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| Fuji Velvia 50 4x5 Slide of Hong Kong Harbor from Victoria's Peak |
So excited!!! I just received about 50% of the slide film and all of the Velvia I shot on my trip to Japan, China, and Hong Kong. Now I'm going to take some time to talk about both the photos but also film. Let me make something clear. I'm not anti digital. Those of you who spend a lot of time with me might think I am since I do talk about how much I love and enjoy film, and the positives it brings to the table. I shoot digital quite a bit and greatly enjoy the convenience of instant images. I feel now in the digital age anyone can learn to take good photos quite quickly. That is awesome. The instant feedback digital cameras give, make it so easy to see your mistakes and correct them right away, without forgetting what it was that could have caused the mistake in the image. I don't hate digital I just have more respect for film and the photographers who use it. I'm going to stop now becasue I've said what I wanted to and I don't need to start preaching about film here. I'll save that for a different post. Right now I just want to share some film magic with you.
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| Fuji Velvia 100 120 Slide Film Various Locations Around Japan |
Most of us have been around long enough to remember a time without digital cameras. No DSLRs, no cell phone cams, and no digital video recorders either. If you think back to those days, all of us shot film. Duh~ That was the only option. When digital came out, it was awesome, easy, and cheap. Most of us never looked back, I mean why would we. The future had come, so join. Now how many of you shot more than just a throw away camera? Hopefully most, but I know some of you haven't. As a kid I used my dad's Minolta SLR and became fond of shooting macro photography with a 200mm lens. I didn't know it was called that at the time, I just knew I liked the details I could see close up and the creamy bokeh of the background when I opened the lens wide open. I didn't know the rules, or names. I didn't know what aperture, depth of field, or anything was. All I really knew was how to use the in camera meter. I got a few great shots purely by accident and loved them. But more often than not, I would spend my hard earned cash on photos that were aesthetically just horrible. And becasue it usually was a week or longer from when I took the photos to getting the prints into my hands, I didn't know what I could do to do to improve. So maybe after a summer of shooting I gave up. This is one reason I know digital is very welcome to us. Cheep to shoot, easy to correct a shot.
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| Fuji Velvia 50 4x5 Slide Film Clock Tower on Kawloon side of Hong Kong Harbor |
Why would I ever want to go back to no knowing if i got the shot? Why would I want to possible pay for a junk frame that wasn't exposed correctly? Why would I want to go back? Very easy to answer. A few simple reasons. Magic, Romance, and Discipline. (maybe a good book title no?)
I'll start off with the magic of it all. Digital photography was magical maybe the first time we experienced it. It was so new we couldn't help but be dazzled. But I think the razzle dazzle is long gone from digital as a capturing medium. But there is magic in film. Many old school photographers who spent the greater part of their careers using film might cures film's existence now that digital is hear since digital makes their jobs less stressful. These people usually disagree with me. I'm not in love with film becasue it is convenient because it really isn't. I think that is obvious. The magic is in the not knowing how your image will look like. The magic is in the planing your shot very carefully. The magic is in knowing you can't edit and your image will be pure. And my most favorite part of the magic is getting some physical back from the lab that you can touch and and share. I physical captured an image with chemistry on a physical medium. Sadly looking at these photos digitally just isn't the same. In person, it is like you are really looking into a portal to the actual place I photographed. The quality is just fantastic. The photos you see here are a little dark since I just shot them with my camera. (Ironic, a digital camera capturing film) When I scan them they won't be so dark.
I don't know how many of you have ever used slide film before. I hadn't until this year. If you like colors in photos, you should pick of a roll of slide film while you still can. Unfortunately I don't believe these films will be around much longer. Already I can't get my slides developed locally. I have to ship them out to Denver CO. Slide film is what all the National Geographic photographers used up until they started going digital. Give the magic a try. You can't really understand unless you try for yourself.
