 Today's episode is sponsored by Squarespace. Well, the title does not lie. Actually, sometimes it does. Not in this case though. I am a lazy piece of shit, but that's not the point. The point is, these two corn dogs were escaping the upcoming LA Rainstorm and were headed to Palm Springs for a weekend of fun with our buns under the sun. Whatever that means. This was more or less an assignment. A boutique hotel chain called Life House reached out about working together in exchange for a two-nighter at their Palm Springs location. All I needed to provide in return was just photos of the property. Okay, a relaxing weekend in Palm Springs and all I needed to do was the thing that I love doing anyway. I didn't really know what to expect from Palm Springs. The only time I've actually been there was never. When I think of Palm Springs, I think of a warm kind of, you know, glamorous oasis in the backyard of Hollywood. I mean, frickin' Elvis even had a retreat there with a toilet that was probably virtually unused because, you know, man. What a photo that could have been for my collection. But whatever, you don't need more toilet in your life. You probably just slammed your bare ass on one to watch this video. Let's just instead go into the play-by-play commentary of the weekend. I'm incredibly fortunate to be shooting with some top-tier gear on this go-around. For this assignment, I grabbed my Leica M6, studded in powerful titanium and my Conica 21-35 as we headed east slowly. After sitting in like 400 hours of LA traffic, locked in epic conversation with Monica, we finally arrived. What's up? I wanna be loading film upside down. Wow, no one is quirkier than you. Ah, shit. I don't have the core strength for this. I can do this. This is Puff. My SO, Ectochrome, E-100, I'm a changed man. So Ectochrome, what in the slide film is up with that? Okay, I should explain myself. My first and really only thought for the look of the work I wanted to produce here was really just Kodachrome as I, I don't know, somewhat associate that legendary film stock with the glamorous lifestyles of days past, especially because back in the day, that shit cost the equivalent of like $60 today with inflation, so only rich ass ballers could afford to shoot it. There is a few issues with Kodachrome nowadays. Well, maybe just one issue. Kodachrome is about as dead as all my hopes and ambitions, so really dead. You just can't develop it anymore. You know, K-14, blah, blah, blah. We don't need to reinflict the same trauma over and over again. But I did recently stumble upon an article about how the preset company, Visco, had a special kind of off the books Black Ops team that dedicated about two years to finding an alternative way to develop that shit so they could build a digital preset off of it in 2017, which does sound kind of sacrilegious, you know, reviving Kodachrome from the dead just to shoot test charts with it. I did look into it a little bit. There is actually some literature already out there on ways to develop Kodachrome as a color-positive film, but yeah, it definitely sounds like it's a huge bitch, like my high school English teacher. Fuck you, Mrs. Fergus. Anyway, this new method for developing Kodachrome in the New Age is like 17 steps or something like that, and it involves flashlights for some reason, but whatever, who the fuck has time for all that? Admittedly though, it did get me thinking, which gave me a migraine. There's gotta be an easier way to get the Kodachrome look with materials that are already at our disposal, right? Smash cut back to Palm Springs, and I was gonna give it a go with Ektachrome in a warming filter, who knows? I guess Ektachrome is technically Kodachrome's closest cousin in that it's Kodak and it's a slide film, but the two are, I don't know, they're pretty different. Quick toilet check for inspiration. I could do some pretty good work to this thing. Anyway, we went out for some Mexican food that night and it definitely hit the spot. After 10 margaritas, 20 chicken fajitas and a titty twister to go. We left that fine establishment nourished mostly by alcohol, but not before I told Monica that I forgot my wallet and she was forced to pay the bill. Afterwards, we headed to the hotel bar, Minerva's for some cocktails, and it was classy as all hell, even with Monica's grudge impression, kind of ruining the ambiance. Here's the philosophical question. Who would you rather fight? Mr. Peanut or the Yellow M&M? Obviously the Yellow M&M. So, do these attempts look like Kodachrome? I'd say yeah, kind of, but not really. Maybe it's like 70% of the way there. But then again, I might not really know what I'm talking about. I've never shot Kodachrome. Only my dreams. And every shot's a portfolio shot there. But whether or not these shots are identical to Kodachrome, it doesn't really matter to me too much here. Whatever you wanna call this, it's a cool look on its own. It's like some weird Kodachrome-inspired ectochrome hybrid, like that fucked up dinosaur and Jurassic world that eats everyone. Anyway, just like in Dune, how exposure to raw spice particles woke up Paul Trady's presence, I needed exposure to coffee to get my slow ass moving that morning. Our plans were definitely pretty loose that day. We decided that we'd first head up to the Palm Springs Aerial Tramway that takes you to the top of this mountain that overlooks the desert. But I guess it's really popular on Saturdays because the wait was like three hours. So like the two classy hoes that we are, we said, and went to an architecture museum instead. The gift shop for the architecture museum, there are a couple books that are quite interesting. One book that I kind of found surprised to see there was a book about Slim Arons and it featured a lot of his photography. If you're unfamiliar, Mr. Arons kind of notably shot a lot of his work on Kodachrome and was really drawn to pools and I guess just bodies of water. It's kind of like a fish in that way. Caleb actually introduced me to his work and I've been binging the crap out of it lately. I'd say it's where my recent obsession with Kodachrome kind of stems from. Slim Arons definitely had a style. He was quoted to have said that he likes to photograph attractive people doing attractive things in attractive places, which I guess just meant he liked taking photos of beautiful women in front of pools. We don't have time to unpack that. I'd say Slim's signature look