Oh, Hello stranger.

If you are here, you probably are a guest at GRACE AND JOSH’s wedding weekend in SONOMA, California.

Maybe you are passionate about all things analog, film cameras, or maybe you are just curious about where this link will lead you. No matter what drives you - welcome.

Now let me tell you a bit about why I created this page here - it is out of passion. The thing is that I’m obsessed with history and all things analog and I found more and more people like me sharing the very same passion.

On a wedding day, I love talking to people about my photography and my cameras and all things analog, but unfortunately, there is never enough time for that. So here it is - this little corner here will tell you a bit more about all the vintage cameras I am using and some of the stories of how I actually found all that little treasure of mine.

And if you have questions or you are interested for more - don’t hesitate to connect with me.

THE TOOLS

  • I’m using mostly 120mm / or medium format film, and 35mm black and white and color film. There are many different brands, but here are the most popular one.
    Kodak Professional
    - black and white: Tri-X
    - color - Kodak Portra 400, Kodak Portra 800


    Ilford Delta
    Fujifilm Instax Film

  • I use a variety of film cameras throughout the wedding day. You probably see me using:


    medium format cameras:
    Contax 645
    Pentax 67ii
    Hasselblad 205
    Holga 120N

    35mm film cameras:
    Nikon F6
    Yashica T4

    instant cameras:
    Fujifilm Instax Wide
    Nons Camera


  • Light meters are used to get an accurate reading of the light conditions. Wherever you are taking pictures, either outside or inside, the light meter is way more accurate and more professional way to read the light. I use two different lightmeters:
    Seconic 358 - released 2001
    Seconic 458 - modern with a touch screen, that I will pull at night.

  • a professional and reliable film lab is an absolute must for any film photographer. I think my film lab is the best in the world. I tried many many different lab - from local, to European, but Richard Photo Lab in LA are the best.

The CAMERAS

KONICA REPORTER

At Maya’s & Kurt's wedding, I left two boxes in the bridal suite and groom’s chamber. In the boxes, there were two identical cameras - Konica AA 35 or also popular as Recorder. What makes these cameras unique is that they are half-frame format cameras. Wich literally means that they use one standard film frame to produce two images - so instead of 36 photos - you can have 72.

The Konica AA-35 Reporter first appeared on the market in 1984 and was offered in two finishes – black with a grid pattern printed on it or a gold metallic finish (‘champagne’ according to the brochures!)
I bought the black one in 2021 from a photographer in Bulgaria. His name is Sevdalin and he was having a rough time. Sevdalin has some serious health issues and needed funding, but he didn’t want charity. Instead, he was offering all the cameras that he carefully collected over the years. I wanted to help him and this is how I got the Konica AA-35. Sevdalin was having it for more than 30 years. He send the camera (together with an old expired roll of film) to my parent’s house and I picked it up in August 2022 - when they allow me to travel.

The champagne Konica that was in Maya’s room - I brought from Japan.

HOLGA

That plastic camera is definitely one of my favorites during the wedding day. It creates very artistic images, that always are a surprise because most often I envision something else when I press the shutter.

It all began in Hong Kong in the early 1980s when the first Holgas were designed by a man named Lee Ting-mo. with the idea to be the go-to everyday camera for working-class Chinese families at the time.

Keeping the costs of buying a Holga to a minimum meant having minimal technical features, minimal focusing ability, minimal light seals, minimal sharpness outside the center of your photographs, and minimal chance of your results turning out exactly as you’d hoped.

Still, with 120 films by far the most popular format in the country at the time and a huge population of unwealthy people to sell cheap and easy-to-use cameras to, what could possibly go wrong?

Unfortunately for Holga, China’s opening up and economic reform of the late 70s and early 80s is what.

It didn’t take long for the rapidly growing middle class to be able to start buying the newly imported 35mm cameras instead, which meant both 120 format and Holga were left out in the cold.

Nikon F6 / the last man standing

At Maya’s & Kurt's wedding, I left two boxes in the bridal suite and groom’s chamber. In the boxes, there were two identical cameras - Konica AA 35 or also popular as Recorder. What makes these cameras unique is that they are half-frame format cameras. Wich literally means that they use one standard film frame to produce two images - so instead of 36 photos - you can have 72.