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| Fuji Velvia 100 120 Slide Film Locations in Japan |
The Romance of film. The ideal photographer for a story, movie, or model is a photographer who has a film camera. Film cameras come in all shapes and sizes and produce all different kinds of images. The romance of man and a light sensitive box exploring with world, copying what they see and later working in a dark room to finally see what they got, is just great. This lifestyle is dying out. Sure there are still plenty of photographers traveling the world shooting photos but it just isn't the same. They are taking 100 x more photos than ever and it is rare if any ever get printed. Professional DSLRs are being used to shoot tasteless bathroom selffies in the mirror or someone's meal at a restaurant. There is just something about film that just screams to be printed. Printing in a dark room, just you and the chemicals. Maybe some music if that doesn't distract you from keeping time.
When I was traveling through Kyoto Japan back in October of 2012, i was wielding both a digital and film camera. But the city was so old and thematic that I kept my film camera out most of the time. I just shot through a roll of 220 film and found a shady spot to reload. A lady approached me and accused me of using film like it was a sin. She said "you're using film!" in the tone a mother might use if she caught her child sneaking back home with an empty can of spray paint. She continued to say "You should give up film" like I was was doing some disservice to the photographic community by shooting film. I almost burst out laughing at her. Her attitude made no sense to me. I showed her that I was also using a digital camera so she would leave me alone, but I noticed that after that she seemed to become more irritated when she saw that I was continuing to use my film camera. I just thought "You aren't romantic." A street photographer named Charlie Kirk I've followed online said something like, Image quality isn't everything. I think that the journey to get the image is more important. Film is part of my journey. There is not right or wrong.
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| Fuji Velvia 50 4x5 Slide Film Mountain Top at Sun Set in Japan |
The discipline of photography is something I think is lost in digital photography. Imagine what riding a bike would be like if the bikes of tomorrow automatically balanced, automatically petaled forward, and had GPS navi and auto pilot. Maybe the 10-year-olds of today would love that. All this stuff would seem cool. Make the feet a whole lot easier. But you may say, that doesn't sound like fun at all. Down right lazy right? I agree. This is how I see photography in a digital age. The kid with a bike like this will never actually learn how to ride a bike. It gets the job done but there is a lot missed. Now again I'm not a digital hater. I'm just a film lover. I have more respect for photography shot on film. It is more difficult and requires a discipline that is lacking today. I'm not saying you can't be disciplined using a digital camera, just that it doesn't push you towards it like film does. I want to be a master in my art and that to mean means being able to get the image I want with any tool. The is a pride that come with a job well done when I create an image solely on skill. I'm not afraid or against using features when I have them but I want to be able to do just as good without them. This discipline I believes helps me understand photography more and open up my mind to creative possibilities.
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| Fuji Velvia 100 120 Slide Film Icons of Japan |
Let me talk a little about the tools I used to create what you see here. The big sand alone slide are 4x5 sheet film. This means the film is much bigger than a 35mm cell. 4x5 film is just that, 4" x 5". The lage size of the film means that when printed grain will be much smaller than in 35mm film. Also since this film is many time larger than 35mm, 4x5 can be printed much larger without detail loss. Detail is incredible on 4x5 film, especially B&W film and color print film.
I use a Wista 45 4x5 field camera, to shoot 4x5 film. It isn't light. I carried that think up a mountain, racing the sun to try to shoot the sun set before it was too late. I felt sore fore days after. But the image quality made it all worth it. This camera gives you a real work out that is for use.
The images in strips of three are all on 120 film. 120 film is also much bigger. I cut the strips here to be easier to photograph, but normally a roll of 120 film can hold 12 images. 120 film is called medium format. Shooting medium format film is the only situation shooting film is cheaper than digital. Digital medium format cameras such as Hasselblad or Phase One cost $40,000+. The depth of field on a medium format camera is great and it creates this unique separation effect of the subject from the background and foreground.
I use many different cameras ranging in different qualities from pro to toy. These photos were shot on a Russian Kiev 6c and a Japanese Fujipet (toy camera).