was this like high angle of the pool area, you know, on Kodachrome. So I decided, you know, to rip it off completely. Not that I had Kodachrome in the camera, but let's see how Ektachrome holds up in comparison. Not too bad. Actually the reds popped quite nicely, which is a famous trait of Kodachrome. I even say the skin tones match pretty well overall. The blue of the pool and the sky look pretty nice too. I mean, it's not Kodachrome. It'll never be Kodachrome and I should probably stop calling it Kodachrome, but like damn, I don't know. It's kind of close. Maybe if I exposed for the highlights it'd be an inch closer. Anyway, there's a botanical garden conveniently located right across the street from the hotel. So you already know what your boy had to do. Shoot Aerochrome, or you know, fake Aerochrome with Rolly Infrared 400 on this ImageTek 3D Wizard. I don't know. People always get pissed off when I talk about Aerochrome on this channel like it killed their parents, left an upper decker in the toilet and then burned their house down. So let's just wrap it up here with a speed run. It's an ImageTek 3D Wizard, Trichrome, Rolly Infrared. No more questions at this time. Surrounded by some of the most phallic botanics I've ever seen, Monica whipped out the Minolta. Some of you may remember that Monica was shooting a role of Phoenix 200 in Spain. So I made her finally, you know, finish the role so I could get my camera back because it needed to be where it belongs on my shelf with the rest of my cameras, collecting dust because for some reason I always pick the M6. Here's some of the rest of the role from Spain in case you were on the edge of your seat or just edging in general, waiting to see these shots. Anyway, the kind words that you all had for her shots from Spain were beginning to overinflate her ego as a photographer and she kept telling me to get the hell out of the way and let the real artist work. Meanwhile, I, the stereotypical film photographer beanie bitch. This thing broke. It worries me, it's not spinning. Was f***ing around with some new age experimental overexposure. A little bit of some keepers. This is definitely Monica's favorite shot of the role because it says fat boy, which reminded us of our beautiful son Baxter, AKA Ricky Peepee. Overall though, I don't think Monica was personally a fan of Phoenix 200. She likes contrast for sure but this might have been a little overboard for her. I have a feeling it's not so. I'm not gonna find out. After the garden, it was back to the hotel, just like end too deep. The light in the lobby was just giving absolute sleigh or whatever. And I was all out of coda chrome. I mean, ecta chrome. Of the 36 exposure role of ecta coda chrome, I got 20 keepers and maybe like nine deliverables. This one is definitely my favorite. A shameless ripoff but you know what, it works. Anyway, next I violently plowed some Portrait 800 in the M6. What can I say? Portrait 800 is legitimately always a winner, just oozing with central warm tones good image fidelity. The rest of the day, we kind of just took it easy by the pool and I snapped some shots of the property here and there that looked kind of nice. Like this one, which may be the best of them all. Solid colors, good light, good layering and interesting subject. Anyway, it's time for these two piggies to eat more slop and what better than Mexican food again because certainly there would be no punishment upon our bodies for consuming Mexican food two nights in a row, right? Whatever, let's wrap this thing up because the show is coming out this week. And yeah, I know the graphics seem to be getting worse every year for some reason, but I'm still gonna cut all personal ties to engulf myself in that hard. Speaking of hard, I was doing that because that fine establishment last night did me dirty. Not really actually, I just needed a charming segue. The next morning we got our asses up at early as hell o'clock because we weren't gonna go out without a fight. The previous day, the aerial tramway was like a three hour wait. So we decided to get there for the first ride up the mountain and kind of just hope we get a ticket before sneaking on board the tram through the air duct system. I got a glimpse of the station which was architecturally magnificent. I believe it was designed by Albert Frey whose exhibit we saw at the museum the day prior. After contracting basically frostbite, I told Monica that if I died up there, just to leave my body behind to use as like a landmark like they do on Everest. Definitely developed my film. That's kind of important. That being said, I don't think really any of these shots hit the mark for me. It might just be time to let Aerochrome take a breather. Of the 36 exposure roll of Portra 800, I got 18 keepers, 13 deliverables, and maybe one or two portfolio shots. But speaking of portfolios, I'd like to quickly thank today's sponsor who hosts my own photography portfolio, Squarespace. Let's face it, your friends, family, and I don't know, maybe even your enemies too. Probably constantly see you out and about with a camera in your hands, but maybe rarely actually get to see your work for themselves. Why not present it in the best light possible with a portfolio through Squarespace? Squarespace is an industry standard all in one website building platform that gives you the reins to build a professional looking website that surpasses even your wildest dreams. 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After all that, it was audio to Palm Springs, a nice relaxing film shoot getaway amongst the population of wedding attendees and bachelorette parties. We picked up our goofy ass son Baxter, the young chunk master and hit the car wash real quick where Monica wrapped up her role of Phoenix with possibly some of her best work to date. I'm pretty happy with how my shots turned out from Palm Springs. I mean, I only shot two roles, but it was pretty good overall. I think there is something to this Kodachrome ectachrome thing or maybe there isn't if you hate it. I need to experiment with it more for sure, but I think I'm heading in the right direction. Like I said, if for nothing else, it's just kind of an interesting look. We can call it diet Kodachrome or Kodachrome zero if you want. I don't know what stock I'll give Monica next to try out. If you have any suggestions, let me know. Might just have to throw her a curve ball and let her shoot the Holy Grail.