Anniversary Edition 🎈

A Monthly Letter for the GOLD Members

6 min read by Dmitri.
Published on July 26, 2024. Updated on October 18, 2024.

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Analog.Cafe launched seven years ago on July 27, 2017.

It started as a small community blog of personal photo essays from my tiny apartment in Chiang Mai, a sunny northern cultural hub in northern Thailand. I wanted it to be designed and built by hand using open-source software I trust, and I wanted it to show no ads. Both things are still true today!

The website has grown significantly since. Now hosting 600+ articles by 120+ contributing authors with over 10,000 Community Letters subscribers.

As the blog grew, a few things changed for me: I’m now back in Canada, living in a slightly larger apartment with my partner and two dogs. I’ve also recently quit my job as a Senior Software Engineer at WebMD to work on this website full-time.

During these seven years of joy (and, sometimes, hardships), this website has been my obsession and a source of inspiration, thanks to readers like you, the film photography community, and the open web as a whole.

So thank you for reading, contributing, providing feedback, and sharing what you’ve learned here with your friends.

Your patronage means the world to me. 🙏

As you may know, web hosting isn’t cheap. Especially when it’s meant to distribute high-quality images and web apps to hundreds of thousands of readers without ads. This is why I launched GOLD memberships earlier this year. They come with perks like best-quality images, advanced tutorials that teach how to read light without a light meter, create pastel works of art with film, and secret announcements like the one below.

So if you haven’t yet, please consider upping your support to a very reasonable $5/mo to help this project thrive for another seven years. 🩷In this letter: A top-secret announcement. A new advanced photography guide. Audio update. Upcoming projects. Support this blog & get premium features with GOLD memberships!

A top-secret announcement.

This website is a springboard for creative ideas. It hosts several apps, one of which even resembles a social media platform. I use it to share fun experiments, like testing whether film could be developed in cannabis. But there’s one obvious project that I haven’t tried yet.

I’m not sure if this will become an ongoing thing or even if there’s any interest in the limited test run I’m planning for this August. But I am confident that this will be a good deal for everyone who develops film at home.

Here’s what’s up: I decided to self-package and sell a few rolls of new colour film. It’s Kodak Motion Picture film (50D & 250D) in 35mm with the remjet still intact. Fresh, not expired.

Over the past few weeks, I’ve searched around for bulk rolls of colour film that would be reasonable in terms of price and quality when spit into 35mm film canisters. There were many options — but most made no sense financially. Some, like Kodak Aerocolor IV, cost more in bulk than when bought in 35mm canisters!

But there was one place that sold “short ends” from the movie production studios. They had some footage at a very reasonable price, so I felt it was worth the effort for me and a good deal for you.

The film has its remjet layer intact, which means that if you develop it at a lab, you’ll need to call ahead and make sure they can take care of it. To make this step easier, I’ll include a comprehensive list of all labs that can process ECN-2 around the world along with instructions for home processing (all you need is a bit of washing soda).

I have only 200’ for this project, so I’m splitting it into 10 packs of threes. You can choose whether you want two rolls of 250D plus one 50D or the other way around. Everything will be packed into cardboard boxes with paper padding. The film will be spun into recycled metal film canisters.

Since this is a very limited run, I’d like supporters like you to know about this first. I think it’s a great deal ($13/roll, $2 less than the average film price in 2024 or $5 less than the same film with remjet removed). Each pack also comes with three months of GOLD memberships that you can credit towards your account.

The shipping is $5 to the US and Canada. But if you are not living in either country, email me and I’ll get back to you with a reasonable shipping quote. [email protected]

Here’s how to order:

Option A: 2×250D plus 1×50D

Option B: 2×50D plus 1×250D

✪ Note: I will be shipping near the end of August 2024 as I’d like to personally test the footage and pack it nicely for the trip. Also, know that the last frame on each canister should be discarded as it’s a hand-rolled film — but I will include extra footage for you to make sure you get all 36 (or more) frames with each roll.

View this image in HD with GOLD

A new advanced photography guide.

“How to Get Pastel Colours on Film” is my most laborious effort to date on this website. I spent a whole bunch of film, weeks of research, and some quality time with studio lights to truly understand how to create airy, pastel-themed images on film.

There are articles and presets online that cover this topic — but none are as comprehensive as the write-up I posted last week. I dug into the history of this art medium, our perception and preconceptions about the aesthetic, colour theory, and a variety of approaches for getting these types of images. There’s a lot to consider, not the least your choice of scene and lighting.

Audio update.

In my last email I promised audio reads for the articles on Analog.Cafe. Unfortunately, this will take a bit longer. The audio recorder I got (Sony PCM D-10) had a faulty microphone so I had to send it back to Japan.

Upcoming projects.

I’m still working on the film price update, but there are only so many hours in a day. I’m hoping to complete it in August. I’m hopeful to find a downward trend for the overall prices as I’ve been seeing some signs online. 🤞

There are four camera reviews pending. They’re Canon A-1, Canon F-1, Minolta X-700, and Olympus PEN W. Will probably post them this August or September.

This website’s internals need a few updates, which are mandatory for speed and security — that’s coming in August. But this shouldn’t affect how this website looks, works, or its contents.

Once again, thank you for your support. I’m very lucky to have you as a contributor. Have a wonderful rest of your week!

— Dmitri.

This post is for GOLD members.

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