All Through a Lens: A Podcast About Film Photography

On this episode, we talk about the Kansas town of Bison! We visited it this past summer and fell in love, shooting a LOT of photos there. Upon our return, we researched a bit about the town’s history and decided that it would be fun if we both developed Bison rolls while talking about the town of Bison!

Both of us shot Rollei Retro 400S and we both developed it in HC-110H for 13 minutes (this seems like an odd thing to do, but we did it anyway).

Here are some of Eric’s photos:

And here are some of Vanias:

In a curious twist of fate and bad organizational skills, neither of us ended up developing any Bison photos. Go figure.

Vania: IG, Flickr, Zines

All Through a Lens: IG, Website, Patreon

On this week’s show we are laser-focused upon photobooths! Where did they come from and where have they gone? And what were they doing along the way? We’ll also be talking to Breanna Conley Saxon (@saybrebooth on IG) about … photobooths! She’s got a few and we get to talk to her about them! There’s the answering machine and zine reviews too. (We’ve even got some photobooth sound effects provided by Bre!)

After a bit of chitty chattery (Vania’s been surfing, Eric’s been not), we push the button on the answering machine. This episode’s question is:

Do you compose differently for color vs. black & white?

After listening to you folks, we gave our answers too.

This episode, we gave a call to Breanna Conley Saxon (@saybrebooth on IG). Unlike most of us, she collects photobooths. Her journey has taken her from one coast to the other. From a Alabama thrift store to a Russian in Pennsylvania. And another Russian in California. It’s a weird tale, so hold tight.

We asked her everything we could think of about photobooths – from how she got her first one, how she learned to restore them and keep them running. Simple questions, but it’s quite a story.

Here are a few of her strips:

If you Google, “who invented the photo booth,” Google will tell you that it was Anatol Josepho in 1925. And that’s not exactly wrong. But it’s not exactly right, either. Josepho’s story is the most interesting and the most successful, but he wasn’t the first.

But who can resist the tail of a poor young man fleeing Siberia and attaining the American Dream? We sure can’t, so we’re going to talk about this fellow soon enough. But first we’ll dig into the 1800s to figure out where this whole idea came from.

We cover the many attempts before Anatol Josepho’s breakthrough and subsequent sale of his Photomaton.

We recommended three books:

All three are wonderful, and there are definitely more out there.

We also mentioned two websites:

https://photoboothjournal.com/

http://www.photobooth.net/

We also reviewed two zines this episode.

Smash the Skatriachry – You can get it here or here.

Caveland – by Jesse Knifley (@hauntedfilmco on IG)

We’ve had so much support from our Patrons! Our thanks go out to:

This episode’s first featured patron is Nick Gaylord – @gravity_train on Instagram.

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Be sure to check out our Dev Party episodes.

Music by Last Regiment of Syncopated Drummers

Vania: IG, Flickr, Zines

All Through a Lens: IG, Website, Patreon

To celebrate our one-year anniversary, we field a slew of questions from listeners. Some are about photography and developing, while others a bit more personalish.

Vania developed Ilford Delta 100 in Rodinal 1+25 for 9 minutes. She shot them in a Brownie Rainbow box camera from a billion year ago. Here are some of her results:

Meanwhile, Eric developed Ultrafine Extreme 400 in PMK 1+2+100 for 13 minutes. He shot these in the Mamiya RB67. Here are some results:

Vania: IG, Flickr, Zines

All Through a Lens: IG, Website, Patreon

We just started a Patreon page and will be offering bonus episodes to those who support us at the $5 and $10 a month levels.

Patreon.com/allthroughalens

The $10 a month level will get to hear a new chitty-chatty podcast we're doing called Snapshots. These will be (mostly) casual conversations about photography, our lives, travel, and, of course photography. 

We hope you enjoy it and consider becoming a patron. Thank you! Enjoy the show!

