Ulana and Stewart – film scans!

I shot film at Ulana and Stewart’s wedding, as well as digital (which are posted right here.)

When I started photographing weddings 10 years ago, I was shooting film, 100 per cent. Digital cameras back then weren’t up to snuff – there wasn’t the sensor technology there is today.

It was always stressful after a wedding, waiting to get those rolls of film back from processing, wondering whether or not things actually turned out as you envisioned.

You couldn’t fake it with film! You had to know what you were doing to get the shot you wanted; you had to look at your light meter, and not the back of your camera, to tell you what to do next. It involved far more precision and forethought than photography does today.

There was only 36 exposures on a roll. You had to think with each and every shot, not wanting to waste film, always concentrating on how many frames were left so you wouldn’t run out of shots a millisecond before the bride walked down the aisle, or something else important happened.

These days, I use 16gb cards, which hold over 1000 photos, and I carry 10 of those with me, so I can go all crazy if I want to. I can play around and experiment a lot. I sometimes wonder how I did it back then.

But I really love the quality of film – it’s something you can’t ever duplicate perfectly with digital. The softness, and glow, and the ever so lovely grain. It’s 100 per cent magic.

Thank you to Ulana and Stewart for being patient with me. Most of these shots are taken on a manual focus rangefinder camera, so I had to work more slowly and deliberately than with autofocus.

I discovered that I love using a rangefinder for candids because it’s small and unobtrusive, about the size of a typical point-and-shoot camera, but with amazing optics and engineering (Leica M6.)
These last 2 are taken with 3200ISO film, which you’d typically use in dark situations, like their reception. The lovely, big grain you see in these shots means that the film is more sensitive to light.

Hooray for rockin’ it old school!

(And in case you missed it, I’m doing 2 workshops for photographers in January, one in Toronto and one here in Edmonton. Details in the post below!)