What's your favorite film and camera combination to shoot with, and what do you love about it?
My current favorite camera for 35mm is the Leica M6, I love how locked into the moment you feel with the rangefinder focusing, and the lenses have a beautiful vintage rendering that I really enjoy. For medium format, I've just recently replaced my Yashica 124g with a Rolleiflex. I really enjoy the TLR experience, but manual focusing through the ground glass can be a bit hectic on a wedding day. For those that haven't used one, the image is flipped in the glass that you use to compose with, so it can be a bit like writing with the wrong hand at first. I tend to get them out for cocktail hour, portraits, and moments like that. Another favorite medium format camera is my trusty Holga. I love the vibey images with the smudgy corners from the plastic lens. I particularly love the look when shot with a flash on the dance floor. The square shots from this wedding were all shot with the Holga. In terms of film, I pretty much always shoot on Portra 800 with the Holga for color. It has so much latitude and can be shot quite a few stops overexposed if needed, which is useful as the Holga has very limited settings (max shutter speed of 1/100!). For 35mm I mostly use Portra 400 and Portra 800 for color, and for black and white, I use mostly Ilford Delta 3200. The 35mm black and white shots from this wedding are shot on Delta 3200. I love the really prominent grain that you get from this stock, although I do usually rate it at ISO 1600 to stop the grain from getting too crazy. For this particular wedding, I also added some Silbersalz cine films. Namely, their 250D and 500T stocks. Their scans have a beautiful cinematic quality and have so much detail; they do need a bit of editing in post to get the contrast just right, though.
What do you consider essential to your approach to film photography?
Film is just an extension to my approach to photography and weddings in general. I really believe the magic comes when you embrace the unexpected, the imperfections, and the chaos. These are live events with real people creating real memories that will, hopefully, last a lifetime. Film as a medium fits in perfectly with this, a little bit imperfect, a little bit unexpected at times, but has that hazy, warm nostalgia that just feels like a memory right out of the box. So I guess the essential thing is just to go with the flow, experiment, and let the magic happen. Oh, and give it lots of light!
Did you begin your photography journey with film or digital, and how has it evolved?
I actually did start out exclusively on film; as a teenager there weren't really digital cameras available (I guess I'm old!), and I used to use point and shoot cameras to document my adventures (my background before photography was as a rock climbing/mountaineering instructor). I then switched to digital and kind of forgot about film for a little while in my early 20s, but as soon as I started taking photography more seriously again, I started incorporating more film into my work. I now shoot most of my personal work on film and document my family life almost exclusively on film and often think about switching to film completely for weddings as well, but digital still does have some advantages in certain situations. I always prefer the look of film, though.
Do you develop your own film, and do you have a preferred lab for processing?
For my personal work during the off-season, I do develop and scan at home, but this isn't practical for weddings during wedding season. I use various labs in Spain, but the best results I get are from Carmencita Film Lab in Valencia.
Are there any film photographers you admire?
Absolutely loads. To name a few: Martin Parr, Nan Goldin, Fred Herzog, Alex Webb, Sebastian Zanella, and Alec Soth.
Why do you think couples should consider including analog film for their wedding?
Film is the best medium, in my opinion, for conveying the emotion of a wedding day and communicating the way that it felt to be there. Our memories are naturally hazy, dreamy, and ethereal, and the grain and imperfection of film accentuates this sensation to create a record of the day that feels viscerally real in a non-literal, artistic way. I don't think there's a better way to capture a wedding.
