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!

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.