Justin Briggs Justin Briggs

First images of 2024

Loading 35mm film into a camera that shoots much larger 120 film, what could go wrong?

2023 went by with very few images coming from the Briggs camera collection. Life definitely got busy.

Between work and family, I had to put my photography on hold for most of the year with the exception of documenting my son’s life on 35mm film. I want him to have a physical photobook to hold in his hands and show to his children when he is older. I do not trust digital mediums to last the test of time the way a properly archived physical media does.

I love having a physical media to handle and manipulate. It brings my creativity to life when I can hold an image in my hands and know what I had as much control in the process as possible. The only way I could be more in charge is if I started shooting tin-types or some other wet plate style where I am doing everything from selecting the glass or tin and chemically coating it myself.

That’s a bit too much for me right now, so I'll stick with shooting, developing, and printing my images at home. Maybe once I have a darkroom….

But, that isn’t what this is about. This is about finding new ways to approach my creative needs using the tools I already own.

Which is why I decided the first mini-project I am working on in 2024 is shooting 35mm film in cameras that weren’t designed to use 35mm film.

That is where this little 3D printed contraption come in. It allows me to run a roll of 35mm film through my medium format cameras to produce some pretty wide negatives.

A normal 35mm negative you would get from a disposable camera or your mom's old Canon A-1 is approximately 36mm x 24mm.

My Bronica GS-1 is a 6x7 medium format camera which produces images that are approximately 56mm x 67mm. Much larger than a 35mm frame.

So what happens when you shoot 35mm film in a 6x7 camera? Now, this is nothing new. People have been doing this for a long time already, but it was something new to me and that’s what really motivated me to risk frostbite for this.

Well, I (foolishly) decided to go outside while it was a mild -29° this past weekend and see just what I could do with such a setup.

I didn’t wander more than 100 feet from my front door as it was entirely too cold to be outside for more than a few minutes at a time. I was able to squeeze 12 images onto a roll of film, and if i’m careful I can probably easily get to 14.

Anyway, enough blabbering. Here are a few of the images from that roll.

I am hooked! Between how this film rendered the images and the huge 24mm x 67mm image I am absolutely going to do this with a few more rolls of film and see just what I can pull off.

I may even try this with one of my older folding cameras that shoot 6x9 images!

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