Hollywood Movie Theater Closed During The Pandemic

 I took these with the Canon Sure Shot 35mm point and shoot camera as I experimented with film. I used Fujifilm 200 because I had a bunch of old rolls from a few years ago sitting in my fridge, and I had them developed by The Dark Room lab's mail-in film processing service. These were taken in McAllen, TX around May or June of this year.

Shooting With The Canon Sure Shot 35mm Camera Part 1

by Jason E. 

So here it is! Weeks (almost a month) of waiting to see what I shot using a simple vintage Point and Shoot camera.

I took this while sitting at a stop light after a hard rain. The sky was shifting from purple to orange and before the light turned green, I pulled out the camera and took this photo. Here you can see that it's a little blurry, because it's at sunset, with not a lot of light available. I'm happy with the composition and colors, but the blurriness bothers me. Just one of the limitations of shooting with one of these little cameras. If you don't have enough light, don't bother taking the photo. I know now that if and when I shoot at sundown with very little light, it would be best to either use a tripod, or to try and stabilize the camera somehow. like maybe on the car window edge. It's also worth noting that I also have shaky hands. It's something that affects a lot of what I do artistically (especially photography), but something I'm having to learn to work around.

Here's another one from that very same evening, literally just a few minutes earlier (you can see the Shipley's sign waaaaay back there to the right if you look hard enough). Here I could tell the sky was already starting to shift from orange to purple, and I really wanted to get those palm trees, so I just pulled into the middle lane of a 5 lane 2-way street just to snap this quick photo. As you can see, it's a little clearer than the other one, and I took this sitting in the drivers seat shooting through the windshield. I'm very happy with this image. It's exactly what I saw while looking through the plastic viewfinder and it represents not only the place I live pretty accurately, but also the style and aesthetic I was going for.

Here's a perfect example of an amateur rookie mistake. Where I live, it's hot. Very hot and the humidity is insane. A/C is a must, no matter what class you fall under down here. It's a necessity. And here I learned that you can't have the A/C going nice and cold in your car, and then stick the camera out the window into 104 degree heat with 100% humidity to get a quick photo. The worst part is that I had no idea this happened until I got the photos back. Since I am looking through a little plastic viewfinder and not the actual lens on these old plastic cameras, I don't see what is being seen through the lens, so imagine my surprise! I've since learned that if I'm going out in this crazy heat and humidity with the specific purpose of taking photos, I will just leave the windows down and sweat.

This is an old bank teller machine from an old bank that sits abandoned here in town.

Very cool vintage truck I see parked next to a business while driving around. I was finally able to capture it by itself and not surrounded by a bunch of new cars. The old house in the background gives it a little more vintage authenticity too.

Ultimately I'm happy with what this little old plastic camera can produce. It's pretty much exactly what I was hoping for and my little experiment has turned into a part time hobby. I love taking this thing around with me everywhere. You never know what you might see worth taking a photo of.

Thank you for taking the time to read this.

.jason

The Canon Sure Shot 35mm Camera

For the purposes of learning to shoot film and feeling comfortable doing it without breaking the bank, I wanted to ease my way into it slowly and cheaply. One of the things I have always found intimidating are the settings and how to even remember to set them for any given condition. It still blows my mind that so many people just know this stuff and are able to accurately set their F-Stop, Shutter Speed and ISO's simply be looking at their surroundings and how much light they have to work with. I already know this is going to be something I will struggle with for years before it finally sticks in my brain, so I didn't want to stress myself out right off the bat. So I decided to begin by using a simple, fully automatic Point & Shoot camera, one where I don't have to think about settings....at all. I literally just "point" the camera and "shoot" without having to worry about things like the shutter speed.

I grabbed a Canon Sure Shot point and shoot camera on eBay for roughly $30, and I used some old Fujifilm 200 that I had in my fridge for years after a failed attempt at film photography years earlier. A couple of YouTube videos turned me onto this camera, but also, it just looks so cool. I love it's design. As far as film goes, Fujifilm is really easy to find these days as you can pick it up at CVS and Walmart and some Walgreens. I was shocked to discover neither of my local Walgreens even carry film for sale anymore. It's pretty basic film, but it's cheap so it's really the best way to go while you're learning in my opinion.

One of the things I love about this, other than it's design, is how compact it is. I got to a point where I took this thing with me everywhere, and because of that I ended up getting a strap so that I could just sling it over my shoulder while running around instead of having to hold it in my hands all the time. It's also pretty light, but feels very well made. After a few rolls, I have to admit that I was very happy with the results. I made mistakes, and learned a lot about the limitations of shooting with one of these things, which I will get into in my next post with some examples.

~ jason

My First Post!

Welcome! Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Jason, and I've been a fan of photography nearly my entire life. Having taken several photography classes (do they even offer photography anymore in high school?) in high school in the late 80's to early 90's, and given the fact that I am heading into my mid 40's, I'd say that's pretty accurate. I've always been a visual person. I learn visually, and I am a visual artist and admirer of anything with visual stimulation. That's probably why I'm such a huge film geek, who even once had dreams of becoming a film director once upon a time. Hell, I even made a bunch of films with my friends when I was a teenager. So you can say I've always been into visual arts, whatever form that may be.

I would probably call myself a casual photographer. I will pick up a camera and suddenly gain some interest and play with it for a while, then move onto something else and forget all about it for years. That's pretty much what I've done my entire life with photography until recently when I really developed a deep passion for creating beautiful images with a camera. Digital of course. But even with my digital photography, I would always give it that "film" look. Most people would even ask if I had actually shot my images on film, and would be surprised to learn I hadn't, that it was all done post editing to make it look like I did. Which in itself is a compliment honestly.

When the pandemic happened, I was suddenly faced with the fact that I would not be able to collaborate with people for an undetermined amount of time, and as of this writing, it's been months with no end in sight. So I decided to take this free time to finally play with actual 35mm film. But I wanted to start slowly and not go full force crazy into it. It's so easy to go nuts with it and let's face it, film is not cheap. Sure you can get good film for a decent price, but when you factor in the cost of processing that film by sending it to a lab, and the shipping of that roll of film, well it adds up really quickly and in the end when it's all said and done, you're looking at spending roughly $20-$30 per roll. If you're lucky, you have a photo lab in your city, but the sad reality is that most of us do not, so we have to mail our film to any number of photo labs across the U.S.

Anyway, I'm blabbing. So the purpose of this blog is to not only document my journey as I learn, but maaaaaybe hopefully help someone else along the way. I've watched a ton of YouTube "how to shoot film" videos, but as I've recently learned while actually shooting film for the first time, there are lots of little things I've learned firsthand that have never been mentioned in any of those videos I watched. So thanks for stopping by and I hope you stick around.

Please follow my personal photography page on Instagram: @shot.by.jason
I may actually start another one strictly for my 35mm photos, but for now it's a mix of my digital and film. But it will show you how I've always been a huge lover of that film aesthetic. 

.jason