Rob and Lauren Blog

Well, I’ve been working away at these for a long time now. As I’m sure all photographers know, revamping your portfolio is always way more work than you expect it to be. But it’s always worth it. For us, we have a renewed energy and drive after seeing all that we’ve done in the past year!

It’s not completely finished yet, as I still have to put together a couple more categories, and hopefully get them all linked together, but I wanted to share what I’ve done with you lovely blog readers! For those wondering, I made these portfolios myself! Big thanks to my friend Kyle Fox for his help with some of the CSS stuff!!

First up, our Wedding Portfolio: http://www.robandlaurenphotographers.com/weddingportfolio/

And a couple teaser shots:

And secondly, as many of you know, we took up shooting film this year. Our Film Portfolio is less extensive, but hopefully still interesting! There is a lot of new stuff in there, since we just finished scanning it all!

Here’s the link: http://www.robandlaurenphotographers.com/filmportfolio/

And the teaser shots:

Note: You will need to scroll sideways to view our portfolio. I know it’s a bit of a hassle, but we find it’s the best way to display both horizontal, vertical, and irregularly sized images! 

We’d love to hear your feedback! Hope you enjoy, we’re really excited about where our work is going :)

Lauren :)

Since you guys asked so nicely :)

 It’s some cacti, in case you were trying to figure it out. This one took a looooong time to do :)

Lauren :)

Hey guys!

Well, our new film scanner finally arrived. For all those curious, it’s a Microtek M1 Pro. Rob has been going through all our 4x5 and polaroid film and scanning it in, exciting! Today I have some really sweet polaroids to share with you that we took in Greece!

(Apologies for the slightly crooked scans, we’re still learning :)

 Now, these next shots on are on a type of film called TZ Artistic. If you start mucking around with a pointy object on it, the emulsion will start to move, and you’ll be able to manipulate the way it looks. Very time consuming (each one takes almost an hour to do fully) but very cool results. 

 This is a super close up of the detail. Very very painterly!

 Hope you enjoyed those! We had a ton of fun taking them. They were all taken with an SX-70 Polaroid camera, 600 film with an ND filter, and TZ Artistic film. 

Lauren :)

P.S. Rob has been “secretly” blogging for a couple weeks now! He’s never really blogged on here, but has so much knowledge, and amazing photos to share! Today he posted a couple scans from our 4x5 camera. So now you’re going to have to go over to his blog (www.roblim.com) and check it out! Make sure to leave him some nice comments! 

Today a package arrived at our door, full of all the film we shot in Greece. What a fun moment! Now begins the process of scanning it all. But here’s one frame I wanted to share.

 This little guy just wouldn’t leave Rob alone, and snuggled his way right into Rob’s lap.

Happy Monday everyone! I’ll share more soon!

Lauren :)

Photography is a fascinating artform. You can approach it from so so so many ways. You can choose one format, one tool (say, a digital SLR like a Canon 5D) and work with it for years and years. You’ll become so comfortable with it that using it is second nature. We shoot with our 5Ds so much that all the button locations are memorized, like most photographers.

We decided that our approach to photography would be to always be learning, experimenting, and going outside our comfort zone. We had gotten very comfortable with digital, and it was starting to get a bit boring. Then a friend introduced us to film.

If you’ve chatted with us recently, I’m sure you can see the overflowing excitement we have with this new medium. Our eyes light up, we start talking a mile a minute, and Rob undoubtedly pulls out his 4x5 negatives to show them off. He’s even taken to carrying an overexposed frame around with him as a source of inspiration. That’s how smitten he is.

Technical details aside, that excitement alone is enough to make this new foray completely worth it. Anything that can make us so enlivened as artists is extremely valuable. Then, if you want to talk about real world benefits, well, I still have yet to see anyone produce anything that looks remotely like 4x5 colour positive film with a digital camera. It’s tangible. You can hold it, feel it, move it around. And the detail quality and tonal range are truly unmatched with anything we’ve ever used.

Our film camera collection is growing by the week. We’re experimenting with different types of film (instant, 35mm, 4x5, 4x5 instant, the list is growing and growing), and different types of cameras. Rob has started developing his own 35mm black and white film, and that in itself has been an intense learning experience. We’ve each found a format that fits with our unique styles, and are branching apart (Rob into 4x5, and me into instant film).

The reaction we’ve gotten with this new direction has been quite fascinating. Clients listen dutifully, but I suspect they aren’t really sure what about it makes us so excited. Photographers, especially those who started off shooting film, think we’re insane. We learned on digital cameras, and have never shot film in our lives. It’s almost like we’re learning the art of photography all over again from the start, and it’s invigorating!

So that’s a bit of what we’re feeling right now. Hopefully that will prep you all for a lot of stuff that will start popping up on the blog! And for your viewing pleasure, here are a few frames we’ve taken.

Colour images: Contax G1, Planar 35mm, taken on Kodak Portra film

Contax G1, Planar 35mm, Ilford Delta film

 Contax G1, Planar 35mm, Ilford HP5 film

 Polaroids taken with an SX-70 camera on Type 600 film.

These images are a starting point. We’re experimenting, learning, and making mistakes. Who knows where this will take us, but the potential is very exciting. Hope you enjoyed this little something different!

Happy Monday everyone!

Lauren :)