Images shot on Ilford HP5 Plus 400 in the Lomo LC-A When I lived in Shanghai, wandering around with my Yashica Electro and shooting in the streets was my number one creative pastime. For some reason though, when I came back to England I didn’t feel so keen to walk … Read more
Images shot on Kentmere Pan 100 in Pentax MX with SMC Pentax-M 50mm f2 If you’ve already read my Kentmere Pan 100 film review and are particularly eagle-eyed, you may recognise that scaffolding in the shot above. If not, maybe just have a quick look now. Now that we’ve got that out … Read more
Images shot on Kodak Gold 200 in Reto Ultra Wide & Slim Before I write a review of any camera on this website, I like to put at least one roll of colour and one roll of black and white film through it. Just to see how both turn out … Read more
Images shot on Kentmere Pan 100 in Pentax MX with SMC Pentax-M 28mm f2.8 Although SLRs like the Pentax K1000 and Canon AE-1 are often touted as good for beginners, I’d been shooting film for quite a while before I got myself a single lens reflex camera. For years, I didn’t really … Read more
Images shot on Lomography Color Negative 400 in Lomography Sprocket Rocket Love them or hate them, or just feel a general indifference and get on with your life like a normal person, there’s no doubt that Lomography come up with some pretty special cameras. Not the kind that are going … Read more
Images shot on Lomography Color Tiger 200 in Pentax Auto 110 Let’s not beat around the bush here. 110 format film doesn’t have the best reputation for image quality. The negatives are only about half the size of 35mm ones, typically meaning less detail and sharpness and all those good … Read more
Images shot on Street Candy ATM 400 in Pentax K1000 with SMC Pentax-M 28mm f2.8 A bottle shop on one side of the road and a betting shop on the other. It’d be easy to take a bunch of photos like this, intersperse them with ones of closed down places, say … Read more
Images shot on Kodak Ultramax 400 in Lomography LC-Wide I took a trip to North Wales to spend time with an old friend I’d met years ago. Quite a few years ago now actually, back when we were young men. It was quite a few miles away too, in a cafe way … Read more
Images shot on Kentmere Pan 100 in Reto Ultra Wide & Slim In January of 2022, it was announced a new camera was about to hit the market. Kind of, anyway. Because while the Reto Ultra Wide & Slim is indeed a freshly made plastic box that you put film in, it’s … Read more
Images shot on Kodak Portra 800 in Lomography LC-Wide In August of 2021, Mansfield Town played Bristol Rovers in a match in the 4th tier of the English Football League. It took place at Field Mill – Mansfield’s stadium – and saw the hosts win 2-1 through a very, very late penalty. … Read more
Images shot on Ilford Delta 100 in Yashica Electro 35 GSN Roche Abbey is one of many ruined medieval abbeys scattered around the lands of the United Kingdom and Ireland. Formerly thriving centres of work, prayer and study, they were consigned to their current states of dilapidation during Henry VIII’s 1536 – 1541 … Read more
Images shot on Kodak Ultramax 400 in Lomography LC-Wide Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch, then. I suppose if you’re going to base a little photo essay on a single train station, the one with the longest name in the world is as good a choice as any. Not that I make a habit of visiting train … Read more
Images shot on Street Candy ATM 400 in Lomography LC-Wide I remember when I was a kid, one of my favourite days out was the annual Saturday trip we’d take to Mablethorpe, out on the east coast of England. It’d be a family thing, going with my brother and our … Read more
Images shot on Lomography Orca 100 in Lomography Diana Baby 110 After shooting a roll of Lomography Color Tiger 200 in an old hand-me-down Kodak Ektra camera at a temple in Shanghai, I must have got a bit of a taste for the much-maligned 110 format. I say this because, … Read more
Images shot on Fujicolor Superia X-Tra 400 in Lomography LC-Wide One weekend evening when I was sitting in front of my computer and had drunk a few light ales, I decided it’d be a good idea to buy a Lomography LC-Wide camera. I think I’d gotten a little bored of … Read more
Images shot on Fujicolor Superia X-Tra 400 in Lomography LC-Wide When I was living in Shanghai, going out with my camera and finding something to shoot was easy. It wasn’t necessary to have anything particular in mind. You could just wander around and come back with a perfectly publishable set … Read more
Images shot on Lomography Color Tiger 200 in Kodak Ektra 250 Looking at all the film photo essays I’ve written up to now, as well as the film reviews too, it’s clear that 35mm has been my main format of choice so far. There was a quick dabble with 120 … Read more
