 Today's episode is sponsored by Squarespace. Okay, so I hit the jackpot and had the opportunity to fly over Europe for a photography festival called Photopia. So if I'm gonna commit to a long ass 12 hour flight, I might as well shoot some film, right? Anyway, to pass the time on the flights over, Monica watched Taz quest for burger like six or so times. I saw her flip over to Oppenheimer for a sec, but then she must have gotten bored and returned to quest for burger. So we were there in Hamburg, Germany for Photopia, which is a huge photography festival that's kind of trying to fill the shoes left behind by Photokina. But why would a dirty film photographer be allowed at such an event, you might ask? Well, there just so happens to be an analog corner of the festival called Chrome Land, run by a photo lab right there in Hamburg called Chrome and their people got in contact with my people. And by my people, I just mean me sitting alone in my dark depressing office. They basically just asked me if I'd be interested in coming over and being a small part of Chrome Land. And of course I said yes on one condition that I could bring my chunky little hippopotamus sidekick Baxter. And when the German government said no, I just brought Monica instead. Great. Now we're all caught up. Do you know any words in German? One, but it's a curse word. Shit. Okay, I know a few of them are all curse words. What are they? One, Oschel's Castle. How did you learn all that? Uh, you were called it. All right. I'm gonna see if I can look up some common phrases we might need to know. Oh my God. Ich werde mir gleich in die Hose machen. I'm trying to get f***ed up. Where's the beer? Ich versuche mich zu verarschen. Wo ist das Bier? Okay, you know what? I think I have a phrase I'm gonna need. Shut up, Jason. Hive den. Anyway, Superjet lagged in basically just ready to die once and for all. We set out to acquire some food and room temperature beer because they haven't invented refrigerators in that part of the world yet, I guess. It's like one big hamster wheel. And we're the hamster? After getting a little confused that maybe we got on the wrong flight and somehow took a 14-hour plane to Seattle, we found rat beer, I think. I don't know, my German is a little rusty. They all said that I fallen off, that my s*** ain't solid anymore, both literally and figuratively. But it was time to stop crying about jet lag and prove the haters wrong. It was the first day of photopia and it was time to load up the Leica M6. All right, that's 250D. After all, why would I bring any other camera brand to Germany? I was still rocking the Conica 21-35mm with the Tri-LMR viewfinder. The Conica lens is a bit on the slower side, so I decided to cash in some 500T from Midwest Film Co. that I'd be hosing down at 400 ISO. A similar trick I use on Cinestill 800T to get past that tungsten blue overwash of the stock. That would help for that to be closed. We took a quick stroll around town to get some coffee and then came back to the hotel grounds to shoot some photos. Or okay, photo. I took several in the park here, but they were subpar. Knocking out your first photo on a roll is kind of like the Hunger Games. Once you kill that first other contestant, it's all smooth sailing from there. This wasn't technically my first shot, but it's not a bad start. Better late than never, it was time for photopia. So we made our way in and found Chrome Land, a beautiful carnival-esque beacon in the darkness filled with my kind of people, carnies or film photographers. This is the same shit at the end of the day. Anyway, before I knew it, it was time to do a presentation on how to get sturdy. And I was the right man for the job. Luckily, I'd be up there with Nico, who is my guiding light, my Northern star. I've been watching Nico's videos since the dawn of forever. So it was really nice to get to meet him and share the stage with him. And the introduction for the presentation was entirely in German. So for all I knew, I could have been walking into a public shaming. What green light is? No idea what she just said. Yeah, from social media. The last time I presented something of this caliber on a stage was an anti-drug commitment speech that I gave in fifth grade. So admittedly, I was a little bit out of practice for this one. I also regularly engage in substance abuse now, not like drugs, but like Mountain Dew mostly. Anyway, whatever. I was a total public speaking natural and absolutely slayed it. What was the question? Where was I going with that? I had totally lost my train of thought. Yeah. I mean, do you think there is a place for long-form film photography content nowadays? I think there is. I mean, like I said, you can make short term, and I guess short content now is the thing people are trying to engage with. Because I mean, a lot of people create content. I guess everybody here is a content creator per se, but not everybody has a stage to talk about it. What are you continually doing? Have you lost some of that passion when it becomes something that is your full-time job? I would say the only time I lose that spark is when I shoot a role of film and it doesn't come out. Then I'm like, why am I doing this? I could just easily be shooting. I don't want to say the D word, but, you know, digital. Thanks for everyone for showing up, and thank you, Jason, for coming here. Thank you. You're a co-worker man. I have some stuff for coming. Anyway, the Q&A afterwards was a lot of fun. I got to spill all my dark, powerful industry secrets. Like, what is Caleb and I's real relationship like? What's the deal with the flaming hot aircromb? And am I actually dead inside? Regardless, it was cool to meet everyone who