Friends on Film: Analogue Photography blog By London Photographer Bobby Shoebotham

35mm film photograph of 7 men standing by the river thames looking out over the city by london photographer Bobby Shoebotham

Two things dawned on me recently. The first was that it’s been just over a year since Lauren’s mum very kindly gave me the gift of an old 35mm film SLR camera for Christmas, meaning it’s been just over a year since I started trying my hand as a film photographer. The second was that it’s been basically bang on a year since my last blog post, which, given how helpful they are meant to be for a photographer’s website SEO is potentially pretty disastrous news. However, the useful thing about this dual moment of realisation is that’s presented the ideal solution to the problem posed by the latter marketing crisis… Another film blog! That’s right, following on from the standout success of my last film blog ‘Australian Aventures in Analogue’ I thought people may be interested to see how the photos have progressed and what I’ve learned by wrestling with the beast of film photography for a whole lap around the sun.

35mm film photograph of a mixed race woman smiling at the camera on a boat with tower bridge in the background by london photographer Bobby Shoebotham

35mm film photograph of a group of men with beers standing on a london streetby london photographer Bobby Shoebotham

35mm film photograph of a young baby girl looking up off the camera by london photographer Bobby Shoebotham

35mm film photograph of a brindle whippet lying on a bed in the sunshine by london photographer Bobby Shoebotham

35mm film photograph of a man with long hair walking in some tall grass with his young son by london photographer Bobby Shoebotham

35mm film photograph of a baby asleep on his mum’s shoulder by london photographer Bobby Shoebotham

35mm film photograph of blonde haired man holding his young daughter and laughing off camera by london photographer Bobby Shoebotham

35mm film photograph of a grandma holding her young grandson and looking at the camera by london photographer Bobby Shoebotham

35mm film photograph of a grey haired man with long hair holding a baby in a grassy field by london photographer Bobby Shoebotham

35mm film photograph of a brindle whippet dog with it’s arm around a cuddly toy by london photographer Bobby Shoebotham

35mm film photograph of a mixed race woman holding a whippet dog close to her fce and smiling at the camera by london photographer Bobby Shoebotham

35mm film photograph of a woman holding an empty bap waiting in a bbq que by london photographer Bobby Shoebotham

Black and white 35mm film photograph of a man in a checked shirt and a long beard standing in a kitchen by london photographer Bobby Shoebotham

35mm film photograph of a mexican man reaching for his beer in an english pub while holding his daughter by london photographer Bobby Shoebotham

35mm film photograph of a young boy kissing his baby brother on the forehead by london photographer Bobby Shoebotham

35mm film photograph of a very small church in London with a large sign saying ‘The Church’ by london photographer Bobby Shoebotham

35mm film photograph of a woman with dark hair sitting at raffles bar in singapore smiling by london photographer Bobby Shoebotham

35mm film photograph of a blonde woman holding her young son and both smiling at the camera by london photographer Bobby Shoebotham

A blonde man in a colourful t shirt holding a young baby in a kitchen by London photographer Bobby Shoebotham

Since I’m naturally a glass half empty kind of guy, I guess it makes sense to talk about my struggles with the format first. A big thing for me as a professional photographer is sharpness. I spend a good chunk of my time when taking and editing digital photos for work obsessing over getting the focus right and getting the all important sharpness and detail, especially on people’s eyes. With this camera, for a few reasons that ever so slightly goes out the window. I’ve improved on it considerably (as I’ll discuss later), but one of the biggest things I’ve learned during this whole thing which strangely enough has nothing to do with actually taking photos is just to learn to let it go and stop being such a perfectionist photographer nerd. The camera is 35 years old, it has no autofocus and the inherent grain in 35mm film means there is only so sharp things can be, so I’ve just had to make my peace with that, which is almost definitely a good thing for the purpose of the types of photos I take with it.

My second major gripe was actually moaned about in the last blog post and I’m yet to find a way to improve upon the situation and highly doubt I ever will. If you’re a REALLY big fan of my blogs, you may have guessed that it is of course the inability to take a photo with this camera without bringing it up to your eye to see what’s going on. I’m sure there’s some kind of study in human psychology that may discuss this in much more detail, but when using a camera like this I really come up against something I call ‘The Chandler Effect.’ Basically, as soon as someone sees you bring that camera up to your eye they immediately become self conscious and bust out an almightily un-natural smile, which, for someone who has basically made a career out of candid photography is sometimes a little hard to deal with.

