32 http://www.amateurphotographer.co.uk
DEDICATED FOLLOWERS OF FILM
myself, “Am I doing this for
myself or everyone else?” It hasto be for myself. I don’t want to get
lost in the process of being
successful, so I need to focus on
what I want to do rather than
listening to the voices around me.
You can become lazy when you feel
like you’ve out-done yourself and
everything is great – but then you
stop doing what you do for the
reasons you started doing it. When
you shoot pictures to please other
people you are giving away some
of your personal time – you may as
well be at work!
‘I’ve been doing double exposuresfor four or five years now. After a
while you get to know what people
like so you shoot that way because
it’s easy and you know it’s going to
work. That can make photography
boring as there’s no experimentation
- you already know what the picture
is going to look like. There’s nothing
real about the process. Even if it does
really well on social media you get a
bitter-sweet feeling as other people
like the picture but it doesn’t mean
very much to me.’
Louis hasn’t decided yet on adirection for his future personal
work, but he is keeping an open
mind while he thinks about it. ‘I’m
still searching. I used to be scared
about moving away from shooting
double exposures, but now it feels
refreshing. It’s a new approach and
I’m finding it really exciting. I’m
aiming for the same thing I was
when I started taking pictures;
making memories and feeling
satisfied with what I’m doing – even
if it’s just for me. Liking my own
pictures should be enough for me.
My pictures need to be in sync with
how I feel, and I should be proud of
them. I have been taking pictures for
other people for too long.
‘I don’t know if I’ll abandon
double exposures entirely, as it was
my first love, so I will probably still
shoot them when I see the potential,
but it won’t be the main part of my
work. I won’t be able to capture that
same sense of time in a single frame,
and I have no idea really what I will
do next other than trying to capture
the way I feel. It’s really hard to
remap my brain to see things
differently as I have got used to
seeing that way.’
‘Over the past few months I’ve
been trying to move on, but we’ll see
how that goes as we move through- I’m stepping up my game, and
having a change of direction – seeing
things differently but still focusing
on the right thing. We all need to
focus on what we feel.’
Kit, settings and lm
Louis uses a Nikon F2 for most of his
film work, and a Sony A6300 when
he is shooting digitally. ‘I’d love a
Nikon F6, but they are quite
expensive. I also want a Hasselblad
500 – I don’t need it, and I’m not
into cameras, but I think it will make
me shoot in a different way. At the
moment though I shoot almost
everything with the F2 and a Nikkor
35mm f/2 lens, but sometimes use a
28mm or a 50mm. The 35mm has aview that’s similar to the way I see.
‘You can be really close to the
subject with a 35mm lens, which
creates a different vibe and allows
you to feel their energy. Pictures shot
with 85mm and long lenses don’t
make me feel things in the same way- it’s like the people are just standing
there. Most of the time I shoot wide
open as almost all my work is shot at
night; the middle of the day isn’t
really my thing. And I shoot
handheld. I experimented a lot
when I started and now use the same
settings all the time. I shoot at
1/30sec or 1/15sec because I have
pretty steady hands.
‘I used Kodak Ekta 100 pushed to
400 when I started, but now I use
Kodak Portra 400 colour negative film
most often. I didn’t think I would
like Lomography film as usually it
has really strong colours, but
Lomofilm 400 works well at night.
Portra 400 is kind of warm and is
really close to the way I see. CineStill
film is too blue and I don’t like the
halation. I also tried Fujifilm Velvia
50 slide film and liked the results,
but it’s expensive, you have to wait
longer to get it developed and I need
Above: Margot,
Melbourne,
Summer 2016,
Nikon F2,
Portra 400Left: From left to
right: Sony A6300,
Rollei 35s,
Olympus OM30,
Nikon F2Right: Martin,
Paris, Summer
2017, Sony A6300