in PS to make some overlapping multiple exposure panoramic shots. :)

Yeah, the Lomo LC-A isn’t perfect, and don’t be surprised if it malfunctions.

But if it does, why not see if you can make something out of what it gave you in the process?

I’ve already told you I like the Lomo LC-A, but I need to mention it again and also say that I’ve always liked the results I got from JCH Street Pan 400, too.

And I think on this day in Nottingham, they both came together to really give me some images worth sharing.

But I can’t give all the credit to the camera and film. I need to give myself some too. :)

It was me that took both of them out and shot them. And in the way I most like doing. My favourite way to shoot film.

I might dabble again in the future, but I’m going to mostly leave the landscapes and portraits, and the pastel-shaded houses on Portra and gas stations on CineStill, to other people now.

Gimme some ISO 400 monochrome, gimme an LC-A, and gimme enough money for a couple of pints throughout the afternoon.

That’s my favourite way to shoot film, and the kind of shots you’ve seen here are my favourite kind to make.