shares a similar interest, and it was the perfect opportunity for Monica to realize how much more popular online that she and Baxter are than I am. Here's a prime example of why you shoot first and ask questions later. I mean, get B-roll later. I got this cool ass video before I took the photo, and this guy moved away afterwards, so I didn't get the shot on the M6. That evening, there was a gallery event at Chrome, which was super nice. I didn't get a whole lot of video of it because I was having a good time, but I did manage to pop off some shots on the walk back. Unfortunately, there were not many gas stations at night that I could shoot, so I went ahead and let analog repeat no ahead of time that I'd be forced to actually put in effort and shoot the European equivalent of gas stations at night, train stations at night. This is where 500T shines. The blue tones just make it seem so surreal and beautiful, especially at night. And finally, here's a photo booth that was severely underexposed. The Conica isn't a fast lens by any stretch, but I did what I could to get something, and I don't know, maybe there is an edge to this photo. I mean, technically every photo has an edge for them, actually, but what I mean is with a little bit more light to add detail to the surroundings, it could have been fantastic. This other shot is a good example of the idea that I'm talking about. The space around the door is dark, but retains details to give it more context and also looks like the establishing shot of a horror movie. The next day was nice and sunny, not a cloud in the sky, so I got my camera ready for some more photopia action. Also at the fair was Lena Besanova, who is a black and white developing guru. You've probably seen her work on YouTube. Anyway, like you probably right now, she got mad that I do film photography, but never have developed a role of film for myself. So instead of resorting to violence, she sat Monica and I down to develop a role of film as a team. And like a pro, loading film onto the reel, I totally nailed it on the 30 second try. Developing film is fun, but it's definitely a technical process that can be kind of creative sometimes. I still don't really know if it's the thing for me, but Monica loved it, so I guess she's gonna be developing all my film from now until the end of time, because that's what love is. This behind the scenes photo is nice and blue, and it's just one of those cases where there's nothing you can really do about it. 500T just wasn't made to be shot in daylight unless you use a filter, which I didn't. Also it says fart down here. After that, it was time for a presentation on the new wide-lux film camera that's in development in partnership with SilverGrain Classics. It was quite fascinating. They detailed how they're trying to resurrect this camera from the dead with some improvements, though I'm more of an ex-pan guy myself. I was able to set aside the beef and enjoy. Later that day was a photo walk hosted by Chrome around the city, where I'd be knocking out the remainder of the 500T in my Leica M6. On the walk, I also got to meet Karen Mayoka, another popular film photography YouTuber whose channel I binge constantly, though there isn't any video proof that it ever actually happened, so might as well say Matt Damon, Spider-Man and Bigfoot were also there, and it was a hell of a time. Speaking of time, 500T was kind of a waste of it. There's like no point in shooting 500T in daylight. It doesn't quite have the same effect as 800T does at 400 ISO in daylight. Sure, one is C41 and the other is ECN2, but no matter what I tried, I just could not seem to shake off the blue-purple cast from the 500T in post. You really do need to shoot it with that daylight filter if you want those beautiful sunset tones. While we were originally somewhat hampered by the November rain, like guns and roses, except in September, the clouds did eventually part, and we all got our German fairytale sunset. I guess you can shoot 500T straight into the bonghole of the sun to get those warm tones as well, but it's still gonna try and chill everything out, so I don't know, maybe just let it go, like Anna and Elsa. God damn, I'm making too many musical references today. 500T at sunset is definitely a look for sure. Maybe a butt ugly look, but sometimes you gotta try new stuff and see if you change your mind. After all, they do say variety is the spice of life and 250D is the spiciest of them all. That was sadly a wrap on Hamburg. Everyone that I'd met was incredibly nice, and I'll never forget those days for as long as I live, which probably isn't much longer if the Mountain Dew gets to me. Of the 36 exposure roll of 500T in the M6, I got 22 keepers and no portfolio shots. Okay, maybe one or two, three, I don't know. And my therapist says I'm afraid of the unknown and women, a full day of battling with German trains and how much they suck ass. But we eventually made it to Denmark, which is basically Europe's Canada. Probably, I don't know, I'm guessing. Before we could settle in, we realized that, uh-oh, today was the last day that Danish Disneyland would be open for the season. So we hauled major ass and Leica M6 over to Tivoli Gardens to see it before it closes. And Monica was super excited. You just can't tell. I loaded up some of my favorite secret sauce, FPP Retrochrome into the M6 for some magic. Or literally just ugly. I don't know, some people don't really like Retrochrome. And I can't possibly imagine why. The shadows on the shot are basically gone and the grain is so intense that you can't make out any details of the image. And when there is shadow detail, highlight detail will be burned to a crisp. But for some