I must say a massive thank you to all of you for your kindness and support for the SFLaB channel.
I started the channel back in 2017 as a means to record my own journey in film, reach out to those that can help my own journey and inspire, help others too and never expected it to grow like it has. It has now over 35'000 subscribers.
It's not easy this YouTube stuff! I try to put out a video once a week which takes me sometimes two or three days to make fitting in between my day job (A Photographer and Videographer!) and then there is the comments to read after each video, I try as much as I can to answer to each comment (some are ridiculous!) and then pondering of what to make videos on! Usually a light bulb goes off in my head and off I go! And hopefully somewhere in the video someone will learn something, even if it's me. It's all good fun.
As the new year is underway I plan to do more traveling around the UK to visit the beauty of its towns and cities and record my travels on film. I also want to shoot more portraits on film and rediscover that classic 1960's look on film. I love those portraits.
Since starting the channel I have learned so much about this beautiful medium and still feel there is so much more to learn.
I am a very forgetful person so if I haven't practiced a certain technique or used a certain film and camera for some time I have to revert back to my notes and videos! It would be much easier to stick with one camera, one film and one developer for a workflow! But hey, there is so much to discover and play with right!. I've also discovered no matter where we are in the world none of us are alone with the wonderful community out there. I've Made many friends since.
Recently I have found myself settling down with Ilford FP4 and Kodak D23 developer. I have been getting wonderful results with this film even pushing it to 800! If I push a film it is usualy to compress the negative and crunch the tones for contrast. Other times it's because I need the speed and smaller apertures. A film I love to shoot is Kodak Tri-x 400. It is such a good film but FP4 is nearly half the price, however........ Kodak have now dropped their Tri-x by 30% so that is tempting! I love that films classic look, sharpness, grain and contrast. But I can get close with pushing FP4.
I'm not sure where I will take the channel in the future but there is always a photo to be taken somewhere. I will leave you with some photographs I recently took whilst visiting friends and family in Bahrain and thank you all for your kind support over the years. :)
Fuji GW690III Ilford Delta 100 pushed to 400.
Nikon FM3a Ilford FP4 pushed to 200.
