Passionate film photographer Don Goodman-Wilson has long been seeking a digital companion app to help him keep track of all the variables that, while making film photography such a fantastic way to make photos, can clutter a photographer’s mind. So, Goodman-Wilson decided to build the app he needed.

Called Crown + Flint, the new smartphone app for Android and iOS enables photographers to easily keep track of the equipment they use during their analog photography adventures, the photos they capture, and create organized notes about everything.

Goodman-Wilson writes on 35mmc that he has long tried to keep notes. In the early 2000s, he traveled with a pad and paper to write down valuable shooting information. However, this is tedious. A digital notes app not built for photographers is not much better. Goodman-Wilson was at a loss, with no solution proving easy enough to use while also including all the benefits he wanted to realize through note-keeping.

“So, I wrote an app. I set some pretty stringent goals for this app. It must collect relevant metadata on shots I take: Exposure, light metering, location, time, which camera body and lens I used, what film is loaded. It must be no more cumbersome to use than a hand-held light meter. It must make it easy to correlate the collected data with the physical film itself, ideally through some combination of printable sheets to store with the negatives and/or EXIF data I can merge into film scans. And it should reflect the needs of the photographer, not just the needs of the data being collected,” he explains.

Crown + Flint has three primary modes and the first allows the user to manage their equipment. Users can create files for each of their cameras, including information about available shutter speeds and compatible lenses they own.

As Goodman-Wilson explains, this mode is not something photographers will frequently use, but it underpins the app’s other features.

The equipment management informs the app’s second mode, its metadata and light metering functionality. An app for light metering is not new in and of itself. Still, because Crown + Flint includes camera and lens information, the light meter is catered to the camera and lens combination the photographer uses. For example, the light meter will only suggest apertures and shutter speeds that a photographer’s gear can use.

“Crown + Flint uses your device’s camera to suggest a light meter reading as an exposure value (relative to ISO 100), just like many light meters you may have used before. The key difference is that, unlike most hand-held or in-camera meters that offer relatively primitive methods to evaluate the scene, Crown + Flint uses your smartphone’s native intelligent evaluative metering to make sure that shadows retain detail, while the rest of the scene remains in balance,” Goodman-Wilson explains.

The final primary mode in the app is film tracking. This section tracks the lifetime of a user’s film, including the ability to assign film to a camera and mark when a film roll has been expended.

Once exposed and developed, there are also areas for photographers to keep meticulous notes about how best to use the film, their thoughts about the results, and full development details. “Never wonder what’s loaded into which camera, or what rolls are waiting to be developed,” Goodman-Wilson says.

Pricing and Availability

While film photographers reading this may already be chomping at the bit to download Crown + Flint for themselves, it is unfortunately not yet available. Goodman-Wilson quickly found many suitable beta testers, who are hard at work testing the app to ensure that when it is ready to release to everyone, it will be as good as possible.

Goodman-Wilson expects Crown + Flint to arrive on the Apple App Store and the Google Play Store by early October. Additional details should be available soon on Crown + Flint’s official website.

Image credits: Images courtesy of Don Goodman-Wilson

Photographer Mauro Lepe grew up in Chile, where skateboarding was a major part of his life. He was always surrounded by skateboard magazine photographers setting up flashes and shooting the skaters. “…we were just a bunch of crazy kids living in a one-bedroom apartment living off beer and ramen noodles,” he tells the Phoblographer. “I guess I felt we didn’t seem important enough to be shot with such professionalism, but those photographers made you feel important no matter who you were, and that really stuck with me. Unfortunately, being able to afford a camera was out of the question, but I promised myself that one day I’d pick one up.” That’s how he got into film photography.

All images by Mauro Lepe. Used with permission. Be sure to check him out on Instagram.

Mauro adores the Pentax 67 and uses it for lots of his work. He used to shoot 35mm, but to him, the 67 was a game-changer. Additionally, Mauro builds his own props for the set with woodworking tools.

