In 1965, Eastman Kodak developed Super 8 film to improve upon the old 8mm home movie format. The film size was the same, but the Super 8 cartridges had smaller perforations allowing for a larger area for exposure and the potential for sound recording on the edge opposite the perforations. The attraction of Super 8 to the home movie buff was that it came in convenient cartridges which you just popped into the camera and you were ready to roll. Canon Auto Zoom 814 I had seen some Super 8 cameras rolling through the Goodwill online shop, and they were pretty reasonably priced. After losing a few auctions, I picked up…
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It is remarkable how Anguilla has bounced back after Hurricane Irma, but there is a noticeable loss. Smokey’s at the Cove was our go-to place on Saturday afternoons. I remember our first trip to Anguilla, and walking down to Smokey’s from the CuisinArt. We heard the Musical Brothers playing Bob Marley tunes and Christmas carols, and it was as if we had found our heaven on earth. But Irma came, Smokey’s was heavily damaged, and the Gumbs family had no plans for reopening. We had pretty much given up on Smokey’s being anything but a memory. Then we found our way to The Place. Rumor had it that “Smokes,” the…
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It’s not every day that you get to see new life come into the world, especially when you’re on vacation. A morning walk along Maunday’s Bay in Anguilla ended in the excitement of seeing dozens of hawksbill turtles hatching, and make their way out to sea. We had just finished breakfast at Cap Juluca’s Cip’s and were walking back to our villa at the west end of the beach. A few people walking ahead of us stopped, and soon a small group formed. It wasn’t long before we spotted it. There was a turtle nest along the retaining wall, and the baby turtles were hatching and heading out for their…
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A few years back, I returned to film photography, and now shoot both digital and film while traveling. With a lot of hits and misses, I’ve come to find that several film stocks have emerged as my favorites, reliable from trip to trip, and perfect for the way I shoot. Although I will continue to experiment, these film stocks have proven their worth and will be in my bag on every trip, or as long as the manufacturers continue to produce them! Kodak Portra 400 Portra 400 is clearly my favorite of all film stocks. I used to shoot Portra NC and VC back in my pre-digital days, but the…
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Since returning to film photography a few years ago, I make a point of taking at least one film camera on each trip. Part of the reason is that I love the look of film. I also love playing with my old cameras and trying different techniques. Traveling to Nevis, I packed two film cameras, the Canon 1v, which uses all the same lenses as my DSLR, and the Mamiya 645 Pro TL with the 80mm f/1.9 and the 45mm f/2.8 lenses. I decided to try some slide film, so I packed a few rolls of Fuji Velvia 100 RVP, along with my trusted stocks, Kodak Ektar 100, Fuji 400H,…
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Last November, on our first trip with film in eight years (#filmroadtrip: Road Test – Anguilla), we learned a lot of lessons. One of my missions on this trip was to correct at least some of the mistakes I made. So on this #FilmRoadTrip: Road Test – Barbuda & Antigua, I tweaked a few things, shot more film, and was pretty pleased with the results. As always, though, there is still room for improvement. The Film Kit Traveling with a lot of gear is not easy. I wanted to shoot both medium format and 35mm, along with my digital, but I wanted to watch the weight. I knew that on…
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One constant has remained for every trip to Anguilla – – Saturdays are for Smokey’s. I remember our first trip to the island in 2007. I heard there was live music at Smokey’s for lunch on Saturday, so I was determined to make it there on our first full day on the island. We walked there from the CuisinArt (you could do that back then – the beach was wider). I remember being seated at the table just inside the easternmost door, looking out over the water. I had the jerk chicken (which I’ve had every time since), and heard The Musical Brothers performing, doing Christmas songs. I had found…
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I had a lot of trouble deciding what to pack for this trip. I knew I wanted to shoot some film. In fact, I was more excited to shoot film than digital. This would be our fourth trip to Anguilla in seven years, and in my mind, I kept thinking, “done that.” I wanted a new challenge, to see Anguilla differently, so I decided to take my film on the road. With that decided, I still had a tough time deciding what cameras to bring. I knew that the Canon 1v used the same lenses as my digital SLR, so I wasn’t really adding much in terms of weight/space requirements.…
