Analogue Photography Monthly - March 2023
Headlines, good reads, lomography homes, film updates, adventures to the Canary Islands, affordable TLRs, and more!
Hello lovely analogue enthusiasts!
Here we are at the end of March and I have a newsletter for you bursting with all the film vibes so let’s not waste anymore time with a lengthy introduction. I have added a few new segments to this month’s newsletter so check out the following table of contents to see what you are getting yourself into before it’s too late.
In this newsletter, you can find:
recent headlines in film photography
recommended reading
sharing lomography home pages
asking you to get involved!
my film adventures for the month
If you are new here, then welcome welcome and I hope you enjoy this dose of analogue enthusiasm.
I am also recording an audio voiceover of this newsletter which you can listen to here. I will also put it over on the spotify and youtube podcast sections so you should be able to find it there as well!
If you enjoy listening to content rather than reading or watching, I’ve also already put a test episode up on Youtube podcasts since they have recently added this feature. It’s an audio file of one of my videos talking about street photography. Let me know what you think!
Spotify link here.
A reminder, as the Frugal Film Project has shown us, you can still shoot film cheaply so don’t let the price hike water cooler talk get you down.
Recent Headlines
Atlanta Film Co. brings us an exciting limited stock release of KOJI 125T at $12.99 (USD) - read more about it here.
Lupus Imaging & Media brings out Half Frame camera under AgfaPhoto brand: link here.
2021 LomoChrome Purple Pétillant Now Available to Pre-Order in Medium Format. Read more about it here.
VALOI Launches IndieGoGo Campaign for “easy35” Making Quality 35mm Scanning Effortless and Compact. Read it here.
A Kickstarter Campaign for The Rocketgirl Chronicles Brings Backyard Space Travel to Print. Check it out here.
The Dunkbot from Reveni Labs Automates Processing Film At Home. Read it here.
Late Addition: FUJIFILM Pauses Domestic Orders of Various Films Due to Supply Chain Shortages. Read here.
Recommended Readings
Jodi Ettenburg: I’ve followed her blog and writing since she was a travel blogger, but since her battles with spinal CSF leaks, her writing has taken a different path. She often provides hope in dealing with the despair that comes from coping with terrible chronic medical conditions with little to no chance of a cure. Many days I need exactly this, though mine is not so severe as hers, still her email newsletters are always very welcome in my inbox.
Eva zu Beck: Adventurer who writes a newsletter worth checking out, especially if you are interested in seeing women crush it in the adventure space!
Often to believe we can do something, we need to see others do it or be inspired by others going for it. For women, it’s incredibly important to have role models in the adventure space be highly visible to demonstrate there are hardly any limits when you put your mind to something and don’t give up. https://evazubeck.com
Lomography Homes (new section!)
Lomography has built an incredible website and each time I visit, I say to myself:
“Wow…this is what I like to see in a social photography site”
It’s similar to Flickr for film photographers.
If it’s so good, why is Lomography’s social site not as popular as Instagram then?
For starters, there is no mobile app.
So this immediately makes it difficult for anyone to use on a phone, which is where many people spend their time these days.
Regardless of this, I enjoy using it on my laptop and have turned on email notifications (something I rarely do) for a weekly update & activity report.
I’m adding this new section to the newsletter, a space to shout out Lomography Homes that I really enjoy and want to share.
Let’s kick it off…
Focal Matter is now on Lomography! Give his page here some love, he has a hilarious Youtube channel and I enjoy watching the shenanigans accompanied by film cameras and photos. Which, if you watch his latest Kodak Gold video, are so good!! Even though he says it’s childish humour, I enjoy this and find it important to stay connected to your inner child through life.
Katanga is another great Lomography home I recently followed! See it here.
I love what is written in the profile, “I've been in love with photography since ever, but after several years of digital, I almost forgot how to shoot with analog cameras. Fortunately, during a garage renovation I found my dad's old 35 mm "Vilia" from the Soviet era, it brought me back a lot of good memories as almost all my childhood photos were taken with it. I cleaned it and with a little maintenance I realized that it still works perfectly. Then I decided to try analogue photography again after more than 15 years. So here I am back to shooting some films and making my Canon DSLR jealous of this enduring masterpiece of analogue technology.”
vicccf from Kaohsiung/Taiwan is my last share of the month. The photos are incredible! Check it out here.
Get Involved!
Anyone up for getting more involved with this newsletter? :)
I’d love to get to know you more, especially those of you who have recently signed up! So, I’m opening up the floor to you.
Share a recent photo with me that you like and why you like it. To do this, tag me on Instagram or send me an email at molly@eclectachrome.com.
