Ill-equipped Black and White Film Shooting

I didn't get my second film camera lens until around 2021, when I worked on a music video and the cinematographer had a spare old zoom lens for the Canon AE-1 that he no longer needed. Before that, I was sticking close to the Canon FD 50mm F1.8 lens, a rather established setup within the film photgraphy world. Probably more so these days! I can't imagine what that setup would now cost with the constant increase in interest for film and film photography. Though, only having that 50mm F1.8 lens meant I was quite limited to where I could shoot sometimes, even if I annoyingly came across something that really made me feel something, and wanted to capture it. For those of you that run around with cameras, you'll know that 50mm is a focal length considered for portaits. Often just referred to as that: a portrait lens. But we all use it in everyday locations and events when not just shooting people.

I think everything I have shared here on Hive so far with the film camera has been shot with the 50mm F1.8 lens, but I have kept a few attempts hidden for a while because I considered them to be testers, or perhaps even failures given multiple reasons. In the case of these photographs, shot in 2019 in Barcelona, though my folders don't reveal what that black and white 35mm film stock actually was. I have a lot of photographs like these, ones where something just isn't right, or doesn't quite sit well with me as an image. Attempts to capture something that just didn't work. Perhaps from attempting to shoot in portrait, or perhaps with the wrong aperature and shutter speed that revealed too much light and blur into the image, as well as the already existing noise from the film stock itself.

Looking through the viewfinder, I remember noticing that Barcelona's incredibly beautiful, but thin streets were just not going to work with the 50mm focal length for the most part, what was needed was something much wider. The tall apartments on either side of the single lane streets devoured the usual space above where the sky would offer some separation. With no other option, I went for the portrait attempt. With such strong shadows and light shapes entering from multiple directions, it was hard to get the aperature and shutter speed perfect enough to not have that strong contrast appear in places you wouldn't really want it. Not much could be done there. But in a way, some of the images do look less more like a piece of art and more like a very dated glimpse at life before. Cobblestoned streets that wobble off into various curves in the distance. Buildings shaped as if they had been constructed with a mud that took hours to set, slowly drying off into small shapes that protrude from different angles. This was mostly found in the gothic quarters, but could still be seen in other areas where balconies would sit above the many apartments that sit above the commercial areas within the city.

Fortunately I now have a wider lens to use for these types of environments, but the current downside is the insane cost of film and development!

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