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Vania: IG, Flickr, Zines

All Through a Lens: IG, Website, Patreon

Hey! Eric here. Just a quick note letting you know what you’re about to hear. We just started a Patreon page and will be offering bonus episodes to those who support us at the $5 and $10 a month levels.

Patreon.com/allthroughalens

The $5 a month level will get to hear the full, unedited interviews that we do with our guests. These usually run around an hour or so.

The one you’re about to hear is free! It’s the long, unedited version of the interview we just did with Graeme from Sunny 16.

We hope you enjoy it and consider becoming a patron. Thank you! Enjoy the show!

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Vania: IG, Flickr, Zines

All Through a Lens: IG, Website, Patreon

On this week’s show… it’s our one year anniversary! We’ll be taking a quick look back to our very very first episode, we’ll call up our podcast daddy Graeme from Sunny 16. We’re also going to be taking a well ordered look at composition: what is it and do we even care?

Oh, and we sold our souls and have a Patreon thing! YAY!

After the regular small talk, we get down to party business. Since it’s our one year anniversary, we’re playing and critiquing Episode Zero – a two minute promo we did before we started the podcast.

We asked listeners to leave us a voice message (on Instagram), answering the question: What is the next new thing you want to attempt in photography?

Following this and our own answers, we called up Graeme from the Sunny 16 podcast. We cover what’s new with them (a lot) and catching up in general with Graeme.

With the giggles out of the way, we hunker down for a discussion on Composition in photography.

Here are the photos we used:

Since it’s our one year anniversary, we’re brimming with ideas. Lots of them, really. It’s also time to pay the annual hosting bills. We’ve been incredibly fortunate to have listeners who are so willing to buy our zines and the film we sometimes sell. It’s a real blessing. We tell you that we love you each episode, and we really do mean it.

But with the whole late-stage capitalism thing we’re rockin’, these big ideas, these dreams of expansion, and these hosting bills require a bit of extra scratch. Thus Pateron.

Now, we’re not going to feed you some line about how if you don’t give us money the podcast will go away. Neither of us can imagine that. But we’d like for it to become a bit more self-sufficient. 

We’re not just asking for money. Since this is Patreon, we’ve got some really fun rewards for you. 

Patreon tiers:

We’ve got three Pateron tiers: 35mm, 120 and 4×5 (get it? We’ve got room to shrink AND expand!)

The first – 35mm – is $3 a month. With that you’ll get:

• Episodes released two days early (we’re working Eric’s editing fingers to the bone!)

The second – 120 – is $5 a month. You’ll get everything from the 35mm tier plus:

Monthly “Snapshots” episodes where we’ll talk about a lot more than just film photography. Get to know us a bit better. 

While we love film photography, we aren’t JUST film photographers. We’ll talk about the music we like, the movies, our weird ass childhoods, basically whatever. But since we ARE film photographers, we’ll probably end up talking about gear too. Imagine that.

(It’s weird, when we talk on the phone, we are pretty much constantly talking about gear.)

And for our most grand tier – the 4×5 level – $10 a month, you’ll get everything thus far mentioned, plus:

Full (often 60 min) interviews with our guests. These will include bonus questions and extra fun!

Have you ever wished we talked to our guests for longer than we do? Well, we actually do! For the sake of brevity (and we use that term VERY loosely here), we edit down the interviews to around 15 to 20 minutes. We actually talk to them for a lot longer. Sometimes three fucking hours – (Brandy!)

And that’s that. It’s pretty simple. Basically what most podcasts are doing. 

We’ll have the link to the Patreon in the show notes – or just go to patreon.com/allthroughalens to find us.

Be sure to check out our Dev Party episodes.

Music by Last Regiment of Syncopated Drummers

Vania: IG, Flickr, Zines

All Through a Lens: IG, Website, Patreon

There are a few different ways to develop 4×5 sheets without a darkroom. We talk about three of the most popular and pick our favorite.

We look at the Steerman Press tank, the 20th Century Camera Reel, and the Mod 54 Reel.

While the latter two use Paterson Tanks, the Steerman Press Tank is it’s own thing.

