Established as a principality in the mid-14th century, the small medieval state of Moldova is best known for its fierce resistance against the Mongols and Turks, up until the 17th century. In a 350 years span of continuous war (mid 15th century to late 18th), devastation, rebuild, and more war, Moldova was one of the main Christian …
Monastery of Varzaresti, Moldova – resistance through faith and tradition Read More
When I have shot in film commercials for television and music clips with an Aaton XTR camera and Super 16mm format, I have always used negative film to be able to balance the lighting of the different shots. But when it comes to photography I prefer to work with reversal film, whether it’s color or black and white. There is something special about the slides and I like to see them in a light box, or projected on a screen where you can see all the richness of the image.
There are plenty of reasons to shoot film. If you are one who swears by the choice of film stocks, there is now one more reason for film. Adox Color Mission probably does not need an introduction here. Despite the shipping costs, I decide to order only a single role on the day of introduction. Not just because, you know, who knows what it’s like, but also because it’s an interesting experiment of its own to test a film with just 36 shots.
For those of you who haven’t heard of this film I’ll start with Adox’s sales copy:
ADOX has released Color Mission – a film with delicately vibrant minty greens, peachy reds, airy grain and a purpose at the core. The name is intentional: those small 35mm rolls are on a big mission to give the analog community a beautiful product while investing into the future of film research and production, which is one of the most sophisticated challenges in the analog industry.
It is fun to experiment, and to learn. I think one of the (many) exciting things about film photography, at least to me, is the anticipation just after developing the film and looking at the negatives for the first time.
These particular experiments were not necessarily planned. Wendell Cheek, also a reader of this blog, contacted me after reading one of my recent blogs on Rollei films via Instagram. Wendell asked me if I would be interested in comparing some of her expired 35mm film stocks and write a blog post about it. She said the film has been bulk loaded, and stored in her freezer for the last 40 years! Of course, I was intrigued, and a week later I received several rolls of 135 film from Wendell. It was perfect timing as the next day I was leaving for a short trip to the Minnesota North Shore.
