From Film to Phone and Back

I returned home from a recent iPhoneography workshop in Venice, Italy through Il Chiostro with tons of material, skill and ideas for new creations.

Ironically, one of the first things I did, when my soul caught up with my body across 9 time zones, was root through my old heavy camera gear. Dan Burhkolder of Platinum Paladium, Digital Negative and iPhoneography fame was the workshop instructor and he had told us about a Jack’s Camera, a great place to liquidate pounds of old photo glass.  “Tell them Dan sent you!” he said.

I unpacked my Contax 645 body, purchased many years ago, along with 2 film backs, a Polaroid back (those were the days) a Planar 80mm f2.0 and an Apo-Maker Planar 120mm f4.0. The counter on one of the film backs still read 4.  The green LowePro Nova 4 that held all these treasures was dusty and one of the two Lithium batteries was dead.

After a comfortable evening spent researching reviews and sale prices, I found a curious and rebellious resurgence in the use of medium format from wedding to corporate event photography.  (If you’re curious, here are a few names: Jose Villa, Jonathan Canlas, Ryan Muirhead, Jessica Claire, Laurence Kim, Paul Bohman.)

My own photographic career spans film to phone from 4 x 5 with the upside down and backwards view screens, medium format (defacto film unless you have $17k for a digital back) through Photoshop, Lightroom and Photomatix to phones including a little purple Lotus LG, Blackberry and finally, an iPhone with the latest photography releases in iPhone and iPad apps.

It may seem a little crazy in the face of the iPhoneography rush, which I must say I’ve fully bought into over the past 18 months, but not only am I going to keep my film based cameras but I am also adding them back into my phone and digital repertoire and practice.

Just the other day I was asking one of the admins at work for a glue stick.  She said, “You are ‘old school!”.  But “old school” medium format has become “new school” perhaps because of the contrast to all digital iPhoneography.

And I like both “new schools”! So here, on this blog, you’ll find posts about all things photographic, from “recipes” for app stacking to applications for film as well as any insights on living that this practice yields.  I hope you enjoy and I look forward to your advice, experience and comments as well.

Jennifer Hartnett-Henderson

~From film to phone…and back!