#instasunday

I've decided to make an Instagram post every Sunday if possible. Here are a few of my favorites, all taken with the iPhone 4S.

Instagram: @arielmin

The FM10!

The Nikon FM10 was a heartbreaker from the start. 

I bought it off of this old lady on Craigslist when I was a sophomore in college, and the first few months of dealing with this camera were pretty frustrating and confusing. I had a major problem with focusing and working the light meter, and since this camera is completely manual - loading problems. I think I've had more blank negatives processed during this time than any other time in my life. So in short = I was a noob.

Once you get the hang of it though, this dinky little camera can be quite amazing. I still think a few of my favorite photos were taken with the FM10.

The last image isn't cropped weird, it's just an epic light leak.

Photos from this past summer to fall on 400 Tri-X b&w film.

The Glorious F4

The Nikon F4 is absolutely one of the best film cameras I get to use today, ever since my dad bought it back in the late 80s (it came out in '88, so somewhere around there). It's the most advanced camera from Nikon's F series, the company's first experiment with SLRs with autofocus and a built-in motor drive. It also has a modern light metering inside along with great flexibility for lens compatibility. I don't ever need to worry about loading the film correctly because everything is automatic. So all in all, the F4 is extremely easy to use, easy to manipulate, and produces amazing photos. 

The only few downsides I've experienced are that it's ridiculously heavy and the shutter sound echoes across the entire place. It is terrible for traveling, and honestly challenging to take it around in my purse. I consider the F4 more as the strong, reliable old man who likes to stay in his studio safe and sound.   

All taken with 400 Tri-X. 

Doesn't the bokeh amaze you? It does it for me at least. I love this camera. 

Yashica Medium Format

This was my first time ever trying out the Yashica Mat-124 G medium format camera I got for my birthday. Considering I had absolutely no idea whether I was even taking the picture or not half the time, these came out pretty nice. Time to go get more film to practice. 

Digging Deep in East Plano

Before I bombard this blog with lots and lots of film photos, I'd like to share some digital photos taken yesterday in the late afternoon just before the sun went down. This is one of my good friends, Julie, and we'd been wanting to go on a location scout and a photo shoot for a long time now. See? You can find decent places around Dallas too! It's all about getting up on my lazy butt and driving around until you find a decent place. We decided to go explore the historical downtown Plano yesterday (meaning one block of "historical" buildings") - not too shabby. 

All taken on the Nikon D90. 

Online News Association Conference 2012

Let's do some time traveling. (Which we're going to have to do a lot with film posts)

Back in September, I packed up my bags and left for San Francisco to attend the Online News Association's San Francisco conference (aka #ONA12) with hopes and dreams of meeting great online journalists and maybe performing some magical networking. I think I ended up just having more fun than anything though, visiting Facebook headquarters in Menlo Park, getting to know some cool people, and getting a private tour of the Industrial Light & Magic office of Lucas Film by dad's old friend who works there. I also got to spend some time with cousins that I see maybe once every 3-4 years, so that was nice. 

But back to my film prints! I made a pretty bold move, in my standards, by taking only the iPhone and a film camera - the Nikon FM10. Now, I've always had pretty good experiences with the FM10 if and only when I actually latch on the negatives right inside the camera. I remember those painful days as a sophomore in college when I'd cry about my time and money gone to waste because I got a blank film at the end of the development. Making sure the film is loaded correctly is very, very important for a film amateur like myself, especially because the FM10 is completely manual.

I knew San Francisco was going to be beautiful no matter what - but I fought off the temptation to bring on the DSLR and stuck with this old and dinky camera for some authentic shots of the bay area. Turns out it wasn't a bad idea at all.   

The following photos were taken at the #socjourn #wjchat Meet Up at Sens restaurant in Embarcadero.  

So. Remember when I said I met some cool people? I may not have had the chance to talk to people like Marks Luckie (Twitter / 10,000 words blog), or Kim Bui (co-founder of #wjchat) or all the other remarkable people who probably attended, but I unexpectedly befriended a Canadian journalist from a no-name town when she walked up to me asking a question that I can't recall now.

We became fast buddies and walked to the Port market to grab lunch together, sat outside with the ocean view and talked about life, photography, journalism, gluten-free foods, boyfriends, etc. That was a quite weird yet refreshing experience. We exchanged business cards, Twitter accounts then headed different directions.

Meet my friend Liz :) Hope we could meet again, someday! Also taken on the FM10, but with the Tri-X 400. 

Life of My Little R2D2

I just spend an absurd amount of money at the only photo lab in Dallas that still processes 120 and 110 format films and b&w 35mm films this past weekend. It also agitated me very much that I had to drive about 40 minutes into downtown area where I was challenged with weird road situations and inconsistent traffic lights. Then the price of the whole service! Ah. The absurdity of it all makes me so sad. Film might not be dead, but it might as well slowly starve me with how much everything's costing me. 

But anyways, enough about my geeky life - here is more of my geekiness. Yes, I shoot my little R2D2 I got as a gift at the Lucas Film headquarters when I run out of models. These are digital, by the way. Oh the glorious f/1.4! This shoot was inspired by THIS.

 The very costly film photos from medium format & other cameras coming soon!