Leave me a voice message and tell me about your favourite camera, or film stock, or town to shoot in. Use my Spotify Podcaster link here to do it or simply send me a voice message (using any voice recorder) to my email molly@eclectachrome.com.
Answer this question in the comments below, What film stock is loaded in your camera right now? Or soon to be loaded? Or what was the last film stock you shot?
I’ll share your input in the next newsletter! Leave me a comment below to let me know you sent one in case I miss it. If you don’t want me to share it publicly, then let me know. :)
This should go without saying, but I’m gonna say it anyways! Please if you send me something, no profanity on the voice message and don’t send me any photos of nude people or anything saucy. It will not be reshared. Keep it clean folks!
For voice messages, I’ll do a voiceover/podcast reading of the next newsletter and include them there.
Looking forward to hearing from you!
Ok, let’s move on to…
March Film Adventures
Frugal Film Project Updates
In the last update in February, I hadn’t received my scans back from the lab for February’s Frugal Film roll.
So, we are doubling up this month!
This is February’s results:
And this is March’s:
Tenerife - A Half Frame Adventure
I spent a week in Tenerife with a friend exploring the island’s amazing photogenic landscapes and towns.
Having elected the cheapest flight option, I squeezed a week’s worth of clothes and two film cameras into an EasyJet “under-the-seat” bag. Tucked in my lead-lined film travel bag were five rolls of black and white and five rolls of colour. Plus the roll of Rollei Superpan 200 I forgot was loaded in the Fujica Half. Oops.
It was fine, actually. The airport scanners didn’t seem to fog it in the slightest.
With the two half-frame cameras, I shot roughly 720 images during the week. Thank you to Mario Piper for that math! :) If you haven’t listened yet, Mario and Julie and Suzanne kindly let me join their super cool Gen X Photography podcast for an episode. Listen here!
Side note: Marking down that I have a few to dos from this episode.
Make a video comparing Bourbon Biscuits and Custard Creams (and perhaps other popular UK biscuits too)
Next up on the experiments list is exposing to a paper negative in a pinhole camera. Or as Julie says, any camera this is possible with!
Try Haggis (hmmm this one might take awhile)
Make “Shoot Film Be Happy” T-Shirts :)
Soooooo, back to the track, I’ve processed the black and white rolls and am currently waiting on the lab for the colour ones.
Look forward to some fun Tenerife videos coming to a Youtube near you soon!
Seagull TLR - The Affordable Rolleiflex
This affordable TLR is a stunner.
From what I can dredge up on the internet, the Seagull TLR was introduced in or around 1964 in the Shanghai area. The Seagull name is also branded on folders, SLRs, and even rangefinders.
They are significantly cheaper than their German (Rollei) or Japanese (Yashica or Minolta) counterparts but stack up in quality as I’ve recently found. I’d go so far as to say I prefer the Seagull over my previous Yashicamat 124G.
The above image is from a brief visit to Shrewsbury, UK.
On another day, we had a sudden snowstorm blow into Cardiff early one morning and then melted as soon as it arrived. I expected it wouldn’t last long, so I got out as soon as I woke up and shot a roll of HP5 under the cover of a small umbrella.
After going inside to warm up a bit, I headed back out with my video cam to record some of the scenes in 4K.
Something Fresh
What do you think?!
I’m all in on the 90s right now. But I’ll always love the 90s, this was my childhood. It so happens, that the colour schemes of the 90s, especially this purple, work really well with my skin tone, being a “Winter”.
If you don’t know what I’m talking about, there are certain colours that match well with certain skin tones and hair colour. These are often characterized by season, Winter-Autumn-Summer-Spring.
I remember a moment between me, my mother, my grandmother, and an auntie talking about what colours look best on me. We might have been shopping or going shopping, which I always despised. I wanted to wear my soccer shorts and sweatshirts all the time. Dresses, yuck!! Funny how things change. Anyways, this was the first time they told me I was a Winter. It was a lovely maternal familial moment. Too bad I preferred Autumn colours. Or now wear mostly black. But I can’t argue with colour science and “Winter” colours and their jeweled tones do me the best favors without a doubt.
So anyways, I’ve got a new fun, funky, fresh design to celebrate all things 90s including most of all, film being around and vibrantly so. Woo! (pumps fist in air).
Signing Off
Well, that’s all for this week folks, looking forward to hearing from you if you do send me something. Otherwise, see you next month!
If you want MORE of what you just read or you’d like to support the newsletter/channel to keep going, you can also become a paid subscriber on Substack here :)
Cheers,
Molly
♥️♥️ such a great read, thank you
Excellent information as always! I have been in lomography for some time now and never realized other areas to explore other than the main photo page or shopping! This definitely opened my eyes to some other super cool places to see cool work! Hugely informative as always and easy to read and get drawn into!!!