 Howdy, today we're gonna be talking about some of my photography favorites so far here in 2021. If you're into that, stick around. If you're not into that, stick around anyway. Please. I need the validation. Today's episode is sponsored by Squarespace. Favorite film stock. Well, if I'm being honest, I'd have to say it's FPP retrochrome again, but that'd be two years in a row and we can't have that now, can we? Honestly, you should see my retrochrome collection at this point. I'm stocking up on that sh** like a squirrel hordes acorns for hibernation. Do squirrels hibernate? I don't know. This year I have to say, without a doubt, one of my most used films is Kodak T-Max 400. A black-and-white film stock casted forth from the film gods themselves. Why do I like T-Max 400? Well, gotta say it's all about the contrast. What I found is that the shadows on T-Max 400 kind of fall off a little bit quicker than other film stocks, which creates this really dark and kind of moody rendering, which when merged with this stock's overall sharpness becomes a better combination than cosmos and sex in the city reruns. I recently went on a week-long Dairy Queen Field film photography road trip from Kansas back to LA and I shot, dominantly, T-Max 400. And I gotta say, even for a mediocre film photographer like myself, the shots look pretty bueno. I'll show you the rest of the shots when that video comes out, if it ever comes out. I shot something like 55 rolls of film and I'm still processing them in Lightroom and emotionally. I've been shooting a lot more black-and-white as of late because I'm starting to realize that I can kind of get the results I want a little easier with black-and-white than I can with color negative film. With color negative film, I truly feel like there needs to be a reason to shoot a scene in color. Otherwise, I can nearly always get the result that I want in black-and-white. Kodak claims that T-Max 400 is the sharpest black-and-white 400 speed film in the world. And that might be true, but it's pretty specific. That's kind of like claiming Hawkeye is the strongest Avenger in the archery and family farm category. The reason Kodak can claim T-Max as the sharpest is because of its unique T-Grain emulsion. If you're confused, think of T-Grain as similar to T-Pain. T-Grain renders your image silky smooth, just like T-Pain's autotuner. But anyway, T-Max 400 gives you a lot of detail in your image and I think I'd have to agree that it's probably one of the sharper films in existence, yeah. At this point, I've shot it for both 35mm and 120mm. I would have shot it for 8x10, but it's discontinued. A word that most film photographers are quite familiar with. This may or may not be obvious, but I think I gotta go with the Fuji TX1. Otherwise known as the X-Pan, or known by some as the ugly brother of the X-Pan. But just like a mother goose to an ugly duckling or my mom to me, I don't think that this camera is ugly. Just misunderstood. The machine I have here is what society would call an abomination. The actual camera body itself is the Fuji TX1 version, while the lens is from the Hasselblad version. I call it, Rundle Camera. So why is this camera so special? Well, it's main claim to fame is that it shoots panoramic 35mm film, double the width of a standard 35mm frame, or full frame, if you're one of them. It's quite rare to find a camera that shoots this format and I think a lot of people would argue that the X-Pan is the only camera that does it well. Not me, but some people. Why do I cherish and hold this camera so dearly? Well, it's gotta be the cinematic aspect ratio and the overall build quality of the camera, but also the top notch lens characteristics. The camera is built with titanium and it feels pretty solid. Unfortunately, it's a fully electronic camera, but hey, no camera's perfect. I've found that the Hasselblad lens is rock solid and sharpness, but has a tiny tinge of flare and tonal softness. Perhaps I find comfort in the comparison between this lens and myself. Rock hard badass on the outside, big ol' softy who cries when he watches Bambi on the inside. I've been using this camera like crazy ever since I got it and I plan to continue down that dark, dark path until I'm consumed by all things panoramic and standard ass 35mm full frame won't quench my unquenchable thirst for true wideness. Best photography dog. This is a new category this year and yeah, it's Baxter, obviously. Favorite Instagram. I've really been loving Anna Starr's work lately. She takes a bit of an interesting approach to photography because she shoots 120, but she shoots it all through a Holga camera. That's right gang, one of these f***ers. At first glance, this work should be everything that I despise, being square format and a toy camera. But no, somehow she makes it work incredibly well. Honestly, it's kind of making me rethink everything that I thought I knew about photography. Her work is composed of a lot of natural vistas and seaside subjects, which is right up my alley. All of her shots