A little backstory to start off this post. My wife’s father was a huge camera junkie, some of the cameras he owned were in indeed on the large side (polaroid land and a Speed Graphic) but most of them are of the 35mm variety. The photos in this post are taken with a Pentax K1000 and a 28mm f2.8 lens. This is an old school, all manual camera that is tough as nails in a I-don’t-even-need-a-battery-to-work-I-just-get-the-job-done kind of way. Which explains why Glenn owned it, because he was that kind of guy too. The back body literally has his name on the camera etched with a penknife. I hope that I get to channel a small bit of his sensibilities into each photograph.
I have just recently had it serviced and deemed ready to photograph with again. So we are starting to use them for small portions of portrait and engagement sessions for a different look and feel. I love slowing down with film, pausing, thinking, and contemplating the next shot. On this roll of film I only glanced at the non-existent review screen 3 times! I really like the lack of auto-focus and freeing my mind from the limitations of auto-focus points.
Let’s move on and talk about this super awesome couple for a minute shall we? You, our faithful blog readers, have already seen them rock some Mad Men style in their first appearance. This session was to finish up our engagement photography needs with a casual and somewhat vintage look. The old-school-ness of Andrew and Cathie were another reason that I wanted to debut the film files with them. The final images fit their sensibilities of tradition and style.
We photographed these in the old Wells Branch homestead at Katherine Fleischer park futhering the old world vibe. I love that these guys are stable and grounded with their feelings for each other. They just are as one as most are as two. Very much on the same wavelength with each other. Any serious photographs of the two of them together is a mere fraction of a second surrounded by minutes of laughter.
We will continue to utilize the look and feel of the 70’s era Pentax. For now I am really digging on the look that the Kodak Portra 160 is providing. Think it might be right for part of your engagement session? Let us know!
–JB
Josh loves a good adventure and some of his favorite wedding and engagement shoots have involved “getting crazy” or going somewhere special to the couple.
Josh is a Texas native and long time Pflugerville resident. He started his photography business in 2009 and has never looked back. His photo business even allowed him to be daddy-day-care before his two sons reached school age. Over the years his business has expanded to include just about every type of photography including automotive, editorial portraits, corporate events, sports and food. Through it all, he has continued to love wedding photography for genuine moment, the fast pace and the diversity of subjects it offers. Josh is a co-founder of North Austin Pfoutographic Society and a resident instructor at Precision Camera & Video in Austin, Tx.