reason, regardless, it's a vibe. This shot is wonderful. Check-ins. Anyway, it was feeding time and Piggy needed his slop. So he sat down at this nice outside restaurant where I let the Retrochrome in my camera just roam-free to do whatever the hell he was gonna do with these images. It's always a gamble. We also picked up some Natty Light and Mike's Heart to stay warm at Cafe Boner. The benefit of Retrochrome having a latitude thinner than my hairline, you can isolate subjects quite easily. I remember shooting this image at something like 1 1⁄8 of a second, praying to any analog overlord that would listen that I get something, anything. The next morning was the start of Jason and Monica's big day out in Copenhagen. So we got some coffee, so strong I sh** myself again. And then we went for a boat ride around town. Anyway, Prince Harry and Megan were basically making out in front of us, so I snapped a cute little photo that I think turned out quite well. The ride itself was transcendent, spiritual even. And after we were all reborn, this time as a 190-pound man with social anxiety instead of the 11-pound baby that I was back in 1991, we walked around town for a bit looking for more coffee, which Monica didn't really think was such a good idea for me after the incident from earlier. Anyway, after violently sh** myself again, I was out of retrochrome and decided to continue on the ECN-2 Cine Film Train with 250D, my personal favorite film stock. Of the 24 exposure roll of retrochrome in the M6, half of them were keepers, and I don't know, maybe one portfolio shot. After I loaded in the 250D, we took a stroll through a really nice park. What's a pleasure garden? Just outside the f**k garden, I was off to a solid start with the 250D with this shot. The lighting itself isn't anything to brag about, but it's layered quite well, and I got really lucky with my framing to have these folks sitting on a bench inside the frame of the arch. Anyway, after the garden and after realizing that I double chin, super damn hard when I take a photo, we headed off to lunch in the form of kebabs because after all, layering isn't just photography. It's a lifestyle. There's this really nice light over Copenhagen for most of the day. It's like a diffused warm light. It's odd, but for photography, it's great. This shot is a prime example. It was like 2 PM and the light is nice and soft and at quite an angle. This shot as well is totally great. It really hits multiple nails on the head. For starters, the lighting is again solid, subjects are anonymous and give scale to the scene, and the colors are great. I mean, it's hard to go wrong with 250D, but not impossible, trust me on that one. There's also a repeating pattern in the foreground, which makes the whole thing quite visually interesting. With lunch accomplished, we rode the Otis 2000 elevating machine up to our room, a model that was way ahead of its time would definitely be more than capable of getting us where we need to go. But at that moment, it was time to go for a siesta or a wine break. I don't know, whatever it is Europeans do in the afternoon. We just wanted to be one of you for a minute. With the sun going down, it was time for some shit to go down too. 250D looks really good at sunset and I was ready to prove it. With Monica stealing my shots and settings, I was still able to knock out a few certified bangers like this one. This is the one for the portfolio. While I was taking another photo, a really nice candid shot kind of presented itself next to me. While I wasn't really in the best place to capture it, both physically and emotionally, I still gave it a go before they could notice and beat the Danish out of me. Anyway, Monica was having the time of her life, watching me take pictures because she totally supports my art. Can we be done with this? But sadly, the sun was going down and perhaps even more sadly, I was running out of film. Of the 36 exposure role of 250D, I got 19 keepers and several portfolio shots. I'm typically quite happy with 250D. I was about it for the trip. Blue Hour was upon us and we decided to enjoy our final night abroad away from the child. Good night, sweet Leica. I think that's the last time I'm gonna use you on this trip. Hopefully those last few shots turned out okay, even though I was at 1 1⁄8 of a second or something like that. Not the fastest lens on the planet. But before I also say good night to this video, I'd like to first thank today's sponsor, Squarespace, for their continued support. 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If you're ready to build a website, you can start a free trial today at squarespace.com slash grainydays. And if you use the code grainydays at checkout, you can get 10% off your first purchase. I think I got some good stuff on this. Go around to the other side of the planet. My favorite, of course, being the lot of 250D. It just works for me in most situations. You don't even have to ask, it just does its thing. When you find a stock that you really like, you just gotta hold onto it tight and hope Fuji doesn't discontinue it or anyone else. I think at this point, we've all had a stock that we loved unconditionally that has left us. I don't know how personal we wanna get on this channel and I'm sorry if I start crying again, but Aerochrome was that for me. But I don't know why we're bringing up old flames that left permanent damage. Monica and I both had a blast meeting everyone. And I wanted to say a huge thanks to the team behind Chrome and Chrome Land for the opportunity. And thank you to everyone who traveled from very far away to come say hi. I'm sorry it wasn't Baxter. I understand that that's who you really wanted to see.