Joshua Tree in Turquoise with Caleb Knueven

Caleb Knueven is a freelance photographer and filmmaker from Kansas. Also known as Bad Flashes on YouTube, he loves to share his excitement for all things analogue, giving his tips, tricks, and reviews on film stocks and cameras.

So, we sent him a roll of our new 2021 production of LomoChrome Turquoise in 35 mm to hear his thoughts. He set out to Joshua Tree in California to capture vast landscapes in all turquoise glory. Here's what he has to say.

Hello Caleb, welcome to the Lomography Online Magazine! May you give a short introduction of yourself?

I’m a Filmmaker / Photographer / coffee lover who’s always looking for that next adventure! Most days you can find me behind a desk editing my Youtube videos for my channel Bad Flashes, but when I see the sun you can bet I’ll have a camera in my hand.

What got you very interested in film photography?

I’ve always been interested in visual storytelling whether that is through film or photography. I was bored one day at my day job and stumbled upon an article about medium format cameras (which at that point I had never heard of), so that very second I bought myself a Holga 120 and the rest is history.

How do you like to describe your photography style?

I would say it’s a mixture of landscape, cityscape and what I'm now calling “Decaying Architectural Photography” (a.k.a shooting abandoned buildings.) I find that old buildings have a rich history behind them and I really like exploring that. Overall if the light and shadow or subject matter catches my eye, I’ll snap a photo and for the most part I like simple compositions.

What was your thought process behind shooting LomoChrome Turquoise? Which camera did you use?

I had a brief encounter several years ago with a roll of LomoChrome Turquoise in 120. I shot that roll in my Pentax 67 while in Vancouver and I loved it! Unfortunately by that time I was late to the party and when I got back to LA it was no longer available. That's why I was excited to get my hands on a pre-production roll. This time I shot it in my Leica M6 with a 12 mm Voigtlander ultra-wide lens, and some images were also taken with a Voigtlander 28 mm.

Where were these taken?

In and around Joshua Tree.

After shooting this film, what do you make of your results? Any first impressions?

My first thought was “Hells yeah! It’s back, baby!” I just couldn’t wait to get my hands on the updated film stock. Upon further examination while scanning and color correcting, I noticed that the highlights hold up really well. The shadows were a bit underexposed for my liking and sometimes I wasn’t able to save them. I ended up shooting the film at ISO 400 but I think next time I might go for ISO 320 or even ISO 200 for a little more shadow detail. To play devil's advocate though, it could have been due to the ultra-wide lens given that I noticed slightly better shadows while using the 28 mm lens.

If you could shoot this roll again, what or where else would you like to capture?

Well, it’s not a question of “If” but when. I’ve already pre-ordered a bunch in both 35 mm and 120! I would like to do more testing with colors to see what types of color shifts I can manage with this film. After that, I’ll probably take it to Utah. I have a massive trip planned that will take two weeks and you can bet I’ll be bringing LomoChrome Turquoise along. I don’t do a lot of portrait work but it would also be fun to try and capture something unique with this film stock.

Do you have any tips or tricks you can share for those looking to try this film?

I feel like I would have to put a few rolls through my camera and test a bit more before I could give some solid tips or tricks but maybe if anything, just have fun! And when I do stumble on some tips I'll definitely share!

Thank you Caleb for sharing your results! Find more of his work via Instagram and YouTube

written by kaylalew on 2022-05-20 in #gear #people #places #california #35mm #lomography #joshua-tree #lomochrome-turquoise #caleb-knueven