…and a Studio Day with Friends

Welcome back. Thank you for waiting. I have been very busy with the new school year and photography stuff. I have managed to put quite a few things in the draft folder over the month break. It has been an interesting month and utterly exhausting.

This studio event could not have happened on a worse day for me. The day before, I had to call in sick from work and I was sure I would not be able to make it to the studio. To be fair, I wasn’t actually “poorly sick” as we say in our family, but I had muscle spasms and hadn’t slept at all. So, by the time I got to Light Spaces Studio, I was exhausted. I felt like I had run a marathon.

When I walked into the studio, I was asked a couple of questions by the others and then to load a camera. Both should have been easy for me, but I struggled. In the end, I went out to buy a snack for some energy. It worked, but I still felt off for the whole session. If it wasn’t a special birthday event arranged for a mutual friend by MandyLeft, I would have pulled out. She booked the studio and the two dancers/models.

Anyway, that is kind of how my month has been. But enough about me, how was the actual studio day?

The studio was lovely, with a few different areas. As we were meeting in the afternoon, I thought it was going to be darker in terms of light, so I took a couple of rolls of Delta 3200. They were for the Mamiya C2 I took with me. That camera had a top speed of 1/400th and it struggled in the bright light of the natural light area. It was perfect for the LED-lighted section though.

Both of the rolls I used had been stored in a freezer, but I took them out a few days before the studio day in order for them to thoroughly thaw out. Once I developed them, I found one had some damage. I have read that it might be caused by condensation or an issue with film sticking to the backing paper.

These are the results from that film. It was the first film I shot, when I was still a bit woozy. I think I also misloaded the film. When I took it out, I found the take-up spool wasn’t quite fitting right in the slot.

The second film didn’t show the same mottling, but I made a few errors in metering and winding on…hence the accidental double exposure.

Both films had at least 4 underexposed or double-exposure shots, simply due to tiredness. I am so pleased that these shots came out despite everything.

I took one more camera, a previously untested Minolta 505si hence the title of this post. It was a bit of a risk, but I had tested it without film and everything seemed okay. I wanted a polar opposite to the Mamiya, so I decided to use this fully automatic, autofocusing 35mm. I got it on eBay for less than £20 and the 50mm lens was gifted by a friend. I have a digital Sony camera, but no film body to make use of the lenses. So this camera purchase was made to address that gap.

The camera was produced around 1998. It had autofocus and a top speed of 1/4000th, so very different from the Mamiya C2. It is a simplified version compared to the SUPER version with more plastic parts.

I loaded it with a gifted Cinestill 800T. The speed and the EV range of the camera were a perfect fit for the different areas of the studio.

I loved using this camera, it was so quick to focus and easy to use. It handled all the lighting situations very well. The automatic nature of the camera was just what I needed for the day…just do everything for me please.

Considering how tired and exhausted I felt, I am really pleased with the results. It was a lovely day even though I may not have appreciated it as much as I should at the time. The models were great, my friends were gracious and understanding, and the location was perfect.

Instagram Links of friends and models
https://www.instagram.com/jacob.phillips_1/
https://www.instagram.com/dancingsushiii/
https://www.instagram.com/mandyleft/
https://www.instagram.com/sandervanheyden/
https://www.instagram.com/mattpshields/
https://www.instagram.com/stiffpigeons/