Images shot on Fujicolor Industrial 400 in Yashica Electro 35 GSN Nothing ever lasts forever, as Echo and The Bunnymen sang back in 1997. Which is an unbelievable 24 years ago as I write this. It’s a timeless sentiment though, as Fuji continue to demonstrate with every film stock they discontinue. Like … Read more
Images shot on Kodak Tri-X 400 in Yashica Electro 35 GSN One of the previous film photo essays I published here on My Favourite Lens was called Nothing New Under the Sun. It talked about how a lot of photographs taken on CineStill 800T share common subjects. That post probably … Read more
Images shot on Kodak Tri-X 400 in Yashica Electro 35 GSN I’ve been lucky enough to have had a few short breaks in London in recent years. Just two or three days at a time, and usually because I’m in town anyway having just arrived from Shanghai or before flying … Read more
Images shot on Kodak Pro Image 100 in Canon Sure Shot AF-7 When my time living in Shanghai was coming to an end, I thought it would be a good idea to get a couple of city-wide photography projects done while I still had the chance. One of these ended … Read more
Images shot on Shanghai GP3 100 in Yashica Electro 35 GSN I’m not going to do the actual maths here, but I’d say over 99% of my Shanghai film photography while I lived there was done on 35mm. The only exceptions were some 120 I put through a borrowed Holga, a … Read more
Images shot on Fujicolor Industrial 100 in Yashica Electro 35 GSN I try to mix things up with the film photo essays I write on here. Some, like this one from Yangshuo, are travelogues. Others, like this one about shooting in low light, are more about the film and the process of … Read more
Images shot on Rollei Retro 400S in Canon Sure Shot AF-7 In 1986, a man named James P. Carse released his book Finite and Infinite Games. It’s generally seen as a polarising work, with a fair number of scathing reviews to go alongside its glowing ones. It clearly made a big impression on … Read more
Images shot on Rollei Retro 400S in Canon Sure Shot AF-7 If you shoot film, you probably have a few that are your favourites. And if any of those are the better-known ones like Portra 400 or HP5 Plus, they’ll probably be a lot of other people’s favourites too. But what about the … Read more
Images shot on Kodak Pro Image 100 in Canon Sure Shot AF-7 The first time I shot some ISO 100 Kodak film in the streets of Shanghai, it was the professional grade and comparatively pricey Ektar loaded in my Yashica Electro rangefinder. The results, some of which you can see … Read more
Images shot on Kodak Ektachrome E100 in Yashica Electro 35 GSN When Kodak announced in 2017 that their previously discontinued Ektachrome was coming back, many an experienced head in the film photography world rejoiced. For me though, as a not very experienced head, it was a time to learn. To learn what … Read more
Images shot on Fujicolor Natura 1600 in Nikon FM3a If you’re looking for a high ISO colour film that’s still in production these days, you’re sadly not going to find anything as fast as this Natura 1600. When Fujifilm killed it off, it was the last of the ISO 1600 colour films … Read more
Images shot on Fujicolor Natura 1600Â in Nikon FM3a One thing I’ve learnt while shooting all these films is that their cost doesn’t necessarily translate to how good they were in my opinion. In its own way, I was just as fond of the cheap Fujicolor C200 as I was the … Read more
Images shot on Kodak Gold 200 in Yashica Electro 35 GSN We’re roughly 20% of the way through the 21st century as I write this – in 2020 – and we’re still lucky enough to be getting new films coming onto the market. In relatively recent times, CineStill started modifying … Read more
Images shot on Ilford Delta 400 in Yashica Electro 35 GSN One thing I’ve hardly ever wondered about until now is what it actually means when some product or other has the word professional plastered across it and how much difference it makes to the average consumer. I guess higher grade engine … Read more
Images shot on Ilford XP2 Super 400Â in Yashica Electro 35 GSN A lot of the film photography I’ve published on this site was shot in and around the Qibao area of Shanghai. Like the shots on this post, for example. The reason for that is pretty simple. It’s because that’s … Read more
Images shot on Kodak Portra 400Â in Yashica Electro 35 GSN There’s something about living in a place that makes you get lazy about seeing all of what it has to offer. Just think about all the things your hometown has to offer and then think how many of them you’ve … Read more
I wrote a post before about whether success was – or could be – scarier than failure. I genuinely believed it was. And then I heard a statement that instantly turned that opinion on its head. It killed my belief in it.