The Konica AA-35 Reporter first appeared on the market in 1984 and was offered in two finishes – black with a grid pattern printed on it or a gold metallic finish (‘champagne’ according to the brochures!)
I bought the black one in 2021 from a photographer in Bulgaria. His name is Sevdalin and he was having a rough time. Sevdalin has some serious health issues and needed funding, but he didn’t want charity. Instead, he was offering all the cameras that he carefully collected over the years. I wanted to help him and this is how I got the Konica AA-35. Sevdalin was having it for more than 30 years. He send the camera (together with an old expired roll of film) to my parent’s house and I picked it up in August 2022 - when they allow me to travel.

The champagne Konica that was in Maya’s room - I brought from Japan.

HASSELBLAD

That plastic camera is definitely one of my favorites during the wedding day. It creates very artistic images, that always are a surprise because most often I envision something else when I press the shutter.

It all began in Hong Kong in the early 1980s when the first Holgas were designed by a man named Lee Ting-mo. with the idea to be the go-to everyday camera for working-class Chinese families at the time.

Keeping the costs of buying a Holga to a minimum meant having minimal technical features, minimal focusing ability, minimal light seals, minimal sharpness outside the center of your photographs, and minimal chance of your results turning out exactly as you’d hoped.

Still, with 120 films by far the most popular format in the country at the time and a huge population of unwealthy people to sell cheap and easy-to-use cameras to, what could possibly go wrong?

Unfortunately for Holga, China’s opening up and economic reform of the late 70s and early 80s is what.

It didn’t take long for the rapidly growing middle class to be able to start buying the newly imported 35mm cameras instead, which meant both 120 format and Holga were left out in the cold.

InSTANT FILM / POLAROIDS

Just like Xerox - the copy machine, instant film is more popular like Polaroids - which is totally not correct, because Polaroids is simply one of the brands that offer instant film cameras and film. And in the matter of fact, I really prefer to use the Fujifilm Instax Film. I personally like the skin tones better and a few years ago, when I was on the hunt for an instant camera - the Fujifilm Instax Wide was the best one!

CONTAX 645

If it is daytime - this will be the camera that I will carry with me the whole day. It comes with a lens that is, according to my humble opinion - the best lens in the world! I will repeat that one more time just in case - the best lens in the world - Carl Zeiss Planar 80mm f/2. I own two of these lenses and I adapted one even for my medium format Fujifilm GFX camera - that’s how much I love that lens. My workhorse never failed me even in a situation where all my cameras didn’t want to work due to overheating (yes, it was one of those days) - and I photographed the family portraits entirely on film. I know my Contax so well that it is like an extension of me. A little history lesson on the camera - Contax 645 AF is the smallest medium format camera - a 6x4.5 cm autofocus film camera, introduced by Kyocera under the Contax brand on 20 February 1999 in Japan. The brand no longer exists and this is why every film wedding photographer owns at least two sets and as anything vintage and rare - the price of a camera is still going up.

Pentax 67ii

This is an iconic film camera from the 90s. I believe that every fashion photographer, who at one point photographed the supermodels from that era, had one of those. I bought mine from Japan after I discover that my all-time favorite photographer Peter Lindbergh - was using that specific camera to capture the eight supermodels under the Brooklyn Bridge. During that photoshoot, he had three cameras and his assistants will rotate and roll all three of them. You may ask me why is that - well this camera is super slow and it produces only 10 images per roll of film. This is why the camera is not perfect for a wedding day - not to mention that it is also very very loud.

However, when I travel and do only portrait work - this is always my go-to camera.

I pair this camera with a manual lens Takumar 105 2.4, which is the perfect portrait lens. A fun fact here is that there are rumors a while ago that this lens spread radiation. Well, I may or may not get scared by that and use a friend of mine, who a year ago visited Chornobyl and got all the needed equipment that measures radiation. He didn’t catch any dangerous signs, so my lens and in a matter of fact all of my equipment is safe. I tested all of it.