35mm film photo of a black whippet dog wearing a singaporese jacket sitting on a sofa by London photographer Bobby Shoebotham

35mm film photo of a woman and a man standing in a field with yellow grass and trees both smiling happily by London photographer Bobby Shoebotham

35mm film photo of a man in a wooly hat with a baby strapped to his chest, both looking at the camera by London photographer Bobby Shoebotham

35mm film photo of 3 friends and a child all sitting inside a warmly lit bar and smiling at the camera by London photographer Bobby Shoebotham

35mm film photo of a black whippet dog lying on a concrete floor by London photographer Bobby Shoebotham

35mm film photo of a blonde mother and grandmother sitting on a blue sofa with two young boys by London photographer Bobby Shoebotham

35mm film photo of a young couple posing in tiaras in a shop in singapore by London photographer Bobby Shoebotham

35mm film photo of a boy in a blue cap kissing his little brother on the cheek outisde by London photographer Bobby Shoebotham

A man holding his young baby daughter with a piece of red pepper in his mouth by London photographer Bobby Shoebotham

An older woman sitting at a kitchen table and looking off camera as if listening to someone by London photographer Bobby Shoebotham

A lemur at london zoo sitting in some green leaves with a blue sky behind it by London photographer Bobby Shoebotham

A young family laughing together sitting in a living room by London photographer Bobby Shoebotham

A group of five friends on a beach smiling at the camera by London photographer Bobby Shoebotham

A woman in a white and black jacket smiling on a london street by London photographer Bobby Shoebotham

A group of friends in a pub beer garden smiling up at the camera by London photographer Bobby Shoebotham

A whippet dog stretching out on its back on a green bed in the sun by London photographer Bobby Shoebotham

So enough of the whinging, what have I learned since the last blog? Well, in short, a lot. After having literally just been talking about trying not to be a photographer nerd, this next bit is going to be real ‘photographer nerd’ heavy so feel free to skip if you really don’t care.
The main thing I’ve figured out relating to sharpness is picking the right film and/or trying things out with the wrong film. I realised the main reason my photos weren’t sharp enough is because my shutter speed was too low in anything other than direct sunlight, which was making hand shake/motion blur noticable in the photos. This essentially meant I had to up my ISO, so I started picking film that was at least 800 ISO and I think it’s helped with sharpness no end, and also means I can shoot in darker conditions. I also found out you can ‘push’ film to a higher ISO level than it’s meant to be shot at and then ask whoever develops it to process it in a special way. I think this has been the gamechanger for me, as not only does it give you the higher shutter speed, but because you are pushing the film in a way it’s not really meant to be shot it can give you some cool side effects such as more contrast and depth in colours, and I always love trying weird stuff. You can see the contrast especially in all the black and white photos in this blog which was a pushed roll, and about 30% of the other shots have been pushed too.

A man with dark hair and a beard wearing black smiling at something off camera by London photographer Bobby Shoebotham — This guy is a great example of what pushing film does to a photo. Fujifilm 400, shot at 800. Super contrasty and nice deep colours. The subject is OK too I guess.

Last but not least, I found out you can actually kind of edit analogue scans in Lightroom, which has also been a bit of game changer for me, as I actually started editing photos before I even became a photographer and it’s a big part of my process. I’m sure there’s a few purists out there that will say this is ‘cheating’ or something dumb like that, but the easy answer to that is that photo editing has been a part of photography since people started taking photos. If you see a professional photo anywhere, I hate to break it to you but it has 99% of the time been edited somehow. You’re pretty limited with how much you can alter an analogue scan so you’re basically still retaining all the original characteristics, you can just ever so slightly help them pop a bit more which I think makes all the difference.

A woman with interesting sunlight coming through plant leaves on her face looking at the camera and smiling by London photographer Bobby Shoebotham

A ginger man in a hat sitting in a pub and smiling by London photographer Bobby Shoebotham

A young boy dressed in blue kissing his young baby brother who is sleeping by London photographer Bobby Shoebotham

A young boy sitting on his dads lap looking looking over at the camera and smiling by London photographer Bobby Shoebotham

A young mother holds her toddler sun in a garden on his birthday by London photographer Bobby Shoebotham

A young boy reaches up to his mother and baby brother as they sit at a kitchen chair above him by London photographer Bobby Shoebotham

A whippet dog in a purple and yellow jumper lying down looking sad.

