Super 8 + Polaroids + 35mm

April 12, 2018

Last August, I had the opportunity to film a wedding outside of Chicago (check it out here!) and always eager to travel, my wife and I decided to make a weekend trip out of it. I grabbed some very expired and grainy black and white Super 8 film I got from someone I met at the Jazz Age Lawn Party and of course, had my Polaroid Spectra with me as well as my newly purchased Olympus XA 35mm camera (loaded with Fuji Pro 400H and Ilford XP2). You can see the Super 8 and plenty of Polaroids/35mm below!

Having not been to Chicago since I was on a school field trip back in high school, I was excited to check it out. I do love living in NYC quite a bit but am always curious how other major cities stack up. My visit to LA a couple years ago didn't thrill me to be honest so the idea of a more metropolitan style city that is more chill than NYC is intriguing.

We stayed in the Ukrainian Village above a quite lively bar but we loved it. A cool space and cool neighborhood. Chicago is DEFINITELY less dense than NYC and it was very apparent. Not bad, just took some getting used to. Less people. Less buildings. Still a big city.

Also got to see a breathtaking MURAKAMI exhibit which was a highlight. Such intricate work and he's done so many incredible collaborations.

Also went up north of Chicago to explore the Baha’i temple which is the main one in the North America I believe. A truly gorgeous temple and the grounds were very serene as well.

Overall, good times in Chicago and loving how this extremely grainy, expired Tri-X turned out.

P.S. Had a couple of funny film experiences in Chicago:

First, was walking through Wicker Park area and saw this pickup truck slow down and just yell “YO NICK…….. I FOLLOW YOUR SHIT!! ….SUPER 8!!” and then sped off. To say the least, I was dumbfounded at the interaction. Amazing that someone recognized me walking down the street and shouted to me. The world is a weird place sometimes. I did later find out WHO it was via instagram and met them at the BFC Film Meetup a month later. Crazy!

Also we splurged a bit and bought tickets to see Hamilton since NYC tickets are 3x the price and sold out for close to a decade. Well during the intermission, a guy walks up to me and says “Hey. You didn’t happen to be out in the Ukrainian Village earlier were you?” To which I replied, a bit stunned,“Yes probably” and he said “Ya I saw you shooting with that Super 8 camera and thought to myself ‘Wow! I haven’t seen that in ages!’” We both had a little chat about how he used to shoot film before intermission concluded. Love how film can bring people young and old together.

As another small film thing, got to check out Central Camera Co. which has been around for over a century! So rad!

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Women's March on Washington (NYC) 2017 // Super 8 + Polaroids

July 12, 2017

Without a doubt, we are in a very tumultuous time and that gives us all the more reason to document and discuss the happenings of today. This was no more apparent than the Women's March on Washington in January of 2017 where millions of people of all genders, races and ages marched together for a cause they believed in. It was an emotional day and truly inspiring to see so many people hitting the pavement in an age where armchair activism is the preferred method of making one's voice heard. The edited film is below.

I attended the Women's March in NYC (although it happened at many cities around the country if not the world) and brought along my Instax Wide 300 camera along with my Canon 814XL-S with some Tri-X to document this momentous march. I also opted to bring along a small sound recorder to capture some of the march's chants and cheers.

I started out near 45nd and 3rd where it was supposed to start I think and it was at a dead standstill. I guess getting the locomotive going took a lot of effort. Nevertheless, people were in good spirits and ready to make their voices heard. We did eventually start moving and making our way to 42nd St then across to 5th Ave then up where it finished at Trump Tower at 59th St. The entire march went on for hours and was strong throughout. As can be seen by these photos and the Super 8 film, there will tens of thousands of people out to march. Most likely the most people I've ever seen gathered in the streets in my entire life.

The signage throughout the day was truly incredible and there were some really clever signs out there. I wish I had documented more individuals at the march to be honest but was a bit swept up in the event and the energy. I know everyone that may read this blog may not agree and that's ok but I hope that the American people can still continue to feel energized for positive political and social change for humanity. Progress definitely isn't an easy path but it's a worthwhile one.

Jazz Age Lawn Party 2016 // Super 8 + 8mm + Polaroids

June 10, 2017

Michael Arenella's Jazz Age Lawn Party is truly one of the most fun events around to shoot. The costumes are brilliant, the dancers are bunch of fun, and capturing it all on vintage cameras couldn't be a more perfect match.

Last year I had the pleasure of shooting for the Penumbra Foundation and the Penumbra Tintype Studio which had a booth at the event, shooting portraits on bona fide tintypes. I was brought on to both document their process as well as the event overall, using black and white Super 8 film (Tri-X for those who care). Aside from bringing a Super 8 camera, my trusty Nizo 801 Macro, I also brought along my Polaroid SLR680 and my Polaroid Land Camera 250 to try and capture the weekend in many different ways. A special appearance was my newly acquired Keystone 8mm camera, courtesy of my now-wife's grandfather. I'm sure it hasn't had a roll of film run through it in 40 years so that was pretty exciting to test out. A myriad of cameras all together. The film below is a mixture of the Super 8 as well as the Regular 8mm. I'm sure you'll be able to tell the difference with the Super 8 being much sharper although I think that's also due to Fomapan being a rather muddy film for 8mm.

Nizo 801M & Keystone K35 8mm | Kodak Tri-X & Fomapan R100

It was quite a weekend. Possibly one of the hottest of the summer and spending it outside all day was a doozy. With that said, I still had a lot of fun grinning and bearing it with the Penumbra crew and was utterly fascinated by their amazing tintypes being created in mere minutes; the "original Polaroid" as they called it. Other than observing the tintypes shot by Jolene and Olivia and the Fujiroids being shot on a Graflex Super D by Geoffrey Berliner of the Penumbra Foundation, I strolled around and took footage of different guests, the performers on stage, as well as the amazing choreographed dances by Gregory Moore & The Dreamland Follies.