Tag :// 120,
Tag :// 4x5,
Tag :// camera,
Tag :// film,
Tag :// Fuji,
Tag :// Fujifilm,
Tag :// fujipet,
Tag :// Hong Kong,
Tag :// Japan,
Tag :// Kiev,
Tag :// Light Sensitive Images,
Tag :// Logan,
Tag :// Photography,
Tag :// reversal,
Tag :// Runyon,
Tag :// Slide film,
Tag :// Velvia
So yesterday I had a great time shooting with my model for the hour, Shin. I found this great location behind a department store and i thought to myself "This would look really cool as the sun goes down, and would be a great place to learn how to use my mono light by playing around with it." This guy cuts my hair while i'm here in Japan. His passion is street fashion that is unique to Japan so i found it fitting to ask him to pose here in the element that his clothing fits. Really there wasn't any point to this shoot apart from trying to figure out this new expensive piece of equipment that i bought. For all geeks and photogs out there I'll go over some of the challenges. Fist off, this obviously is a digital photo which i shot RAW, but my main format and camera choice was film. I was using the digital basically as a light meter since i don't own a fancy light meter. Basically I wanted to underexpose the background to create contrast and really show the mood of the place. The biggest challenge was the film camera i intended to use flash sync was a max of 1/30 second. (really slow) If you haven't used a flash before basically shutter speed controls how much ambient light enters the camera. At 1/30, a lot of light is being let in, so i had to wait until the sun was setting which meant i had 15min to shoot in that light. Because the shutter speed is so slow I couldn't get as shallow depth of field as i would have liked. I would have liked to have shot at f5.6 to make the background a little less detailed, but the slow flash sync forced me to shoot at f22-f16. Also I'm new to using a studio flash so I was just moving the mono light around until i found the position i liked. not familiar at all with lighting arrangements. This is also why I used the my digital Nikon to see what the image would look like.
The digital Images aren't great but that is becasue i didn't proses them yet. they are still how the RAW files looked out of the camera. They look pretty good which gives me hope for the negatives i shot to look amazing out of the lab.
Also I learned while i was shooting this that working with someone that doesn't speak your languages is a challenge. I didn't take into account that every time i was around him before i had a translator with me. She was working during the shoot. Also I should familiarize myself a little bit more with good poses becasue I wasn't really sure how i wanted him to look after i got set up. I didn't want it to look too much like a senior photo or a fashion shoot so i thought the poses i kind of showed him through charades would be ones you might see someone be in if he were just bumming around the place.
Well that is that. I definitely need more practice and become more familiar with the methods i need and the tools i am using, but that is exactly what this shoot is about. I didn't know what i needed to know before and now i do.
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| Kabutomushi Feeding |
Today I'm writing you about The Beetles in Japan. No no not the band the beetles but actual beetles and the popularity of keeping them as pets. The Kabutomushi also known as Trypoxylus Dichotomus is many boys' and even some girls' pets. These critters are so popular that Japan even has a Holiday for them in some parts of Japan. Also they often appear in advertising as cute little cartoons, just as a bear, mouse, cat or dog would in the USA. In the USA you might see a kids TV show with robot space dinosaurs. It is the same in Japan except they are robot space beetles.
In the spring, bug nets, bug tanks, mulch, food, and bate appear for sale, and kids all around Japan buy into bug hunting. You could just be a geeky boy or girl who is interested in catching a bug to observe, but for most boys the motivation for catching these critters is for battle. The Kabutomushi is able to lift hundreds of times it's own body weight, and it's shell is very hard. Kids love to battle these bugs. Kids think it is so much fun and looks cool, one beetle lifting another above its head and tossing it down to its defeat. Many Japanese mothers protest this and forbid their boys from participating. I believe it isn't cruel to the animal. They aren't pinching each other to death. In the whild they do this fighting over a mate. Up in the tree tops if you can toss all the other males to the ground, you win. Their pincers don't squeeze the live out of each other and the hard shell protects them. Plus the lifespan of the beetle in the while and in captivity is only a few months. They are more likely to die from you not feeding them properly than in battle. So am I pro beetle fighting? You bet I am. It is a good competitive active activity for young boys. If they are out catching bugs and battling their friends, it means they aren't sipping soda in front of the TV.