A large temple in singapore by London photographer Bobby Shoebotham

A man in a hat and beard holds his baby daughter up on his shoulder by London photographer Bobby Shoebotham

A young boy with his blonde mother sitting at a kitchen table in a bright room smiling by London photographer Bobby Shoebotham

A woman with dark skin holding a whippet dog on her lap and looking up at the camera by London photographer Bobby Shoebotham.

The turrets of battersea power station on a blue sky sunny day by London photographer Bobby Shoebotham

So how am I feeling about analogue photography after a year in the game? Well given the amount I just worked out I’ve spent on film and development over the course of the year… I’d say i must be loving it!

You always hear the whole “There’s just something special about film” trope being espoused by analogue nerds everywhere which I always thought was ridiculous, but in a complete one eighty I now totally, totally get it. You’ll notice there’s not many landscape photos here and the shots are made up almost exclusively of people (and dogs) I love and there’s a reason for that. The film seems wasted on landscape or urban shots where I know my digital camera can do better, but when it comes to people there’s something it just can never beat here. Someone said the other day that even photos taken on the newest film cameras that still have that analogue buzz basically take you back to looking at childhood photos even if they’re from present day, and I think that’s a huge part of it. There’s something timeless about the way film will always look which, coupled with moments of family or friends just make you feel warm inside to look at. On top of this, when you know a photo is going to essentially cost you a pound every time you take it you know to make them count instead of shooting off 1000 photos an hour, and you can really tell when you get them back.

A young baby boy in a large white sunhat looking at the camera by London photographer Bobby Shoebotham

Two Sri Lankan women sitting on a bench in the summer in a sunny park in London by London photographer Bobby Shoebotham

A woman and a black whipper dog lazing on a sofa in a singapore apartment at sunset by London photographer Bobby Shoebotham

A young boy with his face painted like a tiger on a leafy road on a sunny day by London photographer Bobby Shoebotham

A brindle whippet dog in a blue jumper sitting on a bed and looking off camera by London photographer Bobby Shoebotham

As a photographer who loves trying new things I also love the fact that there’s hundreds of different types of films out there, each with different characteristics for me to try (and potentially bankrupt myself in the process). I think even people who don’t know anything about photography could probably tell which of these photos are from the same roll of film as others, and there’s something pretty cool about that. For anyone thay cares my current fave is Fujifilm 400, but I got hustled hard in a shop in Brighton the other day to try 2 kinds of film I’d never even heard of so who knows, if the guy in there is right I could have a new one any day now.

A young blonde boy coming out of a colourful garden shed holding an inflatable guitar by London photographer Bobby Shoebotham

Two dark skinned woman smiling at the camera happily by London photographer Bobby Shoebotham

A man in a wooly hat holding his baby daughter in a sling on a grey wintery day in a london park by London photographer Bobby Shoebotham

A whippet dog sitting in a bed and looking at the camera on a sunny day by London photographer Bobby Shoebotham

Two young girls and a man playing in a toy car by London photographer Bobby Shoebotham

So there we have it; after a year it’s safe to say I’m loving film photography. I don’t think I’ll be offering it in a professional sense any time soon as I’d be pretty worried about charging money for something I’m not 100% comfortable doing, but as a personal passion project I’ll definitely be continuing. The photos aren’t perfect but in a way that makes them more perfect than pristine digital shots, and as a way of capturing life with my family, buds and dogs, and the way the photos make me feel when I look back on them, I don’t think it gets any better. Hope you’ve enjoyed the shots as much as I have!

Five friends sitting around a pub beer garden table and smiling with pints by London photographer Bobby Shoebotham

A dark skinned woman and a ginger man with a large beard smiling in a kitchen by London photographer Bobby Shoebotham

A dark skinned woman in sunglasses smiling off camera on a sunny day by London photographer Bobby Shoebotham

A man in a colourful shirt and a brindle whippet dog sitting in a london park on an overcast day by London photographer Bobby Shoebotham

A whippet dog sitting on a bed looking up at a camera in interesting sunlight by London photographer Bobby Shoebotham

A man, dog and young son on a bike walking in a leafy green park in London by London photographer Bobby Shoebotham

A young boy smiles up at the camera as his blonde mother looks down at him by London photographer Bobby Shoebotham

A man with dark hair sitting on a sofa with his two young sons, one of which is wearing a mask

Bobby Shoebotham Photographer London Analogue Photgraphy 106.jpg

A young family all with light hair smiling against a cream background by London photographer Bobby Shoebotham

The platform of East Ham underground station in black and white by London photographer Bobby Shoebotham.

Friends on Film - A Year of Analogue Photography

The Falklands

Bobby Shoebotham