Having a perceived fear of success could be holding you back, and it’s going to be harder to get over it if that’s not even what the real problem is.
Come read to learn what I now believe a ‘fear of success’ actually is and see whether this can help you if it’s holding you back creatively. What have you got to lose?
Images shot on Kodak Portra 400 in Yashica Electro 35 GSN It took me a while but I finally did it. After shooting such household names as Oriental Seagull and Fujicolor Industrial, I managed to get hold of that obscure film known as Kodak Portra 400 and give it whirl in … Read more
Images shot on Fujicolor C200 in Yashica Electro 35 GSN If you’re a photographer, there’s an argument that says you should show as much of your work as you can. You might not agree with it. I’m not saying it’s right for everyone. But I do think it could help you to … Read more
Images shot on Kodak ColorPlus 200 in Yashica Electro 35 GSN I guess it’s funny what different people do and don’t feel comfortable doing. For me, as most of my photography on this site shows, I was okay walking around Shanghai taking photographs of strangers. UrbEx in Shanghai, though. Urban exploration. Going … Read more
Images shot on Kodak Dental Photographic Slide Film in Yashica Electro 35 GSN One thing I’ve been lucky with so far while shooting film is a very low number of times a roll has gone catastrophically wrong. Massively underexposing some Shanghai GP3 100 in a borrowed Holga springs to mind but apart … Read more
Images shot on Kodak Ektar 100 in Yashica Electro 35 GSN Shooting inanimate objects isn’t something I’ve done much of since I started with my vintage lens and film photography. I just always found shots with people in them more interesting. Perhaps this was influenced by my location, as spending most of … Read more
Images shot on Ilford HP5 Plus 400 in Yashica Electro 35 GSN I still remember my process for choosing which films to shoot back when I first got into this whole analogue photography thing. It was a complex equation that involved price, what boxes I liked the look of, and … Read more
Images shot on Kodak Ektar 100Â in Yashica Electro 35 GSN As much as I enjoy shooting film, seeing the results, and writing about it on here, there’s a side to this blogging thing that I don’t think I’ve mentioned before. And that is learning all about the different films I … Read more
Images shot on Fujicolor C200 in Yashica Electro 35 GSN Before I lived in Shanghai, a place I’ve shot more photographs of and written about more than any other on this website, I lived in a small town in southern China called Yangshuo. As you can see from this picture of Yangshuo … Read more
Images shot on Ilford Pan 400 in an Olympus Supertrip One of the first film photo essays I published on this site showed what I got from a roll of Ilford Pan 400 that I shot around Shanghai. If you’ve not seen it, you can go take a look here. I … Read more
If you’ve seen any of the film photo essays I usually publish here, you’ve probably noticed from that first image that this one is going to be a little different. I’d wanted to do some sort of instant photography project since I bought my better half a Fujifilm Instax Mini … Read more
Images shot on CineStill 800T in Yashica Electro 35 GSN I talk a lot on here about the importance of creating and making things. About getting out there and shooting as much as we can. About how doing it is always better than not doing it, whatever the results you come back … Read more
Images shot on Shanghai GP3 100 and Lomography Color Negative 100 in Holga Glo 120N Back in the winter of 2017, the man known as @Givemeabiscuit on Twitter and (I guess) Sandeep to his family sent his Holga Glo 120N off on a trip around the world. The idea is that … Read more
