11th street diy & Cinestill bwxx
cinestill bwxx in 120? it’s damn good.
Cooper and I headed out to the 11th street DIY skatepark in downtown Tacoma. I had a couple rolls of the newly released Cinestill BwXX in 120 and elected to put them through my Bronica SQ which has an apparent light leak. I figured the BwXX would pair nicely with a grungy skatepark located under an overpass surrounded by graffiti and street art. I was absolutely blown away by the results of this film stock. It was my favorite b&w film stock in 35mm and I had been hoping that they’d bring it to medium format. The day has finally come. This stock is punchy, contrasty, rich, and gritty. It has a surprisingly strong grain structure for a 250 speed film, which I am not complaining about in the slightest. I paired my Vivitar Auto 215 flash with the Bronica and experimented with some flash photography towards the end of the shoot. The Bronica is ideal for this scenario because of its leaf shutter lenses. I went with my trusty 65mm f/4 glass for this shoot. I was able to sync the flash at any speed, so I played around with both fast and slow shutter speeds. The motion blur achieved in a number of these images was the result of a 1/30th shutter speed. The majority of these were shot at f/4 except for those utilizing flash, those were mostly f/8-f/11. it’s been a while since I’ve been very stoked on new scans, so getting these back felt good. It’s a body of work I am very pleased with.
Cooper Branham
Cooper has been my best friend since the beginning of high school. Our adventures and shenanigans have taken us all over the world and our passions frequently find ways of intertwining. Cooper is 24 years old and can almost always be found with a board under his feet. While attending CU Boulder, he tapped into the snowboard community and now rides for Burton. During the winter of 2019, Cooper was featured in Warren Miller’s “Timeless,” and continues to pursue his love of snowboarding winter after winter. Keep up with Coop on his Instagram: @coopbran.
