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Leonor Willis is a 35mm film + Polaroid photographer based in the Miami area. She specializes in lifestyle, branding, and intimate events. Whether you need family, newborn, or maternity portraits, engagements, or branding for your business, she will bring your vision to life in vivid color and nostalgic film. Packages & prints available.

first encounters with 35mm

 

As you should (probably) know, I’m really into photography. And recently, I’ve been trying to get into film photography.

I inherited a couple film cameras from my boyfriend’s mom about a year ago, and I’ve been experimenting with them ever since. The Pentax most intrigued me, especially since its entirely manual, but I found it a bit too difficult to use as a complete beginner. As a result, I decided to focus more heavily on the Canon EOS film camera: a bit more modern, so a bit easier to handle.

I also decided to start out with black and white film, so that I didn’t have to worry about getting the color composition right just yet. So I started out with Kodak Porta 400 ISO black & white negative film.

Even though I really didn’t know what I was doing, I think I got a better handle of what shutter speed and what zoom to be at when photographing. What I found most difficult was not being able to take 10x snaps of every scene in order to go back and review them. Instead, I had to think carefully about the shot I wanted, and how to best get it.

All that to say, I’m really enjoying this new approach of photography! It’s added an exciting new dimension to my work that I hope will motivate me to continue pushing the boundaries of where art can take me.

Enjoy a few examples of my first ever developed film roll below!

First up: a day in the life @ home

Next, exploring Artscape 2019 during the hottest weekend of the year:

(feat. a cool snapshot of Vagrant Coffee!)

Then, exploring the Maryland Zoo in Baltimore, again on the hottest weekend of the year:

The core of it: exploring around Bmore with some fab friends + furry friends:

(shoutout to Bmore Licks!)

And, last but certainly not least, attending the Baltimore Streetcar Museum’s annual crabfest + taking a stroll to the Baltimore Farmer’s Market.

I especially like the cut-off photo of Taylor + sunflowers… it’s a neat aesthetic.

These are far from perfect, but I’m still quite pleased at how well most of them turned out! There were only 2 or 3 images that were completely underexposed. I’d like to work on reducing the harsh contrast for my next roll, though.

I’ve got a few rolls of bw film left, and then I think I’ll try my luck at some color - specifically Kodak Gold ISO 200 that I picked up from bhphotovideo.com. Taylor and I will be in California for the next week and a half, and I’m hoping to go through at least 2 rolls.

Stay tuned for several subsequent film blogs :)

 
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