Medium format and I, a love story in analog.
No filters. No mania about sharpness and focus points.No obsessions with flawless skin, air brushing and color correction. What you get is what you live with. That is the beauty of shooting film. It feels like I was there, it was real. It seems to mean more. There's power in film, and because of that power, it shall never die.
Shooting film is a novelty now, but the results are breathtaking sometimes ! A few hits and a few misses, but the natural, retro feel is honestly worth the trouble and time.
That feeling of holding your breath while you try to hold your composition, make sure the manual focus is as good as you can get it and your subject is not mid blink is what makes you truly appreciate photography again.
I shot 3 rolls in vastly different conditions and moods with my Hasselblad and got very unique results. Here's the best from each roll.
This first roll was a day I spent enjoying and photographing the beautiful Dubai skyline with my dear friend and amazing landscape photographer Anna Shtraus.
This next roll was a shot during breaks shooting a commercial fashion look book with the acclaimed designer Ayesha Depala, with the lovely Daria humoring me with my retro shots.
These next ones were during quick portrait sessions in my home studio, shot at completely different times ( weeks apart ! ) with different lighting set ups. One of the sessions came out severely under exposed and 'bad' with some strange light leaks and cropping due to mistaken extra rolling of the film but I still love them.
What do you think of the shoots ? Which shots are your favorite ? I look forward to shooting more and getting the hang of not having a built in light meter to guide me. At the moment I am using a fairly average app on my phone to give me reasonable ideas of what kind of aperture and shutter speed I need to pull off the shots, but in general I am winging it based on what feels right. I think this is the start of a beautiful relationship between me and medium format film.
Let me know your thoughts below !