This submission is from Jacob Martinez, a portrait photographer from Toledo, Ohio. As the title suggests, it details some time he spent in Mexico. Having not been to Mexico (yet), all I have is an image in my head of what it might be like. And I can say this … Read more
Images shot on CineStill 800TÂ in Yashica Electro 35 GSN I’ve never really thought about this before, but it seems one way you could categorise film stocks is by whether they have an inherent influence on what gets shot on them or not. There are plenty of general purpose ones that … Read more
Images shot on Oriental Seagull 100 in Yashica Electro 35 GSN If there’s one thing I like doing when I shoot a roll of film, it’s squeezing as many photographs out of it as I can. It’s not unusual to get multiple essays on here from the 36 exposures. When I shot … Read more
Images shot on Oriental Seagull 100 in Yashica Electro 35 GSN The Shanghai marriage market is something I’d heard mentioned a few times during my time in the city but, for some reason, I’d never had any real interest in knowing when or where it was. That apathy continued until … Read more
Images shot on Fujicolor C200 in Yashica Electro 35 GSN When people look at a list of things to do in China’s largest city, the beach never features very highly. Trust me, I do some research before writing these things and ‘best beach in Shanghai’ doesn’t get typed into Google … Read more
Images shot on Kodak Ultramax 400 in Yashica Electro 35 GSN Quite a while ago, before I got into film photography and was still shooting with vintage lenses on a digital body, I did a photo essay from Wuxi’s Nanchan temple. It was shot in monochrome with the lovely old … Read more
Images shot on Fujicolor Industrial 400 in Yashica Electro 35 GSN If you’re into painting scenery and landscapes, I imagine the canals and bridges around Wuxi’s Nanchang Street would be a prime spot to get some done. I really can only imagine this because I’m pretty terrible at painting of any … Read more
Kentmere 400 isn’t my favourite film in the world, but I could only learn that for myself and know it for sure by shooting some. Part of the roll was shot in a park – hence the title.
Come see how it turned out and why I’m very happy I tried Kentmere 400, even though I generally prefer the results I’ve gotten from other films so far.
Catching colour on Kodak Ultramax 400 in a Yashica Electro in sunny Wuxi, China? That’s what I did. Come have a look how the shots turned out here.
Wherever you are with your photography, there will always be people who can learn something from you. There will also always be people who can teach you something new.
The two simple tips in this article might not be new to you, especially if you’re further along than me. But they can be useful if you’re just starting out and want to make your monochrome work better.
Whichever camp you’re in, there’s also some shots taken with the lovely JCH Street Pan 400 to look at here. So come and do that, if nothing else.
For a city so built up, you’re never short of a park to spend some time at in Shanghai, and these parks are never short of people using them for recreation.
That makes them decent places to shoot some film photography, as I did and then wrote about here in this little blog post. Their recreation became a subject for mine.
Kodak Gold 200’s bright colours make it a good film for sunny days like this, as these shots from the Yashica Electro 35 give a glimpse of. Come see.
You’re never short of places to visit in a country as big as China, as towns like Shitang are constantly proving. To me, anyway.
Most people have probably never heard of the place but I can tell you it’s near the city of Wenling, which is also a place most people have probably never heard of.
Regardless, I went there and shot some JCH Street Pan 400 in a couple of the fishing villages. Come see how that turned out.
