I Shoot Film Series by Hugo Meza Soto

A couple of months ago I had the opportunity to be a subject in my friend Hugo’s film series called “ I Shoot Film!” In his series he interviews different film photographers with varied styles and philosophies here in Southern California. You can find the series on IGTV and Youtube. For our shoot, we shot some in studio stuff at Safelight Labs with model, Amanda Lusso. For the shoot I used a Nikon F100 with Portra 400 and Lomo 100. Below the video I will share some of my favorite images from the shoot.

Baltimore Drag Awards- Fuji Natura 1600

Shooting my first roll of Fujicolor Natura 1600, I decided to save it for a special occasion. At the conclusion of the Baltimore Drag Awards, performers, friends and families pour out of the Creative Alliance theater to wait for their cars to take them to their respective homes/after parties. I attempted to grab as many portraits as I could in those few minutes. I shot the film at box speed on Nikon F100, most at 1.8 not recalling the shutter speed but I try not to go below 125.  Developing and scans:The Darkroom

When I bought the roll it was about $20/roll. I bought one for me and one for a friend. Now I am wishing I had purchased more because I love the colors, and the price per roll has since increased (at least on amazon). I decided to share ALL portraits taken, the underexposed, the overexposed and the il-cropped. The good,the bad, and the ugly. FEAST YOUR MFing  EYES. 

As always thank you to the drag community of Baltimore for always stopping to let me snag a photo. You all are the best! 

Indisposable Concept

The whole idea of the Indisposable Concept is to get rid of all the bells and whistles and rely solely on creativity and composition. We get so used to all the cool tricks we can do with all our fancy settings and photo shopping or "fixing in post" type of mind set. Also you get really used to shooting 500 frames a shoot.

With most disposable cameras you get 24 shots, and while there are higher end versions equipped with nice films, underwater bodies and even zoom lenses, all three times I have shot for this project I have used whatever camera was the cheapest at the local drug store.

Most of the time when people shoot for this project it is mostly travel photography, but IC has a portrait series going on. For this project I shot my cellist friend Kelsea, in Beaufort SC. 

I have shot Kelsea many times before I knew she played cello. On IC for the project you only get 24 words to describe which can be difficult because people are so complex. Kelsea is a girl I connected with through a military spouse page when I first started shooting again and was looking for people who had modeling experience or at the very least were interested in fashion.  Kelsea is a Black Milk-aholic and she had these really cool leggings with sheet music on them. We wanted this shoot to represent both the girl, the clothing and the music. It was much harder than it sounds!

I think the funniest thing of all, is the disposable camera used to be my favorite thing in the world. There was nothing I loved more that my crazy party pictures, interesting faces and places and just pure memory on film. And now shooting with a disposable has to be so thoughtful because we are so spoiled with our idea of endless frames, you forget how quickly or how long 24 frames can last. Most of the people who do this project, do so with the guideline of 24 frames/week.

Its the documentation aspect of our lives that used to be printed instead of captured on a phone never to be seen or always to shared via social media. 

Anyways, this is a project for EVERYONE. You are encouraged to share your world in 24 frames. You can develop your roll locally and email you images in with the info pack or you can ship the camera all the way to Australia. I have done both and it is actually cheaper to do it locally that to ship.  Check it out and if you do this post a link in the comments. I am nosy and want to see your life! 

You can check out the full roll here:

http://indisposableconcept.com/2015/05/11/starla-l-roll-3-ic-portrait-series/

#TBT First SLR

My first SLR wasn't even mine.  

Truth be told,  my go to camera of choice like everyone else in the late 90's to mid 2000's was a disposable camera. At less that $3 for processing and FREE double prints (which means two of each print) it was an affordable option to get those awesome party pics, you know back before they had cell phones with cameras. 

As a teen I never thought much about photography other than for documentation purposes or for like portraits and comp card (model business cards) photo session. I was REALLY into video, making bad skate videos, editing together my random road trips to Kentucky, friends rock shows, and truly epic party moments. [insert clip of little brother wearing contractor stilts with beer in one hand and a cig in the other trying to run on gravel]

After high school and while many of my friends were in their senior year I gained access to my mothers old SLR (Canon Rebel of some sort) when she thought the back latch broken and  she got a new camera. All my friends were into the high school photography program and the assignments always seemed like fun, I found myself out and shooting with my friends in the park at night and grave yards at various times... because you know... that was cool. 

Along with our laughable ideas of what to photograph for meaning and depth was my idea of a good photo.  The following images were my ideas on art, sports, macro, portrait and self portrait circa 2004-2005.

New Double Exposures

So before leaving moving from Beaufort, I got one last chance to shoot a couple of my favorite models in Savannah, Ga.

That shoot was in December and I had solicited them on the basis of most shooting film for me to experiment with more double exposure in a style that is not my typical. Generally when I do doubles I rely on silhouettes to create black or unexposed area, and then after shooting the whole roll with the model I will retrieve my film lead and shoot the whole roll with botanical of a light/ bright color. 

This time I wanted to rely on the color black. One model has black hair and the other black clothing. So the intention was for the floral patterns to appear on the clothing and hair. 

So some of the images came out as planned. But we were also dealing with a changing lighting situation. Most of the time was overcast which is fantastic but other times we had full sun for a few seconds with bright shadows which COULD turn our cool or overcrowded.  

Lastly I experimented with shooting other things and orientations which can lead to a lot of unpredictability.  I like unpredictability. 

Because I use a camera that has both auto- advancing and auto rewinding, there isn't too much planning as far a imagery is concerned. I have an idea of what was on one roll, and many moths later, when I get around to the second set of images chance are I have forgot poses or orientations. So for best luck I have to think of it as would the two images be good photos separately?

Here are some of my favorites:

Thank you to models Vy Dang and Jacqueline Harbin in Savanna, GA.