Whether you're shooting with a film camera such as the Bronica Zenza ETRS, a digital camera or even a phone camera, you're going to find this video really helpful to get you started.
I wanted to go out and check out what I could get with a Bronica Zenza. I don't think I actually went out to shoot with it in the street, and I want to see how it handles, what it felt like? How would I frame my images? This was a practice run for me to see if it's a practical camera to use for street-based photography.
One of the major blocks when it comes to street photography is actually getting out there.
A lot of people want to do photography, but they get worried about what other people might think or how people in the street might feel. The absolute simplest thing you can start is grabbing your camera and go out! This could be in your local area because you're going to be more familiar with it and naturally more comfortable.
Failing that, you can go further into a field, maybe somewhere people don't know you. It could be your high street, maybe your shopping mall, or a completely different town or city itself. The key thing is to get going and start shooting. As soon as you can get going, that's really going to help you.
It doesn't matter what camera you've got, whether that's your phone, DSLR or SLR camera. Shooting film, then take lots of film with you on your walk! Shooting digital? I would shoot nonstop, everything and anything that I can see within my walking frame.
When shooting with a medium-format camera, such as a Bronica Zenza, you're going to get 15 shots on a roll, that's six by four point five If you're shooting by six by six on a Yashica Mat 124 G for example, or a Hasselblad. You're probably going to get 12 images only. If shooting with a 35 millimetre camera, you can get, I would say up to 37 images, maybe even 38, if you are very good at putting on your roll and being very economical with it.
One of the challenges of shooting with the Bronica Zenza ETRS is that it's actually quite a bulky and heavy camera. That side, when you're shooting outside, it will force you to think about what you're shooting and how you're going to shoot it. Now in the street environment, there are some challenges, challenges being that the atmosphere, the scenery is constantly changing. People are moving in, people moving out, there's cars moving in, cars moving out, something could happen, it's quite spontaneous, And I don't think using a medium format camera such as this one is going to get you the full opportunity to be able to take those shots quickly and efficiently.
An alternative method of overcoming that challenge is going to be shooting with something a lot lighter, like a compact camera, such as the Nikon L135AF. It's a compact camera. You can put it away into your pocket. And if you want to, you can take it out very quickly or you can carry it around in your hand without having any problems shooting with it. Compact cameras offer discretion so you can quickly take a shot without really disturbing the environment or catching anyone off guard. There are plenty of digital cameras that are similar to this, which will allow you to take a lot more shots than what a Bronica Zenza ETRS can offer.
I was out with some friends having dinner. It was just a few hours after the shoot. And I remember showing my photos that I'd been taking like Polaroid SX-70. This is one of the images that we were actually looking at at the time. And the waiter oversaw the images and was actually really intrigued by the Polaroid SX-70 itself.
He started asking me questions about it. How to use it, and why was he using it? Which led him to the ultimate question about what camera he should get for his 15 year old son. He was really interested in photography. He wanted to know what would be the best camera to start shooting with. A lot of people ask me this question. If you're a young photographer and you don't have a budget personally, I had no budget even to have a camera at the age of 15.
My first camera was when I, when I started working, I think it was 23 or 24 when I first got my Nikon. To get started with photography, the key thing though, is that we have so many cameras that are available to us. Every single person has a camera phone. If you really enjoy and love photography, that is such an easy and simple way to access this medium of art. I advised him to start shooting with his camera on his phone as often as possible. If something is coming off it, then that's the time to start thinking about, well, going into an entry level camera, rather than diving straight into a top level DSLR camera with all these kit lenses and so forth. Better start some projects first before investing fully into it. So shooting with the Bronica Zenza ETRS, and you'd have to take the magazine holder at the back off first.
Kosmo Foto is a 100 ISO panchromatic black and white film. Perfect for all medium format cameras. One of the exciting things to note about this film is that it is freshly made and stopped in the wilds of Europe. For those of you looking to reduce your carbon footprint and love shooting film, then this could be a more environmentally friendly option.
The packaging of this film is pretty cool too, with the cosmonaut at the front, and this film can be used on sunny days, overcast conditions, as you can see in my images here, but also for indoors with studio lighting, flush or even natural light, it'll be really interesting to see how it compares with Acros 100 or even Ilford Delta 100, to see the comparisons between them.
The film is a traditional black and white chemistry so that it can be developed with formulations such as perceptol or tetenal or rodinal as well. If you've tried with any other C 41 chemicals then shoot them in the comments below It can be pushed and pulled to ISO 50 or push processed up to ISO 400.
Is that your teddy in the video?
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