(film)

Pink (film), a photo by corinne.schwarz on Flickr.

In the past, I'd just skip by anyones "film" album on Flickr.

I put film users in two catergories: 1. Old and resistant to change 2. hipsters who were trying to show off.

Now I went and did it.

Well, since I am now old (33) and have some hipster tendencies, I guess I was right all along.

Film really is fun.

For the most part, you do have to know what you're doing with a camera. The digitals with the zooms and auto focus are pretty easy to use.

If you "know" what you're doing, it's nice to be able to check the LCD and make sure you got the shot right. If you don't know what you're doing, it's easy to take 1.5 million pictures until you get it right.

The camera I used was my dads old Sears SLR. (similar to this camera). It has two fixed focus lenses (50mm and 125mm). Everything is manual, including focus.

Which means I had to actually MOVE MY BODY to frame stuff up right. No more aiming from afar and zooming in until I got what I wanted.

Obviously, if you're limited to 24 shots, you tend to be a bit more careful with what you capture. I'm usually pretty good about not taking a lot of "junk" shots (I hate getting home and having to sort through them), but film does take it to another level.

Not to mention, I had to google instructions for loading and unloading film... last time I had done it was 7 years ago, and my memory isn't that great.

Anyway, I had all the images put on a cd (5 bucks at CVS.) I am happy to say that only 2 of the 24 images were stupid (one was the wall, because I was messing with settings on the camera, and accidentally hit the shutter button, and the other is a swirl of blues and whites, so that could be just about anything).

I struggled for a few minutes when it came to post processing. I thought maybe I'd just leave them SOOC, but when I realized that a TINY contrast adjustment made a hell of a difference, I went with that.

You can see them on my flickr. Film.

before and after

before and after, a photo by corinne.schwarz on Flickr.

I've always liked seeing how photographers use their editing software. Sure, some pictures are great SOOC (straight out of the camera), but most need a little adjusting.

I've picked a few of my own images and put together a before & after display.

I'm doin' it

Negative Space, a photo by corinne.schwarz on Flickr.

Hello, blog. Long time no see.

I've finally decided to go ahead and get going on the whole "being a photographer" thing.

Ever since I stopped working in a studio, I've struggled to keep the momentum going on my own.

But now it's starting to come together. I've made the client viewing experience easier by using www.pictage.com . Their default price list seems pretty high, but they insist that it's set for "premium results" or something like that. The prices are adjustable, and I've found myself adjusting lower and lower and lower... which I know is a bad trend, but whatever.

I've set up my facebook: Corinne.Schwarz Photography. The only problem I have with this is the whole "self promotion" thing. I don't want to be one of those Amway type people who shove their business down your throat until you start to avoid them... but I do want people to "like" that page.

I recently photographed Heathers family. They were all beautiful and easy to photograph. That would be the first session I edited in a way that I liked, instead of worrying if they would like it. I mean, yeah, I wanted them to like the pictures... but second guessing myself and worrying about everything wasn't helping, so I quit doing that.

I just reminded myself that anyone who hires me hires me based on the images I've shown them. If they like what I like (which they must if they've hired me), then they will like what I come up with.

Here we go!