Film....an Ancient Ritual and my newest Squeeze!

There is something so cerebral about the experience of using film again after many years of becoming a slave to digital.
In this digital world we live in, something as primitive as using film makes me feel as if I'm alone in a new world where I am constantly discovering a new and fascinating style of photography.

All this is pretty funny because film is where it all started, but it has really become lost in this cheap, instant gratification world of digital. And gosh darn it, it's sad! Now, I am by NO means giving up on digital (no way!) but I am entering a new stage of experimenting and have been loving it so far!

I got my hands recently on an old family medium format camera (Hasselblad to be exact) and these are a few attempts at my first couple of rolls. These cameras are so sensitive and touchy that only a few turned out, but hey, this is my first try! It's also a pain in the butt to load the film into a medium format camera, so this is why you will see some "interesting" exposures.....but, all in all, I feel so incredibly retro that I can't stand it! And me, I love all things vintage, so I figured film was the next step in that obsession.

Tomorrow I am swinging the "Hass" (as I lovingly call him now) along with me to a wedding to try out some portrait stuff with film for the first time at a real life wedding (yikes). But, these will be merely practice and I am still shooting the whole wedding digital, of course. Who knows though??? Maybe I will get the hang of this thing and make the Hass a more frequent prop at all my shoots!!!

Hope you like my feeble attempts to be a "real" photographer :)

Also, these are kind of small when posted here on my blog, so if you want to see them larger (because they look cooler larger) click on the picture itself and it will take you to my flickr account where you can view these life size!

Other than my Dad making a stupid face, I love this one. And all the red on the outside of the image is because when I tried to take the film out, it got a bit exposed to light (ooops) but I think it's sorta bitchin'!









Still practicing focusing while looking through the top of a box.


Okay, so I totally exposed this particular piece of film and you can't see my hubb's face, but I think it's kinda cool in a "Wow she's a total beginner with that Hass" kind of way!!!

Batty Family in a Boxcar. What? That's totally normal.

Ok Batty Family.....after 6 hours of switching people's eyes, smiles, bodies, faces, you NAME it, I finally put together ONE picture where everyone is smiling (except Uncle Devin), has their eyes open and are looking at the camera.

This took a lot out of me! 30 something people all looking good and smiling in a picture is almost impossible to do without Photoshop! (ahem, Sutton's body and face had to be re-constructed from 4 different pictures so that he wasn't frowning, squinting or appearing to pick a wedgie).

Hope you guys like this one cause I don't want to spend another 6 hours piecing together a perfect family picture!
I think it turned out pretty darn good!
(By the way, for all those not in the Batty family, this is my family so I can talk to them like this.....I would never demand that a client stop picking their wedgie).

The Lee Family! Woohooo, yes!

I actually "met" these two at my husband's 10 year high school reunion just recently.
When I say "met", it's because I went to high school with Adam, but he was a senior with my husband and I was just a measly freshman, so, they were all too cool to talk to me at the time. ;)

Anyway, he has a beautiful family now; he's surrounded by Jennifer and Sierra who are two good lookin' ladies!

I have a feeling that these might become some of my favorite family pictures I have taken......I think it was the sudden break of sunshine through the chilly, gloomy weather we've been having, shining through the eucalyptus trees.......(I feel like bursting into a poem right now).

Enjoy!

The Griffin Family! Wooohoo!!!

SO, I have known Jordan since he was just a little tot; him and my brother have been friends for years.


You can imagine how strange it is for me to see him married with a little one now. Makes me feel really old. Thanks a lot Jordan.

Anyway, him and wifey Joelle and little Kiley were total troopers in this freezing cold, wonderful Fresno December weather.
For and 8 week old to withstand the cold for that long......brilliant. Makes my life easier.
We had to hurry and beat the sunset too because HELLO, it sets at almost 4 o'clock now! What the heck?

All in all, I am pleased as punch about some of these. So, enjoy Griffins!











Getting super dark as you can see by this grainy-mcgrainerson grainyness.

The Batty Family #2! Wooohooooo!

Here is the Batty Family, Round 2!!!!
These are a fun group of pictures.....most of them are not traditional family shots and that is because these guys are not a "traditional" family!

There was a lot of goofing off and making silly faces and posing like they are playing baseball.....which is perfect because I love that kind of family photo session.

As you can see, they are obsessed with baseball as a family.......I don't think I really even needed to say that.
It's pretty obvious!

Hope you guys enjoy!

The Batty Family! Wooohhooooo!

Duh nuh nuh nuh nuh nuh nuh nuh duh nuh nuh nuh nuh nuh nuh nuh- BATMAN!!!

It's the Batty family at Pismo Beach!

They were down there all week for Thanksgiving just having a grand old time, riding quads on the dunes, camping with friends and getting a tasty Thanksgiving day spread for only $7!!!

I met up with them after an engagement session at Shell Beach and we ate at Duke's (which is my new favorite now next to Splash Cafe......) for lunch, then took a little stroll down the pretty much empty shore.

Meri's brother Robby even came with his white shirt and got in on some of the picture action too!

Thanks for a fun day you guys, and hopefully your drive back home in the fog wasn't as deathly scary as mine was......

You guys are the most fun ever and I hope you enjoy these!














And this one is totally fake looking, but I think it has a cool artistic tweak-yness to it.