just have this keen sense of life to them, which is inspiring to me because I don't have one. I gotta say, after stumbling upon her account, I don't hate the Holga look so much anymore. I don't own one, but from what I understand, the lens is plastic. But so are the Kardashians and look how far they've come. The plastic lens is pretty apparent in the look of the photos with aberrated edges and pincushion distortion. But I don't know exactly what it is. That look just seems to work really, really well for six by six for some reason. It's a beautiful thing. So if you're in a creative rut and you need some inspiration, I recommend checking out her work. It'll certainly give you a new perspective on gear and what it is exactly that makes a photo beautiful. I also wanted to give an honorable mention to Catherine Del Latre. I hope I'm saying her last name right. Her archive of work on Instagram has been a total breath of fresh air. She's able to effortlessly create the exact mood that I look for in every photo that I take, all from rural Pennsylvania. I don't know if she has like a book or some sort of other publication out. Preliminary searches on Google yielded nothing, but that's something I would buy the sh** out of. Occasionally, I'll take breaks from watching gorilla videos to browse the film photography subsection of YouTube. There have been a lot of new channels popping up recently, which I'm super glad to see. This year, I wanted to give a shout out to a channel that is still very early in its development, but it has a lot of room to grow in the hopes of giving it the kickstart that it needs to produce some awesome new content. Think of it kind of like the unrefined coaxium that was dumped into the hyperdrive and allowed Han Solo to jettison the Millennium Falcon out of the black hole in the best movie ever made, Solo, A Star Wars Story. Among the fresh-faced newcomers to this platform, I somehow stumbled upon a channel called Analog Bebop, hosted by some guy named Kyle. But don't be deterred because his name is Kyle. He seems like an okay guy. Luckily, I think his work is quite good and very inspiring, even if some of his videos are slideshows of his work with some downright filthy lo-fi beats. At the time of making this, I think he has about 7 videos out on his channel with his last one dropping on 420. I gotta say, I really enjoyed his shooting film in Point Ray's video. If that's a sign of what's to come, I think that there's a lot of potential for this channel, but until then, come on Kyle, put down the Monster Energy drinks and make some more videos, dog. In the Point Ray's video, he discusses shooting slide film as well as some Portra 800 in his glorious Mamiya 7 II, but then he changes the game by talking about his experience with the panoramic adapter for the Mamiya. So if that's something that you're interested in, he might be a good resource. Hopefully, if enough of us go over and bother the guy with love and positivity, he'll make more videos and soon blossom into a beautiful film shooting degenerate like the rest of us. If there's one piece of gear that has saved me so much time and convenience, it is without a doubt this L bracket. I don't know why I waited so long to invest in this thing. My life has literally not been the same since. It's incredibly useful for night photography. I'm starting to think whoever designed this should win a Nobel Peace Prize or something. Before I'd seen the light, I used to have to rotate or kind of configure my tripod heads to be at a 90 degree angle, and that was no fun for anyone involved. Now I can just detach the L bracket and flip. Problem solved. Well, maybe not every problem is solved. For the Mamiya 7 and most 120 back loaded cameras, you'll need to completely remove the L bracket to access the film clips underneath the camera. But hey, you know what? You win some and you lose some. If I've learned anything from film photography, it's that sometimes you just need to man up, take the L. But if you don't want to take the L, take the W with today's sponsor, Squarespace. Are your peers generally unimpressed with your choice in life to become a photographer? Well, how about putting your best foot forward and impressing the socks off them with a portfolio of your finest work, arranged in a visually pleasing design? 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Between petting Baxter and giving all of my film cameras the love and attention that they deserve, I haven't really had any time to sit down and digest any collections of work. Hopefully this video was somewhat insightful and kind of acts as a bookmark in my own photographic journey so that old Jason might look back at young Jason and think, hmm, he really didn't know what the f*** he was talking about. I mean, I already think that about my early videos, so it probably won't take much time to get there. Anyway, I hope you have a good rest of your day, night, afternoon, 15 minute bathroom break, whenever it is that you're watching this, and I'll see you all soon.