I also managed to get a nice headshot from Geoffrey which is probably one of the few times I'll ever look nice in a photo. I also took the negative and salvaged it and scanned it on my own and it really is a beautiful negative. Love doing that. Also Dean Chooch Landry was shooting some 4x5s for Penumbra on his own century old Graflex Super and snagged a couple of portraits of me. Pretty fantastic stuff!

Last year when I went, it was just for fun and I casually shot some Super 8 and some black and white Fujifilm FP-3000B on my Land Camera which is an incredibly rare film now due to being discontinued. This year since I was shooting mainly the Penumbra crew on Super 8, I decided to make an effort to take more portraits when shooting my Polaroids. I'm glad that I did because it was fun chatting with the different dolled-up guests and ultimately it landed me a spot in a group show featuring film photography and motion picture film from the Jazz Age Lawn Party at the Gowanus Darkroom, "Portraits from the New Jazz Age" . The show itself was really cool and it was great getting to see other film photographer's work displayed let alone, show some of my own work. Looking forward to the next Jazz Age Lawn Party!

Polaroid Land 250. Fujifilm FP-3000b. January 2015

2016 NYC Snowstorm // Super 8 + Polaroids

July 31, 2016

Currently in NYC, it's sweltering and unbearably hot, but back in January, the mother of all snowstorms hit NYC and left behind around 26" of snow if my memory serves me correctly, which was less than an inch shy of the record set decades and decades ago. Shame. Even so, I had to make the most of the amazing storm and I went out both during and after the storm was happening to shoot a roll of Tri-X black and white film on my newly acquired Agfa MOVEXOOM10 Super 8 camera. It was bitter, bitter cold and I had about 6 layers of clothes on but being able to capture those couple of days on Super 8 was worth it.

The photos I included here are some Polaroids I shot with my Polaroid Land 250 with Fujifilm FP-3000b film from a snowstorm that actually hit in 2015! Figured they would fit well in this post about sledding and black & white film.

The results were amazing! I actually held off on developing the roll for a little while because I had signed up for a workshop with MONO NO AWARE which is a cinema arts non-profit here in NYC which focuses on motion picture filmmaking on real film and does a wide variety of workshops focusing on everything from technique to developing the film. This time, I took a class on how to develop reversal black and white Kodak Tri-X film so the film would be able to be projected. The class went well and seeing the results of the snowstorm projected was even better. You can see the scanned version below.

And here's a snapshot by a friend of me battling the elements with my Super 8 camera.

Jazz Age Lawn Party 2015 // Super 8 + Polaroids

June 20, 2016

Having been to Michael Arenella's Jazz Age Lawn Party hosted by his Dreamland orchestra again this year, I figured I'd write a little bit about my time there last year. It truly is a fun day full of fantastic music, great dancing, good food and the best of all, amazing outfits!

Given the time period in which this festival reflects, I figured it would be appropriate to shoot some film while I was there (although the two cameras I used were from the 60s/70s to tell the truth). I shot some black and white Polaroids using my Polaroid Land 250 camera and Fujifilm FP-3000b pack film. The contrast and definition of that film is truly breathtaking, especially given that you can see the developed, instant shot in a mere 15-30 seconds after you yank it out. That's about the fastest developing film ever.

A few funny stories about using that camera, not only did I run into a few other people shooting with the same or similar camera, but there was a man there, whom I now know the name of, Geoffrey Berliner, who works with the Penumbra Foundation in NYC, who was also shooting with the same peel-apart type film but the color type (FP-100C). The fascinating part was he was using a camera truly out of that era, a very old Graflex camera that he adapted to use pack film. Those results were absolutely breathtaking. That film combined with a giant lens produced results like no other. I also stumbled upon a few other people with Polaroid Land cameras which was a treat having other instant enthusiasts around. Of course there were more than a few TLRs or film SLRs but Polaroids are harder to come by.

The last odd story is about a photo I no longer have. Meandering the party near the end of the day, wondering what to do with my final shot, thinking I may use it for a skyline shot aboard the ferry back to Manhattan, a man stopped me and began to eagerly ask questions about the camera. He finally asked if I minded if I took a shot of him and his friends and then offered me $20, which I happily obliged at that point. Ha. At the time, that was about the cost of an entire pack of that film whereas now with it being discontinued, it's about half the cost! Anyways, so I shot a group shot of him and all of his friends in their finest garbs, the photo came out beautifully, and they set off gleefully with their new print. That to me is the magic of Polaroids. Near instant results.

Aside from all of the fun with the Polaroid camera, I also shot a roll of Tri-X Reversal Super 8 film in my Nizo S56 camera. I shot different snippets of the event from the amazing dancing, choreographed performances, the band, the people, and managed to end it all on a fading skyline. Busting that camera out also managed to get some looks and even caused an NYU film professor to stop me and chat about the format and how he wished he brought his. Vintage cameras are always a great talking point and I love when people stop me and want to chat about them.

Jazz Age Lawn Party 2016 - Polaroid Spectra (IP 600 Color Gen2)

This final shot is actually from this year's Jazz Age. Only had one shot left in my Polaroid Spectra camera so saving it for a big group shot seemed like the best use! Such a swell day! Hope to be shooting more film there in the future.

Super 8mm and Polaroid work featured on

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