Which will we like better? Who will attain the lofty goal of being good enough for the likes of us? Listen ad find out!

Here are the photos that Vania developed with the Steerman Press Tank:

Here are the photos that Eric developed with the 20th Century Camera Reel:

Vania: IG, Flickr, Zines

All Through a Lens: IG, Website

On this episode, we delve into the weird history of f/stops! We also talk to Liz Potter (@lizpotterphotography) about pinhole photography, double exposures and making custom, handmade books. There’s a brief issue with E-6 silliness, zine reviews, and the answering machine question.

After a bit of chin-wagging, we wonder a bit about “gatekeeping” when it comes to certain photographers and their insistence that things be done a certain way – or else.

Specifically, we’re talking about E-6 Processing vs. Cross-processing.

With that garbage taken to the curb, we asked listeners to call in to answer:

Is there a place that you’ve never visited that you’d like to photograph?

Let’s Call Liz!

Here are a few of her photos:

Here’s a photo of her book:

f/Stops: What the f Are They Stopping?

We answer a few of these questions to the best of our abilities. Plus, an indepth-ish look at the history of aperture settings!

Evelyn Cameron Correction

Evelyn Cameron Diaries.

Evelyn Cameron Photos.

Zine Reviews

Vania reviewed Now You See Me #1 by Alan Joseph Marx.

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Be sure to check out our Dev Party episodes. They’re about to get even more pee-inducing!

Music by Last Regiment of Syncopated Drummers

Vania: IG, Flickr, Zines

All Through a Lens: IG, Website

Tonight, on a very (retro) special episode of Dev Party, we’re trying yet another new developer! This time it’s Foma’s Retro Special (get it?). This is a really simple developer that you can use over and over.

It’ll do 25 rolls of 35mm and 100 freaking sheets of 4×5! Stop and fix as normal.

The only downside is that the times can be a bit fast for some folks (Eric). Oh, and there are only times for Fomapan / Arista film. But totally worth it.

We developed Fomapan 400 in it, which was 6mins. Eric was okay with this.

Here are a few of Vania’s results:

And here are Eric’s:

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Vania: IG, Flickr, Zines

All Through a Lens: IG, Website

On today’s episode, we’ve got a heady answering machine question, an interview with Kim “Kimchi” Giannone, zine reviews, and a feature on Montana photographer (and patron saint of All Through a Lens) Evelyn Cameron.

After a bit of chit chat (Vania’s waves have been bad and Eric’s got two zines coming out), we get right to the answering machine question:

Do you have a camera that you don’t shoot with anymore, but that you just can’t part with?

The answers ran from the practical to the literal tear-jerking. Thank you to everyone who called in.

Let’s Call Kim!

You can find Kim’s work on Instagram – @kgphotoface.

She is also trying to raise the money to buy a mercantile in Montana so she can run a general store as well as her photo studio. She’s selling her prints to fund it here.

And is some of Kim’s work:

Evelyn Cameron

The story of an unknown photographer who died leaving her incredibly important work to basically disappear into obscurity only to be re-discovered decades later might sound a little familiar, but we’re betting you’ve not heard this one before.

She was a (mostly) self-taught large format photographer from the late 1800s/early 1900s. After leaving her wealthy upbringing and moving to Montana with her new (and controversial) husband, she took to photography to make ends meet.

Nearly forgotten, her work was rediscovered in the 1970s. We dig into her life, her career, and how best to view her photos.

We also talk about a project we’d like to do, but pulling it off might prove a bit difficult.

Here are a few of Evelyn Cameron’s photos:

Zine Reviews

Car Distancing by Ben Yount (@benyountdds)

and

Film & Foreigner Vol. 2 by Robert Burton (@elgatomagnifico)

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Be sure to check out our Dev Party episodes. They’re about to get even more pee-inducing!

Music by Last Regiment of Syncopated Drummers

Vania: IG, Flickr, Zines

All Through a Lens: IG, Website