Shooting a 35mm “pocket camera” loaded with Kodak Professional Portra 400 using Sunny 16 exposure settings…

When I wrap up any trip to Los Angeles for family, business and/or pleasure, I always end with a visit to Venice Beach at sunset, before I head to the airport for a redeye flight home.

The Camera

This time, I planned ahead and brought the device I wanted to shoot with: a Rollei 35B “pocket” 35mm film camera. It’s the same one I used to shoot aerial views through an airplane window on my flight out last week. The camera and Sunny 16 exposure rule are both detailed in my previous post, so this post is more about: the film, fading light, location, windy weather, zone focusing, and my results. Also made a quick camera-loading video in my car — with my iPhone stuck in the sun visor — which you can check out at the bottom of this post and on the Texolux-Photo YouTube channel.

The Film

I finished early with a client near where western L.A. becomes eastern Beverley Hills, with time to kill. Google told me I was not far from Samy’s Camera, the storied photography retailer, so I decided to head over for a visit, and to pick up the perfect roll of film for a late afternoon shoot by the ocean. The shop was amazing — a little overwhelming actually — with multiple floors of world-class film, digital, and professional gear. There was only enough time before sunset for me to scratch the surface at Samy’s, so I resolved to return again. After quickly visiting just one-and-a-half floors, I realized it was getting late, so I’d better buy film and drive to the coast.

Samy’s has a checkout counter near the main entrance, with a marvelous selection of films behind it. Staring at the vast array, I chose Kodak Portra film for it’s warm tones, which should complement the late afternoon sunlight at Venice Beach. I went for ASA 400 because I was anticipating limited light heading into dusk, using Sunny 16 exposures in a fully manual camera I was not familiar with, and needed the speed for flexibility.

The Time & Weather

The Golden Hour is a magical time of day, when the sun gets low in the sky and warmer red-orange wavelengths of light become dominant. You might expect Golden Hour in sunny California at any time of year to be warm and wonderful (as I did) but on this particular day at this particular time, the weather was quite different from my expectations. It was March 3rd and the lion of winter was roaring loudly, with the spring lamb nowhere in sight!

When I opened my car door after loading the camera and shooting the video, I was greeted by a strong, cold wind off the water, which immediately sprayed airborne sand into the vehicle. Bracing myself, I realized I was unprepared, underdressed, and would need to keep moving to stay warm. With just an hour to shoot, my hands would be pocketed to recover between exposures, as much as possible. Luckily, the Rollei 35 B is a more or less pocketable camera. 🙂

First Shot from the Roll

Depending on how far you advance 35mm film when loading (1, 2, or 3 exposures), the first shot on a roll is often a partial frame, with a flash border along one side of the image, where it was exposed to light before you closed the camera. Here’s my first shot after loading the Rollei 35B with a roll of 36-exposure Kodak Portra Professional 400 ASA film:

The Rest of the Roll

Here are the best of the rest of the roll (my faves), as the golden hour faded to dusk, and the warm tones of sunset cooled and darkened into evening. After loading the camera and taking my first shot through the windshield, I stepped out of my car onto the miniature sand dunes that inevitably form on windy days in the parking lots of Venice Beach. I smiled, took a shot of the mini-dunes at my feet, and looked around for subjects waiting to be captured by the Rollei 35B…

The Results

Though the wind off the water turned my hands into cold, stiff, claws between shots, turns out I did a pretty good job estimating the exposures, zone focusing, and really enjoyed shooting the camera! The fixed focal length of the lens was a bit limiting, and the 400 film speed meant it would be too grainy to enlarge and crop later, so I forced myself to compose in camera as best I could. I’m pretty pleased with the results — what do you think?

Contact Sheet

As you can see below, I squeezed 38 2/3 photos out of the 36-exposure roll of Kodak Portra Professional 400 film! I like how this camera works a roll! 🙂

The Test Video

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