Ceremony

Photographed on 11/4/2023 - 11/7/2023

Published on 12/30/2023

Something I've discovered over the course of my experiments in film photography is that black and white film is a very unique beast. I've touched on it before in my previous two black and white film entries, but images have a completely different feel once color is removed. Obviously there are the connotations of black and white photos being older, but I find they also take on a sort of surreal quality.

Black and white photos look like old movies. They look like scenes from our dreams, devoid of color, but full of meaning. I wanted to play around more with this reel, taking some self portraits as well as interesting framing of things I saw downtown. I believe this goal shines through these photos as they all feel rather strange and otherworldly.

The strange sights I encountered on my walks around downtown Raleigh helped with this as well. For a few of these photos I used a new lens. After doing some research on the Rokkor line of lenses for Minolta cameras, I realized many of them are rather inexpensive and almost universally fit the lens mount of my SLR.

I decided to purchase a Macro Rokkor-QF 50mm f3.5 lens as it was a cheap yet effective option for macro photography. It is a bit difficult to use, particularly in some of the low light settings I found myself testing it in. However, it got some impressive results and high detail up close. The picture of my eye is a great example of what it can do.

I was also pleasantly surprised with the outcome of the 10th and 14th pictures in this set. In my time shooting with the standard 50mm Rokkor lens that came with my camera, I have come to really appreciate the hexagonal lens flare created by the lens' blades. I feel I used it to great effect in those two images and the effect always gives a sort of nice style to the photo.

TIPS: Change the current image using the buttons on the side or the arrow keys!

Click on any photo title to view the full sized image.