A French military man waiting as the train rolls by in a Paris Metro station.
An old water well at a wonderful bed and breakfast in Aix-En-Provence.
Another vendor booth filled with beautiful peonies on Rue Cler in Paris.
A little mini patiently waiting for its owner to take it for a spin in the rain.
Hope you enjoyed a few snippets from France captured on film using a Nikon Fm3a and Fuji Pro 400h.
One of my all time photography idols is Jose Villa. At one point, I was showing Ryan so many of his images that Ryan’s standard reply before he even knew what I was about to show him was: “I know babe, Jose is a great photographer.” To which I would tell him, “But you have to come see this one. It’s so good!” After listening to several interviews and reading articles about him, I came to realize that he does not use filters, Photoshop actions, or even much of any post processing – because he shoots film. Initially, my juvenile experience did not allow me to believe that he could achieve his incredible colors without hours and hours of post processing or using some special Photoshop action. However, I have finally come to terms with the fact that Jose is just a truly great film photographer who relies not on his editing technique, but on his knowledge, schooling, and skill as a photographer. Jose is the reason I was inspired to want to try shooting with film and I have my dad to thank for gifting us his Fm3A film camera to use to go out and shoot away!
{Thanks Dad and I still owe you for it}!
And with that, I am so excited to share these film photographs shot with the Fm3A.
The beautiful Monica was kind enough to let me snap a few pictures of her while prancing around the pool! It takes a while to get used to traveling with me as I am never far from the camera and will do just about anything to “get the picture” – however, I have realized not everyone shares in this excitement {not even the Hubs}, so thank you Monica!
Yep, and I am just as happy to get my picture taken as I am to take one. Rachel Zoe, I am not, but for those inquiring minds, here ya are with a little outfit insight.
I am a nut for symmetry, so you bet I went crazy for this entrance to the La Quinta Resort. I loved it so much and wanted to capture it perfectly centered, so I walked all the way back down the driveway in 110 degree heat just to get this picture and I am so happy I did! 
I think I might have to blow this picture up and frame it on the wall some where in the house – the colors are just how I like it, all white with a touch of pink and vintage brown!!!!
xoxo
i love this picture so much. i love the beautiful colors of the water. i love the serene un-posed feeling. i love the exposure. and best of all, i love that man.
I took this picture with our Nikon Fm3a film camera. The Fm3a allows us the ability to enjoy photography in its simplest form: the subject, the camera, and the photographer. There are no extra ISO settings to contemplate or the vast lens selection to maneuver through {because we only have 2 that will work on it} and best of all there are not hours and hours of editing involved. The film camera is definitely under used in our house but when each picture costs close to $1.00 it is hard to grant anything in our life film worthy {i am frugle what can i say}! Anyway, I am always so happy when we get the email from Richards Photo Lab letting us know that our film is ready because I love seeing the results and makes me love photography even more!
****And because I have been asked several times the difference between the film and digital pictures and how our film pictures appear on the blog, I guess it is not obvious to all. So here, ya go! We send our roll of film to Richards Photo Labs who then develops the film {just like the old days} based on specific color profiles which I have been working with them on. Once the negatives are developed, Richards Photo Lab then scans the negatives and creates a digital .jpg and sends us an FTP site where we can download the images and store just like our digital files! As a bonus, they will print the roll of film for you for $4 – so you actually get a printed picture as well {i love that part}******
We shoot digital. We edit digital. We print digital.
But, I lust after FILM! How do I know this? When planning our own wedding I realized every photographer I fell in love with (Bret Cole, Jill Thomas, & Jose Villa just to name a few) used film! Film – really? Why did they use film? Because they didn’t want to pay to upgrade their equipment? Because they were “old school” and not current with the times?
At the time, I did not understand why they still used film, but after spending the last two years analyzing photographs and attempting to learn the ins and outs of photography, I now understand why they still choose to shoot film…..because it is simply stunning. The color, creamy skin tones, and pure beauty is just something you cannot obtain no matter how many Photoshop actions you try to run on your 20MB digital picture.
Over Christmas my Dad kindly gifted us his Nikon FM3a, a completely manual film camera – manual focus, manual aperture ring, manual shutter speed, manual film advancement! This required us to put what we had learned the last few years to the test and trust that our skills were up to the challenge.
While these pictures are a far cry from those of the film masters mentioned above, they are a start and for some reason I feel extremely proud to have actually captured something because I did have my doubts that we would end up with completely white pictures! These are our very first pictures ever developed and are all straight from the negatives, no post-processing or editing (talk about a time saver!)
I am so happy to share part of our life with you captured on film. There is something enduring about film and its permanent nature that makes me want to go back for more!
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Taking a quick walk around town is a great way to end a week and start a new one. Here are some shots from ours today, hope you enjoy!
Shan loves to do hand stands, it’s one of the many tricks left over from her youth as a competitive gymnast. It’s been many years since she’d done her old beam routine but without any hesitation she jumped right up on the Venice Beach balance beam and got to it! Me and many bystanders on the beach were very impressed with her skills. She got some applause and an elderly man called it “just beautiful,” I agreed.
Of course there was just a bit of rust,
But don’t worry everybody, if you look closely she’s actually smiling during the fall. After we dusted the sand off, she was good to go.
It has been a big month for our buddy Charlie, awesome new job, big move to San Diego, his super beautiful girlfriend said “YES” and is going to marry him!…
and…
…to top it off…
…she and his cousin threw him an awesome SURPRISE PARTY! He is on a roll! Shan and I are so happy for both Vivian and Chuck, they couldn’t be better people…Congratulations!!!
Kudos to Annie, Vivian and Cafe Bugaloo for putting together a great night!
Shan and I hadn’t been to Santa Barbara since our engagement so we were excited to visit. This time we had a great reason to celebrate! One of our best buds, Mike found out he passed the Bar exam so we rushed up the 101 to congratulate him personally. We had a dinner on State Street and stayed out late enjoying our old favorite bars, I love that place. Huge dinner, lots of a drinks, a few bars and a slice of pizza after last call it was a great night! During a walk around town and I was able to get this shot of Shan in a moment of observance, a split second before the inevitable.
Our Footprints..... 