aka. How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Analogue.

A famous line by Marshall McLuhan is “The medium is the message”, and for quite some time I had pondered on when it was appropriate to shoot film and/ or digital. There are obvious pro’s and con’s to both, which I won’t dive into here (I may be inclined to ramble on in an essay later on), but I found myself using both film and digital equally when the opportunity arose to work with the talented Harl Ow MM#1082043.
We went for a post apocalyptic feel on the iconic Cockatoo Island, just a short ferry ride from Sydney Harbour. Without further ado here are the images!

Nikon D7000 + Nikkor 35mm f/1.8 DX

Ricoh GXR M Mount Module + Zeiss 18mm f/4 ZM (My Review Here)

Nikon FM2 + Voigtlander Nokton 58mm f/1.4 + Kodak 400 Tri-X

Holga 120N + Fuji Provia 400X

What do you think of the images? The two sets of film above are straight scans with just light curve correction and dust removal to preserve their original qualities. In my opinion, does it really matter if Tri-X from the FM2 is a bit grainy, or the Provia lacks dynamic range and is blurred by the simple meniscus lens on the Holga? There’s a certain charm thats rendered through shooting with cameras other than digital and being reliant on Photoshopping to produce the same effect. This was the first time I loaded up colour (in particular transparencies) into the Holga and could not be more pleased with the colour rendition, expect to see more and hopefully another shoot with Harl Ow in the future!