Connor Birnie toys with specialty and expired films creating whimsical effects
Photographer Connor Birnie takes a lighthearted approach when it comes to shooting. "I used a a lot of different films in these photos but noticeably there is Revolog Kolor, the rest are a mixture of expired films such as kodacolor, superia ultramax and even some expired Sensia slide film which I purchased off ebay.
Honestly I didn't really use many techniques to get the results. For the photos which received the funkiest results I usually used them in my point and shoot cameras which gave me less to worry about haha. For some of the photos I played around with a light in my room just moving the camera back and forth at a low shutter speed to achieve a kind of blur which I think turned out pretty cool. I've also experimented with multiple exposure shots with the same light in my room. I also have one of my cameras, the trip-35, which is very prone to light leaks which always creates some interesting results. One of the photos was actually me just dropping the camera after the photo had been taken which turned out in some pretty cool light leaks lol."
You can see more of Connor's work on instagram at @beefyshite
ALTER/ANALOG: What attracted you to specialty and expired films?
CB: My main attraction to specialty films is that it allows for me to be able to create the crazy effects that can help make a lifeless photo come alive and seem so much more interesting, I feel that it can give an interesting pop to images really. It also helps that these types of films are already made for me so I don't run the risk of ruining my own film and destroy labs equipment with film soups. With expired film I honestly just love how you never really know what you are going to get, sometimes it could be extra grain sometimes colour shifts or sometimes nothing at all haha, it also helps that you can get a lot of expired film for cheaper than normal film, gotta save money where you can. Some of my favorite films that I have worked with are Kodacolor and FujiChrome Sensia both of which where expired.
ALTER/ANALOG: When did you start shooting film?
CB: I have actually only recently started shooting film and taking photos in general, I started in February 2017 when I started to see how creative you could actually get with film photography through other artists work posted on instagram. So I jumped onto ebay and looked through some charity shops to find my first cameras, which is when I found my Olympus OM-10 with a locked shutter speed and my handy trip-35 that lets light leaks through. After struggling for the first month or two I finally started to understand film and understand some of the ways it can be altered. I feel that I still have a lot to learn when it comes to film photography but it's been great to slowly see myself improving and even if certain photos turn out bad they are usually still memories to a certain event.
ALTER/ANALOG: Why film over digital?
CB: I have actually never taken photos with a digital camera, I decided to jump straight into the deep end and go straight to film. I think this decision was because I always preferred the colours in film photography, I remember going through older photos of my parents and just noticing a different kind of feel to the images than what you constantly see nowadays.
I feel that film is much better for catching a certain emotion or vibe of a situation as well which is what I have been trying to focus on with my photos. I feel it just lets you capture those moments and because you are limited to a certain amount of photos per roll you have to make sure those moments are perfect or as perfect as they can be.
ALTER/ANALOG: Most of the photos submitted are of the outdoors and nature. Is that a big inspiration to you?
CB: Yes the outdoors and nature is a big inspiration for me and being from Scotland we have an abundance of it, it's nice to be able to walk ten minutes away from a town and then be fully exposed to nature. I feel lucky to be able to see what Scotland has to offer in nature and so capturing it for other people to see is kind of my way of paying it back I guess. For years of my life I grew up not spending any time outdoors and now I would much rather spend most of my time out there, it's a kind of freedom, it's also great to just be able to go walks with my friends and capture moments that I know will mean a lot later on in my life and creatively nature always provides interesting things to take photos of so I get a mix of being able to be creative with my images whilst also creating photos that me and my friends will have for the rest of our lives which is a pretty good mix if you ask me.