Color Me Pretty | Kodak Portra 160 | Shooting Film, Part 2 of 5

Is there anything more beautiful than getting back to the roots of what drew you to something in the first place? For me, shooting film has been an incredible journey back and a total jolting leap forward at the same time. Shooting film is humbling. You have to get back to basics in your technique, and you have to have the patience to wait a few days for your results. But wow. The results. This roll was processed and scanned by Richard Photo Lab. I was so excited to download these via ftp yesterday.

First, some leftover flowers from our styled shoot with Gingerleaf Floral.

All of these images are from one roll of Kodak’s brand new Portra 160 film, which I received free at Jonathan Canlas‘ platform at WPPI. I wish I had run around the room snatching up the extra rolls off empty chairs. Kodak’s Portra 160 gives incredible saturation in all the right ways, bringing out these amazing reds and greens. I am seriously floored by how these cherry blossoms turned out. The most amazing thing is that the photos just come back to you like this– barely any retouching needed, except a curves bump here or there.

Favorite! Thank you to my cousin Theresa & her boyfriend Rob for waking up early just so I could shoot off this roll before returning the camera I’d rented. Aren’t they extra cute on film?

Love, love, love. Especially the tinge of pink along the left side and the tinge of blue on the metal posts.

I even love this next one, though the focus is on the background. We’ll say I did it on purpose.

And a final shot with San Francisco and the Giants’ ballpark in the background.

Why am I so crazy, raving about analog film in this digital age? So many reasons. And that is what I will be telling you in part three of my “Shooting Film” series– film vs. digital. In part four, I’ll show you a comparison between two processing labs– my local Oscars Photo Lab and the LA-based Richard Photo Lab. Part five, we’ll do a little experiment in processing digital to look like film. And maybe we’ll add more parts later, but I think five is good for now. Excited? I am!

If you missed it, here is part one from this “Shooting Film” series– And Now We Wait.