John Masters Photography

I used to joke that my town of Durham should be Dirtham. I no longer feel this way as the city has grown on me. I have been able to see past the exterior and to be honest it has a charm all its own.  As soon as I started shooting film again the first place I wanted to go was downtown Durham. Week before last I got up at 5 in the morning so there would be as little activity as possible. I took my digital and my Bessa R2 film camera along for the test ride.  I used same settings on both including F stop and shutter etc… Maybe I only saw what I wanted to see but at the end of the day I much preferred the film when it was all over and developed. The digital images were nice but they needed some tweaking to get the look I was after. The film negatives came out just as I was imagining the scene in my black and white eye beam.  The film could have been an accident or planned. I really do not have a technique down yet and cannot duplicate my process. But I am getting there and the more I do this the more I am really digging the process. I dont think this is a “phase” as this idea keeps popping in my head that while I love my digital K7 it may become my steady backup for those must have shots in the dark with no flash using its awesome anti shake interior and circuitry magic. But the real magic the kind I remember as a kid, well that my friends is still developing…