Jing’an Sculpture Park offers nice respite from the city outside its boundaries and good artwork to check out once inside them. It’s artwork that’s constantly changing too as new pieces regularly replace existing ones.
I loaded the Yashica Electro 35 with some Oriental Seagull 100 and went to make some photographs of the sculptures there when I was, along with some shots of the people who were too.
This is the write-up of those shots, and it features a sculpture that’s actually kinda famous in certain circles. European sculpture circles, I think. Come see what that is and everything more in this piece on the Jing’an Sculpture Park.
This guest post from Theo Santana features some great work from a trip he took to Iran. Shot on Kodak Gold 200 and Fuijicolor C200, it gives a glimpse into life on the road between Tehran and Shiraz.
I’ve never really looked into going to Iran so these photographs gave me a little peek of what it might be like to do so. I’m a big fan of the environmental portraits he got and the story the pictures tell.
Come take a look, give Theo’s trip to Iran some eyeballs and love, and find out where else you can follow his work should you want to.
Sometimes you have to get away from the sprawling metropolis and head for the small city. Especially when it’s Chinese New Year and you have people to visit.
While you’re there you may as well get in some street photography. That’s what I did, and on Kentmere 400 film no less. A stock I hadn’t shot before now.
Want to see how it turned out? Because you can. Come see the small city street photography, the thoughts surrounding it, and one simple way some of the shots could have been better IMO.
The Cotwolds aren’t the kind of place you’d typically rush around, and I wouldn’t recommend you do so. Not when you have all that scenery to stop and take in.
It’s scenery that deserves your best photography, which is something I didn’t give it. For me it was more of a testing ground for a roll of Silberra Pan 200 – a Russian film I got as a crowdfunding campaign reward.
That explains the daft pun in the title, but it doesn’t tell you how the shots came out. To know that, you’re going to have to click inside and come see for yourself.
Sometimes you sit down with a bunch of photographs to share and no idea of what to write about to go with them. It’s not often I do that, but this piece is one of those occasions.
That title comes from a Soft Cell song. It was later covered by David Gray. It also covers a few themes detailed in this post. The passage of time is one. As is a discontinued film. Also a new way to even write stuff for this website.
Come see what we’re saying hello and waving goodbye to, why, and whether these are good or bad things. Hint: I think they’re mainly good.
Longhua Martyrs’ Memorial Park offers a few things the rest of Shanghai doesn’t. Soviet-style communist sculptures and peace and quiet being the main ones.
It makes for a decent trip out of the city centre – especially when you consider Longhua temple is right next door too. Take your camera and perhaps even a picnic.
These are some shots I got from Longhua on Agfa Vista Plus 200 in the Yashica Electro 35. Come take a look and come learn more about the place before you visit.
After about a decade away, I returned to one of my very favourite cities in the UK. So of course I had to take the Yashica Electro 35 GSN and a roll of film with me.
That film was Silberra Pan 400 – a Russian stock that ran a Kickstarter campaign in 2017. This roll was one of the rewards I got for backing that.
The last time I went to Scotland’s capital, I wasn’t really into photography that much. So it was nice to go there and come back with some shots of some landmarks and, of course, some Edinburgh street photography.
Not the clearest article title there, is it? But it does describe what you’re about to read pretty well if you give it a chance. And that is a 3-step process for shooting the kind of images I like to shoot.
It’s not a hard thing to get your head around and you don’t need to do street photography for it to help you. It can be useful whatever you shoot.
Want to know what the process is? Then come take a read as we go through it from its logical beginning to end, and all illustrated with a bunch of street photographs shot on film using it.
Rangefinder film cameras aren’t always the easiest to get to grips with when you’ve never used one before. As you can see from the title, I’d never used one before I shot this roll in my Yashica Electro.
If you’re wondering how it went, you’re not too far away from what I was thinking while shooting. I had no idea how it was going either.
