Using the Olympus XA4 For A Sketchbook

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Like most people out there I have a day job. It would of course be wonderful to make photographs full time and pay my bills with print sales, but alas, I’m a cubicle warrior by day and a photography dabbler on the weekends. As such I try my best to dip my toes into a creative headspace whenever I possibly can.

Photographed with an Olympus XA4 and Fomapan 100 35mm film.

Every so often when I manage to wake up and get ready for my day a little early I like to take a walk around town and make street photographs with my little pocket Olympus XA4. I’ve never claimed to be a great street photographer, but sometimes I find the practice cathartic, like doodling in a sketchbook. It’s just a great way to look at things, practice making compositions in the viewfinder, and to appreciate the place you live.

Not every photograph I make needs to be a masterpiece. Heck, NONE of the photographs I make need to be a masterpiece. I’m still going to do it anyway regardless of the outcome

Portland Oregon photographed with an Olympus XA4 and Fomapan 100 35mm film.

Photographed with an Olympus XA4 and Fomapan 100 35mm film.

I find the Olympus XA4 to be a perfect camera for taking snapshots on the street. It’s sleek and durable and fits easily in a winter coat pocket or the side pocket in my daily backpack. Ultimately it’s a point and shoot camera so creative control is limited, but the trade off is worth it for the portability. I also appreciate the fact that it is capable of longer exposure which is helpful when I’m walking about before dawn.

Evaluating Photography In 2023

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I’ve been spending a lot of time recently evaluating how I want to proceed with my photography going forward. For years now it seems like social media (Instagram, Twitter, etc. etc.) are just a given if you want to share your work with the maximum number of people possible. But all the same, for years now I’ve been wondering if they really are the best platforms to focus on. Heck, I’m wondering if there are any platforms that are good for sharing work. When did I buy into the notion that social media platforms are where it all has to be and any other efforts are a bad use of time?

Photographed with a Holga Toy Camera and Ilford HP5 pushed to ISO 1600.

I was listening to a podcast recently were the host described social media as the equivalent of being a musician and walking into concert hall that is filled with other musicians but no audience. Everyone starts playing their own instruments and doing their own thing. The ultimate result is just a giant mess of sound that nobody want to listen to but yet everyone keeps playing in anyway. Expanding on that analogy a little bit the thought occurred to me, why not leave the concert hall and go play your music on the street corner alone instead? Sure, the choice of venue is not as prestigious and is outside the norm a little bit, but at least someone will listen to you. At least you would be giving your music a chance to stand on its own free of distraction and outside noise.

I’m not saying I want to give up on social media entirely. I’m not going to delete my various social media accounts in a huff or make some grand exit. However, I think in 2023 I’m going to rely on them a whole lot less and instead focus on doing actual work. Not necessarily sharing work, but doing work. What that work is going to look like I don’t know yet, but free from the pressure of posting something new each and every day I feel like I now have the permission to explore a little more and tackle some ideas I’ve never tackled. We will see what happens.

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In the meantime, the photograph I’m posting here was made in downtown Portland Oregon on a very foggy morning around 6am. I was walking to work and had a Holga with me loaded up with Ilford HP5 film. It was still practically dark and the Steel Bridge doesn’t have a lot of artificial lighting so I pushed the film to ISO 1600 to even get an exposure. Even pushing that far the resulting negative was still thin, but good enough to get a nice moody scan from it.

The Human Form in Architecture

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I’ve been exploring indoor spaces a lot lately. In part because the weather has been incredibly cold, but also because it has been thrilling to entire a defined space and figure out ways I can use four walls to my advantage. There is something about photographing in a studio sometimes that really forces you to just work with what you have in front of you.

Photographed with a Hasselblad 500c/m and Ilford Pan F ISO 50 medium format film.

I am particularly happy with the light play here and the way the bright highlights were bouncing off the white roof out the window, creating heavy shadows that wrap around all the shapes in the frame. There is a fun juxtaposition here between the straight lines and sharp corners of the studio space and the curvy lines of the model.

I’m also particularly pleased that I managed to retain a lot of shadow detail even though I was working with Ilford Pan F film. Anyone who has ever worked with Ilford Pan F knows that it is very easy to get out of control with the contrast! With gentle agitation in the developing tank and mixing a slightly cold chemical bath I think I kept it under control though.

Golden Hour and Portraits

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It’s no secret that the final minutes of light right before sunset are often the best moments to make photographs. You have to be swift and decisive because you don’t have a lot of time before the sun dips below the horizon, but if you have your scene set up and get you get a little bit lucky with your exposures, great things can happen.

Photographed with a Sony A7c and Zeiss 55mm f/1.8 lens.

When COVID was in full swing and everyone was being incredibly cautious about where we went and who we worked with I did quite a few photo sessions in my living room. I have west facing windows that tend to get very dramatic light in the final minutes of the day. Sometimes the light is just way too harsh to work with, but on this particular day it was perfect. Probably because it was the fall season when the light tends to be a bit more subdued, yet full of color.

Nude on the Shore

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I’ve been quite happy with a lot of the film I’ve been developing lately. This image is a perfect example. It was made right as the sun was setting over the mountains to the west of Portland and I managed to make an exposure in those last few seconds when the light gives off its last few seconds of usable glow.

Photographed with a Hasselblad 500c/m and Ilford Pan F ISO 50 medium format film.

I think this image is made all the sweeter for me as I managed to pull it off with Ilford Pan F film. I love Ilford Pan F film but I won’t deny that given its relatively low ISO (i.e. low sensitivity to light) and my general loathing of tripods I don’t use it all that often. Ilford Pan F tends to also be high in contrast, which is a quality that I think adds to the dramatic effect of the low hanging sun.