12 Months on Film: January with the Pentax 17 & ‘90s Vibes
I kicked off this year’s 12 Months on Film project with the Pentax 17 and a new to me film stock - LomoChrome Color ‘92. This film brings all the vibes from my high school years and had me brainstorming to figure out which Olympus Stylus I had back then. I really wish I had kept that camera!
I loved the vintage character and the way this stock handles contrast. While the results have me itching to see how it would play with the grit and color of a city setting, January was naturally much quieter. Most of my adventures were spent deep in the mountains, spending long, cold days playing in the deep snow on my skinny skis. It was a fun challenge to see how this film interpreted the high-contrast whites and soft winter light of the Cascades.
Here are a few of my favorites from January on film.
A few frames snuck in during an outing with the Click Community Seattle group and our photo walk around Georgetown. I really love how the film stock rendered the light and shadow. I’ll have to remember to chase that the next time I shoot with this stock.
Discovering the Half-Frame Perspective
Here are a few things I noticed this month while shooting with a half-frame camera:
Thinking in Vertical Layouts: Holding the camera normally delivers a native vertical frame, which forces a completely fresh way of looking at landscapes. It challenges you to compose lines that move from the bottom to the top of the frame rather than across it.
Creating Diptych Storytelling: Knowing that two images will sit side by side on the film strip allows you to tell a broader story. Pairing a wide, atmospheric landscape next to a tight, macro texture creates a beautiful visual conversation between the two frames.
Grain and Texture Variation: Because a half-frame negative is smaller than a standard 35mm frame, the organic grain structure of the film stock becomes much more prominent and painterly, giving the final images an incredibly nostalgic, tactile feel.
