Shooting New York City on (Expired) 35mm

This old Minolta may not look like much, but it was the only camera my parents used to capture my childhood. Needless to say, I don't think it had taken a single picture in over 20 years.

So, I thoroughly cleaned it, I found some very expired 35mm rolls of Kodak Gold, and I put it in my bag to capture some snapshots on my latest round of travel shoots in New York City.

Despite discovering the auto focus meter no longer worked and a little bit of bleed on the film, overall I was just pleased the experiment worked. Here's some of what developed.

Another Round of Travel Shoots in New York City

This spring I was back in New York City to add to an already extensive collection of travel shoots around the five boroughs. Making this series particularly memorable was the timing of the solar eclipse and some ongoing discussions about my documentary "Your Cinema Needs You", which inspired me to search out the oldest surviving cinema remaining in NYC.

These latest shoots included new observation decks, popular filming locations, and hotels, but to an even larger extent, a lot more general street photography to round out some of the more specific shoots from past visits. The weather was incredible and I managed to cover a lot more ground than I had planned for which was all a bonus. Expect to see a lot more New York City highlights from this series in the months ahead. 

 

8mm Bell & Howell Model 256 Film Projector

The latest film projector to find its way into my collection is this vintage 8mm Bell & Howell Model 256 movie projector. Made in the 1950s, this projector was made for screening home movies filmed on cameras like this other Bell & Howell I picked up earlier this year. I've yet to screen anything with this 8mm projector yet, but after a thorough clean she looks as good as new.

 

16mm Revere Model 48 Film Projector

Aside from being nice to look at, the initial reason I purchased this 1952 16mm Revere silent film projector was because of some of the 16mm reels I shot while in film school. Even though most of the work we shot was digital, we did play around with various film stocks to get a feel for the medium, and it hit me one day that I had no way to watch these past projects.

Still in excellent working condition, admittedly this Revere Model 48 film projector does not get switched on often, but because it's a beautiful piece of vintage equipment I do display it proudly. These 16mm projectors can be acquired relatively cheaply today, but they are expensive to ship because of their weight and bulb replacements can be tricky to come by. As we move further away from analog photography, vintage projectors like this one will only become more interesting.    

 

1950s Bell & Howell Movie Camera

Believing this vintage movie camera to be from the 1950s going by the undated paperwork it came with, this Bell & Howell is a double 8mm cine camera. What "double 8mm" means is that it filmed on one side of a 16mm film strip (essentially 8mm) and could then be flipped over to expose the other half (another 8mm). The 16mm film was then split when developed and would give you 50 ft. of exposed 8mm film to play in your projector. 

Unlike some of my other vintage finds, I have no intention of filming anything with this one. I was really impressed because this camera was in practically brand new condition and included the original manual for only $20. For now this vintage Bell & Howell will make a nice prop. 

 

North to Alaska | Glacier Bay & Yukon

It was the first travel adventure I ever filmed, and it was on a family cruise to Alaska in 1998. Pooling what little money I had saved as a kid, I finally had enough to purchase an old used video camera just one year prior. I was still a few years away from going digital, but even back then I knew I was hooked on being behind a camera.

Sailing from Vancouver, the cruise to Alaska included stops in Ketchikan, Juneau, Skagway, and a visit to Glacier Bay. It was from Skagway that we rode the White Pass & Yukon Route Railway, a historic stretch of track that was built in 1898 during the Klondike Gold Rush. 



Between the excitement of riding through narrow mountain passes and the unforgettable sound of calving glaciers, this is one of those early trips that I've grown to appreciate even more as I've gotten older. These are a brief collection of visual highlights from the experience. 

Just a kid with a camera in his face.

WW2 Film Reel

Last year I bought myself a vintage 16mm projector to watch and digitize some of my old film school projects. It came with this old WWII reel of an airstrip at a US army base and a few shots of Japanese cities in the 1940s. It's interesting to get a glimpse into random footage like this. It's not like it was a newsreel, it's just a few minutes of random footage shot by someone who was in the army. 

My intention has been to digitize this reel as well, but it's in rough shape and doesn't run through the projector very well. I don't want to wreck it, and haven't got around to fixing the damaged sprockets and splicing the broken frames back together. In the meantime, I thought the old box and reel were still pretty neat mementos to share. I'll be sure to post the footage here if I'm ever able to screen it again.