Hey there all you lovely people, it’s us, back again to fill you in on what we’ve been up to over the last couple of weeks. I’m fuelled by too many Easter eggs and the ill-judged optimism that Spring weather must be just round the corner, so lets go!
It was a banner day for the Sunny 16 Podcast on the 18th of March for many reasons. Number one with a bullet was that it was the first time the three of us have been in the same time at the same place! That place was the Photography Show 2018 at the NEC in Birmingham, a massive event crammed full of stuff and people. Luckily for us, we were joined by 8 other fine film photographers to help us navigate the chaos.
There wasn’t a great deal of analogue photography stuff at the show, to put it mildly, so here’s a quick rundown. Lomography‘s stand was great, chock full of fun analogue goodness, where many of us grabbed some film and eyed up the Lomo Instant Square. Speaking of instant, the Instax stand was another fun place to go, and a good time was had by all playing with the cameras and getting our pictures taken. Paterson were there as well with a great range of darkroom supplies, as well as a nice looking range of lights and tripods.
For most of our band of happy shooters though, there was one clear highlight – the Disabled Photographers Society stand. Every year the DPS collect donations of anything photography related from all over the country, and then sell it all over the space of 4 days at the Photography show. They had and incredible range of film cameras and accessories of every shape and size, and it was all selling VERY fast. Quite a few of our party went home with more cameras than they’d arrived with, and Rachel picked up 5!
Even if you aren’t remotely interested in digital photography there was still plenty to see at the show, from bags, lights and tripods to publishers, photo holidays and drones. For me though, the enjoyment I got from the show came purely from the people I met. Whether it was the awesome folks who joined us on the Sunday, the exhibitors who found time to be interviewed, or the random conversations we had with strangers about film photography, it was great to get out and connect with people. You can find our episode recorded at the Photography show HERE.
Speaking of connecting, one of the people we got to meet up with at the show was Simon Forster. Simon is an importer of lens mounts, seller of second hand cameras, vintage lens enthusiast and fellow podcaster on the Classic Lenses Podcast. With a CV like that we thought we had better get him on the show to pick his brains, and so Simon joined us for episode 94.
It was really good to get some insight into the characteristics of lenses from someone who is clearly passionate about them, and knows his stuff. It was also really interesting considering how we choose to use these lenses with a more defined personality, and how they can affect the way we shoot. The Classic lenses podcast is primarily aimed at people using vintage lenses on digital cameras, but most of the discussion is every bit as interesting to analogue shooters as digital – a lens is a lens after all!
Elsewhere in the analogue world the fine folks over at Dubble have released two funky new films into the world! Bubblegum and Monsoon join their existing films Moonstruck and Sunstroke and are available now. Dubble films are a fun creative choice for when you want something a bit different, and I particularly like the look of the two new additions.
In less great news, it looks like Fuji Acros is being discontinued. It’s an unsurprising yet sad move from Fujifilm as they slowly continue to moonwalk out of the analogue photography world. A great film, one of the defining characteristics of Acros 100 was it’s lack of reciprocity failure at long shutter speeds. This made it an excellent choice for pinhole, and will be much missed.
Still onwards and upwards. There are many many amazing films still on the market and more to come, we’re not going to be suffering from lack of choice any time soon.
On a more cheery note, it’s full on last minute panic mode here at Sunny 16 Towers as the Cheap Shots Challenge deadline looms. Entries have to be in by the end of Saturday 31st – that’s today! How have the hosts done on this round? You’ll have to wait till next Thursday to find out, but varying degrees of very badly seems like the best description.
That’s it for now, I’m off to try and resurrect my cross processed c41 negs by dipping them in bleach – what’s the worst that can happen? Tune in next week to find out! Until then you can find us on our snazzy new Podbean site, on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook, and you can get in touch via email – [email protected].
Until next time, as we had to keep saying at the Photography Show; stay alive, I will find you, and remember to shoot film and be nice.
The Sunbeams
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