A few weeks ago Ashley was kind enough to let me borrow her Contax 645 medium format film camera for the weekend. pinch. me. Three days of holding that baby and I took the plunge into medium format and purchased my first 645 camera! A Mamiya 645 Pro. May seem crazy considering I hadn’t actually seen any of my images from Ashley’s camera, but hey! When something is right, its right, and let me tell you it was right. I could write a country love song about medium format. I have shot 35mm film for about a year and a half on my Papa’s old Canon AE-1, and I have always loved it. The downside of it is that I couldn’t ever quite get it to the quality I would like to give my clients. I love light leaks and grain for my own personal images, but not necessarily for my clients.  Maybe someday soon I will write a post about why I love 35mm film, but this post is dedicated to the dreamy 120! For me slowly gliding into 120 feels natural, and while I will never sacrifice my beloved digital (because believe me, we have a love that runs deep), I am so excited to start working film into shoots more and more!
So far the little Mamiya 645 I found on eBay and I have not been getting along great. A few glitches in the body here and there had me considering returning it for one in better condition, so we will see. For today I just wanted to share some images from Ashley’s Contax. I had a shoot planned that ended up getting cancelled but thanks to my sister who came to my rescue and allowed me to sneak her into our front yard for a little mini-shoot! I love these images because for once the color green is actually how I want it to look, her skin looks as it does in real life (something often sacrificed with digital) and her eyes are bright and alive! I still have SO much to learn, and by no means am saying these images are perfect, just that they make me happy. Also, she is basically Christmas colors so…. #elfing.
Leave a Reply