I was so fortunate to be in a position to try out some unusual film stocks at my Best Friends wedding. They had their professional photographer, my Husband was the Best Man and my Son was a Page Boy and so I was free to take a couple of cameras and a range of films that I thought might be quite cool.
That freedom was amazing!
I opted to take my Canon EOS 1000fn for 35mm, my Mamiya C330f for 120 and my Instax Neo 11 for Insta Mini.
Whilst the freedom was wonderful it also meant that the issues I came up against weren’t as bad as they could have been – my 1000fn decided to succumb to a shutter issue which has affected almost all of the 35mm shots that I took; and one of my rolls of 120 got jammed in the developing spool. Annoying but not as disastrous as if I had been the only photographer on the day.
One of the film stocks I wanted to try out was Lomochrome Purple (I’m sure you guessed that from the title). Their wedding took place in July on a glorious sunny day, which is just perfect for Lomochrome Purple (thanks guys, you chose your wedding day well).
I shot all these on my Mamiya C330 – my favourite, favourite, favourite camera both to use and for the results. It also ended up being a talking point for me and their photographer Tom Humble who had brought along his large format camera for a couple of shots – and he let me have a go!
I chose the Canon 1000fn for its ease of use, how light the plastic body is, and the (usually) reliable results on aperture priority mode. I deliberated much more over which 120 camera to take, initially I rejected both my Pentacon Six and the Mamiya c330 for being too heavy and obvious but after considering borrowing a lighter model from Hamish, I ultimately went with the Mamiya simply because I know it well and wouldn’t be tripped up in loading or shooting the thing.
If I am ever luckily enough to be asked to do more wedding photography, Lomochrome Purple will absolutely be in my bag!
If you would like to see more of my work you can on Instagram, I also talk more about my experiments on YouTube and if you are interested in the other rolls of film that I used for this wedding I talk about those on this particular video.
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Graham Spinks on 5 Frames Of A Wedding On Lomochrome Purple – By Holly Gilman
Comment posted: 19/02/2022
Stefan Wilde on 5 Frames Of A Wedding On Lomochrome Purple – By Holly Gilman
Comment posted: 20/02/2022
Choosing that film was certainly a great idea! As you said, not being the primary photographer on the scene gave you some freedom. I find the results to be dreamy and abstract in a good way. I'd like to know if bride and groom like them. They are certainly a special addition to the usual set. Did you use your Mamiya hand held? If so, what was it like? I love using my TLR on a neck strap, as that is surprisingly stable allowing for slow shutter speeds, but mine is lighter than your C330. How is that to carry around?
Anyway, I never saw any use in films such as this, but your beautiful set of pictures convinced me of the opposite.
Comment posted: 20/02/2022