James Elliot Bailey @jameselliotbailey - Tumblr Blog

Happy cows

Hollyhocks, Polaroid Big Shot & leftover film

Multishot medium format pano

Like so many other photographers over the past few years, I began posting less to tumblr, in favor of using Instagram as my main form of image sharing. It’s not because its a better platform in any way, simply because it has a farther reach. I’ve started a new tumblr to have a place to put the images that I take in the day to day of my life. While I’ll still post them to Instagram, they are much better viewed on a larger scale than a phone can offer.

This past November I realized how rarely went to pick up a camera unless I was getting paid to, and how sad that was. I felt a need to change that situation and again enjoy what was once such an important part of my life.

For it’s richness and ability to showcase the world in a more genuine way —especially with color, skin tones, and texture— I’ll still prefer medium format film for the photographs that I know will mean something to me. But film is expensive and a time consuming process. It can takes days to get the film back from the lab and up to an hour for me to scan just ten frames; and each frame can cost up to two dollars, depending on the film type and speed. I wanted something that wouldn’t have that underlying feeling of waisting resources with every shot, and would free me to take any image on a whim; so I decided to buy a digital camera that allowed me an acceptable but lower level of quality, in trade for size and convenience in workflow.

For those interested, the camera I chose was the Fuji F100X. Its a fantastic little box; and though it has some quirks that took some getting used to, it was a fairly easy adjustment period coming from mostly analog. The files are easy to work with and very versatile, the depth of shadows you can bring out is incredible and overall it retains highlights and colors quite well. It has a wonderfully sharp lens and a focal length of 35mm. It’s not perfect, but it gets me to take pictures I wouldn’t otherwise spend film on.

My point in taking and sharing these photos, is a hope to create and add some small amount of beauty to the world, that often feels malnourished of it.

I enjoy taking meandering walks in the early evening, seeing the way the light changes the shape of things as its angle descends is why I value this time above all others. It’s a tragedy when people don’t get outside and enjoy this time of day, when the long shadows cause such immense contrast, and how in the summer the golden sun no longer burns your skin, but merely warms it. It’s often the only time I want to capture the world that can otherwise feel too intense. Sometimes I won’t bring my camera because I’ll want to enjoy these hours as an experience, but when I do, I will share the scenes I come across with you here.

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This image was taken at Maru Coffee in the Los Feliz neighborhood of Los Angeles.