Grayscale Photography – Eric's Photography Blog

SF Street Photography on Film

Eric February 25, 2025 No Comments

Because I’m shooting film much more than digital of late, I took my film camera into San Francisco a week ago and took photos at a Chinatown street fair, on Market Street, and around Yerba Buena Center. It was a different experience from shooting digital, mainly because, unlike with digital, there’s no immediate feedback: I had no idea whether I’d gotten a good shot or not. I only found out several days later when I got my negatives back. In a way, not having an LCD is a benefit: You’re not spending time reviewing your photos, and don’t leave the moment to do so. I was walking down Grant Street when Miss Chinatown suddenly appeared and was surrounded by admirers.

Choosing Limitations

Eric January 24, 2025 No Comments

When I decided to take my film camera to the “We Fight Back” march in San Francisco on January 19 in San Francisco, I got to experience the limitations photojournalists faced back in the film era. No autofocus. No auto exposure. One focal length at a time with primes. No burst mode. No SD card that holds thousands of photos—instead, you get maybe two rolls’ worth of shots, which, in my case, meant 72 photos. But I started out with one roll about half-used, so I didn’t even get that many. Despite all those limitations, I liked the experience. Every shot required a new set of decisions—including whether or not to take the shot at all. I had to constantly

Two Cameras, Two Looks

Eric January 3, 2025 No Comments

Because I want to end up with silver gelatin, black-and-white prints that I do myself in the darkroom, I’ve begun shooting film alongside digital when I do a portrait session. I used both cameras when I photographed a friend recently at the Palace of Fine Arts in San Francisco. Getting images that are in sharp focus and properly exposed is a no-brainer with my state-of-the-art Fujifilm camera. That’s not to hype the camera, in fact, almost the opposite. It’s no challenge to get a technically spot-on image with that camera, and, frankly, that deprives one of some of the satisfaction. You still have to pose the subject, find a good composition, get a good expression, pay attention to the lighting,

Venice Beach Portraits

Eric October 29, 2024 No Comments

I was in L.A. for a photo conference, and one of our excursions was to Venice Beach. I was expecting a sunny day at the beach, but no. Overcast, hazy and pretty cool. But that’s not necessarily bad weather for outdoor environmental portraits. I saw this woman with red hair that coordinated with her outfit and asked to take a photo of her and her friend. Nice light and nice colors. I had a conversation with the owner of this bike rental shop and took this shot of him behind the counter. Lighting wasn’t ideal, but he did a good job posing after I asked him not to smile. This reggae artist asked me to take his picture. I was

Charlotte in Mono and Color

Eric October 19, 2024 No Comments

In my recent portrait session with Charlotte, I used both my digital color camera and my film camera loaded with black and white to get two different looks. The color images benefit from capturing her beautiful, natural red hair. They’re also much easier to process and alter—which should come as no surprise to anyone who has shot, developed and printed film. Charlotte is not a model, although she’s clearly pretty enough to be one if she’d choose. I gave her some direction on posing, and she contributed her own ideas. Getting an expression other than a standard smile is always a challenge. I think she did a good job on looking engaged even when I’d ask her to not smile.

The Magic Trio

Eric July 21, 2024 No Comments

I often think of this quote from Alan Schaller when I’m out hunting for street photos: “If you can get the magic trio of a good subject, good environment, and good light all together in one frame, you’re winning.” If I can find a spot where I’ve got two of the three, or am close to getting them, I’ll stay there and try to get the third. On a recent trip into West Oakland, that’s the situation I was in. I had noticed a brightly colored wall near where I was headed, which was exceptionally vivid because it was front-lit at that time of day—meaning I had two of the three. Now I needed a subject. I saw this cyclist

Back to Film

Eric June 9, 2024 No Comments

Like many photographers in my age cohort, I shot film for decades before digital came along. Also like many others, I did some darkroom work back in the day, developing and printing black and white film. But I hadn’t shot film in probably 20 years … before buying a film camera a few months ago. I had read about the renewed interest in film, so I knew shooting film again had become a thing. I’d always liked the tangible, craft aspect of developing and printing, and still really like the look of silver gelatin prints, as opposed to inkjet prints. Recently I went to the Irving Penn exhibit in San Francisco, and seeing his prints was the final nudge to

Portrait Session in the Mission

Eric April 15, 2024 No Comments

I recently did a portrait session with Kiki in the Mission District in San Francisco. We arrived early, when the streets were uncrowded and we had a clear sky with angled light. I’d scouted some locations ahead of time, and chose mural backgrounds—ideally, without discernible letters, which could be distracting. There’s no shortage of murals of all kinds in the Mission. This was one of our first locations. I mostly used ambient light, but sometimes added light from a dialed-down flash, as I did here. I alternated between landscape and portrait format, depending on how much environment I wanted to show. Kiki brought different scarves; the yellow one reflects a warmer light onto her face. This square crop shows more