Large Format + 35mm + Polaroids

October 20, 2023

I love shooting NYFW. It’s fun. It’s exhausting. The outfits are insane. You meet cool people. The energy is fantastic. So when my friend, Burke, asked me to shoot some BTS alongside him at the Inherent fashion show at NYFW back in February and said “bring whatever cameras you want”, I was in.

So with that much flexibility... I’ll share a bit about the cameras I ended up bringing for those interested…

I’m always up for a challenge, so I brought my Graflex Super D large format SLR camera with some BW film pushed to 1600 since I figured NYFW isn’t often captured on large format these days and now is the time to make it happen. Then I had my Canon AE-1P with the Lomography 85mm Petzval lens with CineStill 800T and as a silly last thing, I brought a Polaroid Passport 2-lens camera and some very expired Polaroid 669 peelapart film for some diptychs.

Unfortunately, I could only stay for the setup as I had plans that evening but it was great just capturing the models and the show BTS in those moments.

I posted most of on my instagram already but with NYFW having just happened again at the beginning of September, figured I’d get these up on the blog.

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"How to Wear a Jean Jacket" with Demi Ramos // Super 8 + Polaroids + 35mm

May 30, 2020

Before the pandemic really locked down NYC, I was shooting portraits as a creative outlet and mixing various cameras and formats. I chatted with Demi who was playing a concert with another musician I’d worked with and we met up for a quick shoot back in February.

I shot just a bit of expired Super 8 film that day and edited it down into a little fashion film featuring a taste of Demi’s personality while rocking a vintage jean jacket of mine.

Also shot some large format, Polaroids and 35mm and played around with putting together a wardrobe of sorts, which led to this retro set. I didn’t get a chance to get most of this film processed before the quarantine so I finally figured out how to process it at home myself and loved the results!

When all this dust settles in NYC, I’ll definitely hit up one of her shows because I know Demi goes hard!

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Lexi Todd - "Madonna" // 16mm + 120 + Polaroids

October 29, 2019

Excited to share the single artwork and music video along with some press images for Lexi Todd’s newest single, “Madonna”. Lexi is a local Brooklyn musician who has a very soulful yet pop sound and I was beyond thrilled to work with her. Halla Creative did all of the concepting and design for both the single artwork as well as the music video.

The single was very much about being your own queen and ditching to the status quo, which is where the name “Madonna” came from with her genre-defining and defying music and performances. So with that in mind, Halla Creative and I set out to create a concept that would mesh both Lexi’s vintage-y, soulful sound with strong “queen”-type imagery. Stephanie Haller of Halla Creative also directed the music video.

The art for her single artwork, promo materials as well as the music video were shot on a variety of film formats including Polaroids, 16mm, 120 and 35mm. We also had shot some additional photos for press, socials, etc and were really in love with the results.

With the music video, we wanted the vibe to match the single artwork in the vintage vibe and powerful, straight-on posing. Shot on expired 16mm Kodak film with a Bolex H16, the look blended beautifully meshed with Lexi’s aesthetics. You can watch the music video below.

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Music: Lexi Todd

Cinematographer: Nick Collingwood

Design/Director: Halla Creative (Stephanie Haller)

Styling: Tyler MacDonald

Processing & 2K Scans: Kodak Lab NYC

Key Grip/Gaffer: Jason Bullok

Camera Rental: MONO NO AWARE

Nick Christian MacDonald "Man on the Moon" // Super 8 + 16mm

February 15, 2019

Last year I was given an old Russian 16mm camera called the Krasnogorsk-3 (or K-3 if you don’t want to say that mouthful) from Steve Cossman of the Brooklyn cinema arts non-profit, Mono No Aware. And what better way to test a new camera than to create a music video with your folk-singing neighbor?

My neighbor and friend, Nick Christian MacDonald, is an Americana-Folk musician with a hint of Leonard Cohen and Tom Waits. Check out his music on Spotify and catch him this Saturday at Pete’s Candy Store in Williamsburg! He’s a great dude and I figured it’d be fun to create some art together. So our wives did some quick concepting and ended up tossing Nick in a custom suit I got during my honeymoon in Vietnam which fit him like it was his and we shot in a little set inside my apartment and around our neighborhood in Brooklyn. The images are from a previous photoshoot with Nick.

The actual music video is a mixture of 16mm FomaPan 100R and some expired Kodak Tri-X Super 8 film I got from an old NYC photographer that I shot in my Canon 814XL-S. Steve of Mono No Aware helped me hand-process both rolls at the Gowanus Community Darkroom in Brooklyn and they came out great. Lots of texture and grain but I love that. It’s film!

So I mentioned that earlier last year, my wife and I did a photoshoot with Nick around our neighborhood on Polaroids and 35mm film. The cameras I used were my Polaroid 110B with modded CB-70 back, a Canon AE-1P and a Nikon S2. Nick’s a good lookin dude so it was easy enough to catch his good side.

Also I recently released a music video I shot with the K-3 and Pekky Savan so check that one out as well! Definitely going to be creating more music videos in the future!

Leaving you with some of my favorite stills from the raw scans from the 16mm and Super 8 rolls.

Crew

Music: Nick Christian MacDonald

Cinematographer: Nick Collingwood

Design/Direction: Halla Creative & Tyler MacDonald

Processing: Mono No Aware

2K Scans: Gamma Ray Digital

Labor Day Getaway // Super 8 + Polaroids + 35mm

October 6, 2017

It's arrived! Fall is upon us and Labor Day in a lot of ways always feels like the close to summer. Either one last hurrah at the beach like I did this year, or a start to fall weather which is perfect for being outdoors and hiking. Last year had a little weekend getaway with my then-fiancée to Lake Placid, NY for a chill weekend. Documented the weekend in this little Super 8 film below.

Canon 814XL-S | Agfachrome 200D

So I captured our travels with my newly acquired Super 8 camera, the Canon 814XL-S, which is a bit of a beast but it has a great lens on there. Also had my Canon AE-1P and a Polaroid Spectra camera (actually a Minolta Instant Pro). Being inspired by Jonathan Canlas photography, I experimented with shooting Ektar 100 pushed two stops. Got some interesting results for sure. Need to try it next time in less contrasty environments.

Anyways! We went on some hikes, cooked up some bacon, and just had fun in the outdoors. We stayed in this hilariously small but quaint shack that looked like it hadn't been touched since the 70s and we loved it.

While exploring the nearby area, we stumbled upon Chapel Pond, which apparently allows you to swim in so we couldn't resist. Both hopped into the very chilly waters for a few minutes before heading on. We managed to find a fantastic lookout during our hike at Indian Head and Fish Hawk Cliffs BUT there were these unbelievably annoying flies that seriously would NOT stop biting us. It was unreal! We could hardly enjoy the amazing views because those suckers hurt. So we abandoned that spot and made the long trek back down to our car.

When we left we couldn't help but stop for a quick hike to this one lake that had a huge jumping off rock and it was pretty awesome. About 15-20 feet high and straight into the cold waters of the lake. Worth it. Changed our clothes in the car and headed back to dear old NYC. A relaxing weekend to say the least.

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Super 8mm and Polaroid work featured on

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