Contax 645 versus Digital. My happy, inspiring journey to Spain.

March 11, 2015

Good morning everybody,

I haven’t been here for quite a while. I was busy with traveling, having photoshoots here in New Zealand, pulling out some pictures from awesome photoshoots last year and some time off for getting new ideas.

Last year I decided to travel to Spain to have an inspiring photoshooting with my awesome assistant Tatjana. I was really busy and so I had no time for myself and personal projects. After months of being busy it was time for jumping into a plane and just flying away. Tatjana and I got a two great Contax645 which are great film cameras from 711rent which they had to fly in all the way from Hamburg. We had so much fun shooting and trying many different things. It was the first time for me working with an old film camera. I called some photographers in advance to get an idea of what is important to take care of and read the books of José Villa and Elisabeth Messina who are working as film photographers. There are as well some german photographers that work on film which is really cool. Jeanie Micheel is creating some great work on film, her focus in on woman photography.

Having some Fuji 400H, Kodak and Ilford films in my bag and my Canon 5dMarkIII it was time for starting the fun project. We were traveling a lot a having photoshoots here and there. I was using as well my Digital Camera to compare the results afterwards and to have some pictures of the journey in case film wouldn’t work. Working with a Contax is really different. You have 16pictures on each film so you work in a another way. You think about each picture and each pose and communicate a lot with your subject until everything is perfect (or it is just the perfect moment). We overexposed the film to have nice and soft colors. Tatjana and I went to my favorite beaches that I knew from living on the island of Mallorca. It was fun being some years later on the island where my photography career started. Being back now full of experience in photography and working full time as a photographer. It were 2,5 days full of fun. An incredible journey. Carmencita Lab in Spain took care of the pictures. It was exciting to wait for the scans to be ready. It made me feel like my clients waiting for their wedding pictures to be ready. Once I got the mail with results, I couldn’t wait to open the folder. The file took like 2minutes to download and it was felt really long. I was kind of screaming and really happy when I saw the results. You know how woman act when they are really excited and happy. We did it, I screamed on the phone, during my phone call with Tatjana, jumping around in my apartment. I love the results. It is really cool to work here and there with a film camera. To have some similar results with a digital camera, I recommend using Presets like Candi, Mastin Labs and VSCO. It’s quite nice to use VSCO as a basic to create your own presets.

I think film photography makes you a different photographer, thinking about each image and creating ART. Enjoy the results of our journey and enjoy every day in life. Even a journey just for 2days can change your life and it helps really much to relax and to get some new IDEAS.

Hugs & greetings from New Zealand.

Michaela

Contax Fuji 400H

Contax 645, Fuji400H Contax versus Digital Canon Mark III-11 Contax 645 Fuji