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| Male Kabutomushi |
Believe it or not they are really good models. most of the time they have no desire to go anywhere. (pretty lazy bugs) The just sit where I put them. if they try to move they can't get traction on the paper i set them on so they still don't go anywhere. Note, they can fly, but mime have yet to try. I think you would agree they look pretty cool photographed on the endless white background. Today I plan to shoot them with my large format camera.
In the next day or two I will let them go in the wild. I'm sure customs won't let me bring them home alive and it would just be a pain to try packing them. They belong in Japan. They were fun to shoot, watch, and play with.
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| Male Kabutomushi |
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| Male Kabutomushi |
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| Male Kabutomushi |
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| Female Kabutomushi |
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| Female Kabutomushi |
Contacting me doesn't have to be very difficult. I think it is lame when you go to the contact info section of a Blog or a Website and it really help you out. So maybe I'm totally wrong but I'm going to assume that you are on this page becasue you want to get a hold of me. And I'm also going to assume that you are here becasue contacting me through, commenting on this blog or messaging me on the Facebook page, isn't how you want to go about reaching me. I know sometimes it just isn't how you want to get in contact with someone. So I'm not going to give you nothing, or tell you to just contact me here like a lot of people do. I'm going to try to help you out a little with a few options.
Here are the best two ways to reach me if you need to apart from the sites.
TEL: 269-684-2448 (land line. TXT won't reach me.)
EMAIL: cameralabstyle@yahoo.com
FAX: (what are those?)
If you need anything more than this, please ask for it through email or give me a call.
Hope that gives you what you want.
Here are the best two ways to reach me if you need to apart from the sites.
TEL: 269-684-2448 (land line. TXT won't reach me.)
EMAIL: cameralabstyle@yahoo.com
FAX: (what are those?)
If you need anything more than this, please ask for it through email or give me a call.
Hope that gives you what you want.
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| Walking home in Ogaki Japan at sunset |
Hello everyone. I am Logan Runyon, and I have a passion for photography. This little blog is my attempt at sharing my passion with all of you out there on the inter web. The world is an amazing place full of visual candy and I wish to share all of the candy I am privileged to partake of.
I will be posting photos from traveling. I really love traveling and seeing new sights, I just can't help myself from bringing some if it home with me on my camera. I have always really enjoyed viewing other photographers photos. I was so glad they posted them for all to see because those images really did take me on a journey around the world when I couldn't and was stuck at home. I hope you will feel the same way about my photos as I post them. Let me take you visually along with me, and save you a ton of money by paying all the travel expenses for you.
I will be posting work I have done for clients when they allow it. If you are interested in some photographic services I am available. Please contact me about what you have in mine and we will see if I can help you out. Go here for contact info.
I will post about things i learn about photography also. Really this blog is all about sharing. Feel free to ask questions on posts or comment. I really appreciate the feedback. Also feel free to share relevant info or links.
Check back often, or follow the Facebook page to seen new posts as they pop up.
I will be posting photos from traveling. I really love traveling and seeing new sights, I just can't help myself from bringing some if it home with me on my camera. I have always really enjoyed viewing other photographers photos. I was so glad they posted them for all to see because those images really did take me on a journey around the world when I couldn't and was stuck at home. I hope you will feel the same way about my photos as I post them. Let me take you visually along with me, and save you a ton of money by paying all the travel expenses for you.
I will be posting work I have done for clients when they allow it. If you are interested in some photographic services I am available. Please contact me about what you have in mine and we will see if I can help you out. Go here for contact info.
I will post about things i learn about photography also. Really this blog is all about sharing. Feel free to ask questions on posts or comment. I really appreciate the feedback. Also feel free to share relevant info or links.
Check back often, or follow the Facebook page to seen new posts as they pop up.
Happy Seeing and Reading. Cheers.
