About
This is the portfolio of Floyd Celluloyd. Do you believe that this is my real name? Come on, to be honest it is not my real name. Photography came into my life when I was about 17 or 18. I didn´t know what to do after I finished my school career. Instead of working in a bank I decided to get more into this photography thing. No corruption.
My way started with an apprenticeship in the field of advertising/industrial photography. It was really a hard time. Imagine you earn not enough money to own a camera? Imagine you want to learn how to shoot great photos but all you do is to carry the flashes and tripods? Imagine you want to develop your own films and photos and you don´t have any equipment? It was time to get more creative. So I started to take my first photos with a self-made pinhole camera. The costs were about 5$. It was really a lot of fun these days. And still today I enjoy pinhole photography.
Learning really a lot about light I just decided that industrial and advertising photography is not the right decision. In the years of learning I found out, that my love belongs to black and white photography. And more love belongs to that kind of photography, that is showing people in a natural surrounding. I would call it the “capturing of a real time moment”.
In 1997 a friend of mine invited me to a concert with Julian and Damian Marley. My first contact with reggae. The music that is my real love. It is more than music to me. Reggae inspired me mentally and spiritually. It came into my life just at the right moment. It was time to connect my love for Reggae and photography. So I decided to shoot concerts. I had to learn a lot about light and darkness;)
To find the right exposure while shooting a concert was really difficult at the beginning. The artists are moving on stage, the light is changing nearly every 3-4 seconds. And there is not really that much light. It took me some time to find the perfect combination of film and developer. Guess what? I will tell you my favourite setups for different situations:
Setup 1 – less light saver
Film: Ilford HP5
ISO: 800-3200
Developer: Ilford Microphen
Developing time: 11-17 minutes depending on ISO
Setup 2 – good light situations
Film: Agfapan APX 100
ISO: 100
Developer: Agfa Rodinal (best developer ever ever ever… mixture 1:50)
Developing time: 20 minutes
The camera
Nikon F90x
Thoughts on digital and analog photography
In times of digital photography I recognize, that it is very easy to make a lot of photos in short time. Some really press the shutter release continuously. Maybe the “1 out of 80 photos must be good thinking” is the reason for this behaviour. I don´t know. Digital photography is a chance, but it could also be a trap. At first: while looking through the viewfinder imagine if you really should shoot the photo. Is the light ok? Is the situation ok? Are you in a good mood? ;) In analog times most photographers couldn´t afford it to shoot 50 films in a row. First composition, second shoot. That´s my simple rule.
Contact details
Floyd Celluloyd
Halleiner Str. 6
70469 Stuttgart
Germany