The short version is it finished better than it began, which is understandable as you get used to a camera. The long version is inside. Come read it.
Sitting out to the west of the city centre but still absolutely in Shanghai, Qibao old town makes a lovely day away from the shiny skyscrapers of China’s biggest metropolis.
If you’re going to go there, try to pick a day with fewer people. So neither a weekend nor a national holiday. Try also to pick a sunny day. Then you can take advantage of the light and get better photographs.
Trust me. I shot parts of Qibao – on Fujicolor Industrial 100 film – on both bright and overcast days. Come see the difference good light makes to your photography here.
m50, at Moganshan Road in Shanghai, is one of the city’s most iconic art districts. It’s also one of the only places in town you’ll find genuine street art.
I went there with the old Olympus Supertrip and a roll of Fuijfilm Industrial 100 to get a few shots, which you can see in this short essay.
Come take a look, find out how the m50 art district came about, and how you can get there if you’re in Shanghai and want to check it out too.
The Shitty Camera Challenge was pretty much as the name suggested. That was… to shoot with a shitty camera. You could use any film you wanted and then were to post the results to Twitter.
There was a suitably bad first prize, which I don’t know who won right now but I hope it wasn’t me, and lots of fun to be had on the #shittycamerachallenge hashtag.
For me, it was an excuse to get out again with the Canon Sure Shot AF-7 and try some Rollei Retro 400S for the first time. This is how it went. Come take a look.
Nanxun water town sits not too far from Shanghai, which makes it a good getaway from the city. It’s also a pretty photogenic place, if that’s what you’re into.
And if you are, you won’t want to make the same mistake I did which led to coming back with just four photographs – shot on Fujicolor Industrial 100 – to show for it.
Come read what happened, see how to avoid the same happening to you and why, in the grand scheme of things, it wasn’t really a failed trip at all.
Qingdao is synonymous in China for its beer, but there’s more to the place than drinking. Having said that, the Tsingtao brewery and beer street *is* a must visit if you’re in town.
So too are the beaches.
So with a single roll of Ilford Pan 400 to work with, I focused this photography essay on those two things – the beach and the beer. Come see how it turned out.
You’ve probably noticed that a lot of street photography is presented in high contrast monochrome, but have you ever stopped to wonder why?
It’s now pretty much an accepted ‘street photography look’, but what are its origins? How and why did this look become a thing?
Dmitri Tcherbadji has a theory. It goes back decades, and stems from film photographers having to overcome a technical issue with their gear. Come read and learn what that is.
More film photography, right here. And this time we’re shooting monochrome.
Ilford Pan 400 is a film available in Asia. It’s not expensive, but does that make it worth buying if you’re in the area? Or even getting some shipped if you’re not?
To find out, I shot some Shanghai street photography with it. Here, in this very article, you can come see how it turned out. Come one, come all. Come on. Come in.
Yuhuan is a small, industrial city on China’s east coast. I don’t think many people go there for the sightseeing.
I went there for a Chinese New Year and took my charity shop film camera and two rolls of Ilford Pan 400. I wanted to tell a story. I wanted to present Yuhuan as I saw it.
This film photography essay is the result of that. Come take a look.
Another new old camera, bought cheap in an English charity shop, and a roll of the only film they had in Tesco. Taken to Shanghai and tested out in the winter sun.
The images I got are presented in this article. There aren’t that many of them but what is here is worth seeing. I wouldn’t have shared them otherwise.
So come take a look and see how a camera that cost less than the roll of Kodak ColorPlus inside it fared on its first outing (I presume) in China.
We need to be honest here. Chongqing’s Airport Square is in no way a place you should ever visit. Chongqing the city certainly is. But spend your time seeing the good stuff in the city centre.
That said, Airport Square was good to me. It provided a nice little location to test out my new old camera – the Canon Sure Shot AF-7. The question is, how did the shots turn out?
The answer is in this post. So maybe you should come on in and find out. Please. Thanks.