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.

Upstate NY Hike with Mono No Aware // 16mm + Polaroids + 110

September 25, 2018

I obviously shoot a ton of Super 8 film as anyone who's ever visited my website or Instagram can see. So it was a real treat to find out last spring that while I was at a Mono No Aware fundraiser, that I won the raffle for a Mono No Aware workshop where a group of people would take a van loaded with cameras, film and snacks upstate to Hudson, NY and Kaaterskill Falls to shoot some 16mm! My first time!

Our first destination was the Olana State Historic Site along the Hudson River, home of Frederic Edwin Church, who was a landscape painter from the Hudson River School. There we had a brief chat with our guide and filmmaker, Fern Silva, and Steve Cossman (founder of Mono No Aware) about the history of the area both in painting as well as 16mm film. Peter Hutton was a filmmaker that shot many serene landscapes of the Hudson Valley and American cities on 16mm film and lived in the area until his passing in 2016. And so, inspired by those who came before us, we set out to create our own portraits of the landscape. We left the historic set and went over to Kaaterskill Falls to start our hike.

We were provided Bolex H16 REX5 16mm cameras, courtesy of Mono No Aware, to use and some Kodak Vision3 50D color negative film. Given the bright sunny day and gorgeous springtime colors, it was a perfect match. I also brought along my Minolta Instant Pro, which is a Polaroid Spectra camera, and a Pentax Auto 110, which I found fitting as it's a 110 camera which is actually just 16mm film cut down for still cameras. Unfortunately, that camera has some winding issues aaaand I may have dropped it at one point on the hike so the photos are cropped a little funny. But so it goes...

We hiked around with our fairly heavy Bolex's, chatted a bunch, saw some waterfalls and very cool landscapes and ate delicious food Steve had prepared. Overall, a great way to spend a day. I just received a “K-3” Krasnogorsk-3 16mm camera and I'm now very eager to shoot more of the format. I already shot a some test rolls and a little music video with it a few weeks ago. And just shot another music video this weekend! So lots to look forward to including Kodak re-releasing Ektachrome in 16mm!

Pekky Savan "Today" // Super 8 + Polaroids

May 18, 2018

My first full length music video is out today! Shot completely on Super 8 out on Coney Island, NY, this music video was for Pekky Savan, a singer songwriter from Brooklyn.

She is a long time friend of mine and wanted to collaborate with my wife/art director, Stephanie Haller, and I to create a music video for her single "Today" on her upcoming EP release.

Stephanie concepted the video and created a custom jacket for Pekky and I also shot some Polaroids throughout the process on my SLR 680 with some expired Impossible Project film. It was a great project to work on and I'm definitely looking forward to shooting more music videos on film.

Also figured I could add a few BTS shots from the shoot Stephanie took on my DSLR.

Aileen & Philip Wedding // Super 8 + Polaroids

February 13, 2018

This is a wedding I had long been looking forward to shooting, Aileen and Philip! Aileen had contacted me over a year before her wedding raving about instant film and loving the Super 8 look for weddings so it was easy to be excited to shoot a wedding when the bride is so excited as well. You can watch their Super 8 wedding film below.

This wedding was a bit unique as well in that there were actually to be two weddings: a smaller family and bridal party wedding on Saturday (which is what I shot) and then a larger more traditional wedding on Sunday (shot by a friend and awesome photographer, Sophie Kwalek and featured on Style Me Pretty. Sophie and I both worked together on Patrick and Rachel's gorgeous Prospect Park Boathouse wedding). This was also unique in that I'd be the only photographer or cinematographer for the day, shooting everything on Instax and Super 8 film.

So we started the day at a beautiful cathedral in New Brunswick where the ceremony was held. A few guests and the families were the attendees for this more intimate ceremony. Aileen was wearing a stunning, fitted white dress and Philip was in a fantastic blue suit with red velvet accents. Very stylin’.

After the ceremony we strolled around the Rutgers campus where the couple met to take a few photos before headed over to the lunch held at one of their parent’s homes. There, they changed into outfits for a traditional tea ceremony held after weddings with close family. Then another quick outfit change into more comfy clothes for a veritable feast that awaited everyone in the backyard, cooked by the parents and included endless lobster, corn, meats, and veggies.

A really lovely and laid back wedding day for two really great people. I had a lot of fun shooting with them and really love how their wedding film came out.

50 feet of Song - Birdtalker // Super 8

November 4, 2017

Another chance to collaborate with the Super 8 project called "50 Feet of Song" came my way and I was thrilled to jump in. The concept of the project is to film folk musicians performing a song in one take on one roll of Super 8 film, which is 50 feet of film in length. My previous session with Kirby Brown came out really well and I was hoping to do more. To be honest, it's a bit of a thrill to shoot an entire roll of Super 8 in one pull of the trigger and the results are a truly unique experience of capturing live music.

The project was featured on Kodak's podcast, The Kodakery, as well as in Kodak's new print quarterly magazine, Kodachrome, named after their much beloved yet dead reversal film. You may also recognize the name from Paul Simon's legendary song.

Anyways, I shot this session in Harlem with the fantastic folk band, Birdtalker, who I've been following for a while. Check out the full session below and be sure to not only listen to more of their music but check out more sessions on 50 Feet of Song.