Looking at Mauro’s work, you see inspiration from cinema and pastel palettes. But more importantly, you see very meticulously crafted images

“I tend to base my photos on past experiences: mistakes, regrets, failures, and even trauma,” he tells us. “I guess these things affect people in a variety of ways. Some people find it really easy to move on, and for most, these have a lasting impact.” These days, Mauro tries to recreate scenes from his past and present in a fictional linear narrative. To him, it’s a way to take control of the thoughts that go through his head. In this way, he can move on and let go.

“It’s very therapeutic if that makes any sense.”

Mauro Lepe

His photos are all done on film — which lends itself to the authenticity we don’t see much these days in digital. He’s inspired by abstract painters like O’Keeffe and Joan Mitchell.

Planning the shoots out is a hugely important thing for Mauro. He doesn’t like leaving things to chance. Because of this, he’ll plan a shoot a few weeks ahead because he wants to be fully in control. He even does this for the set, the clothing, etc. “The model is also key since she’s in charge of transmitting the emotion of what’s taking place, no matter how weird the set might be,” he tells us.” All this is part of Mauro’s healing process. To that end, he thinks that photographers who use AI are totally fine.

“There shouldn’t be rules to this. we all should be able to express ourselves in any way we see fit.”

Holidaymakers are hiring professional “vacation photographers” to document travels with their families abroad.

In a 2018 study, more than 40% of millennials said they prioritized “Instagrambility” and the picture-worthiness of a particular destination when they chose their next holiday.

And five years later, it appears that holidaymakers are willing to pay for professional photographers to travel with them and shoot their vacations.

According to a recent report in The Daily Mail, companies such as Flytographer recognize this demand and specialize in connecting travelers with photographers in their holiday destinations in over 350 destinations.

“We’ve had tens of thousands of people use our services to hire a photographer around the world, including solo travelers, couples, and more than 20,000 moms,” Nicole Smith, who founded Flytographer a decade ago, tells The Daily Mail.

“It’s so important for moms to get into the photo instead of always being the invisible one documenting the moment.”

Tired of Not Appearing in Family Photos

The Daily Mail spoke with multiple mothers who hire vacation photographers for their family holidays. Some of these mothers explained that while paying for a vacation photographer may seem like a luxury, it is a small price to pay for capturing memories of a holiday — especially when it can often be challenging to get a portrait of the entire family.

Several interviewees including Hannah McClune, who is a mother as well as a professional photographer herself, tell the publication how they had become frustrated with taking the majority of the pictures of their families on holiday. As a result, many of the mothers interviewed found they did not feature in the holiday pictures with the rest of their families.

McClune says she paid $881 (£700) for a photographer for a half-day shoot with her husband and her sons, aged 12 and nine, in the Dominican Republic a few years ago. She noted that the images were some of the first photos that she managed to capture of her and her husband together since their wedding day in 2009.

McClune says she often sources her vacation photographer on Instagram ahead of a family holiday. She recently paid $377 (£300) for a shooter for a vacation photographer for her family in Kerala, India.

‘Clients Can Be Fully Immersed in The Holiday, Rather Than Photos’

Photographer Juliet Lemon specializes in wedding, corporate, and wildlife photography. However, The Daily Mail reports that since 2013, families have also been hiring her to travel with them to document their holidays.

Lemon reportedly charges upwards of around $2,518 (£2,000) a day to shoot on vacation. The photographer says she recently spent eight days in Finland with one family, taking pictures of their adventures in the Arctic Circle. She has also been to Palma, South America, and on multiple safaris for clients.

“The clients who flew me to Finland wanted to be fully immersed in the holiday, not fretting about taking photos,” Lemon tells the publication.

“Having me there meant they could enjoy those magical moments of husky sledding, feeding reindeer, ice fishing, or watching the Northern Lights, while I discreetly snapped away.

For Lemon’s clients, there’s a big difference between taking holiday pictures away on an iPhone and having an experienced photographer, who understands lighting techniques and has everything from underwater equipment to drones and long lenses.

Image credits: Header photo licensed via Depositphotos.

With the deaths of the five blonde Lisbon sisters, the 1998 adaptation of Jeffrey Eugenides’ novel “The Virgin Suicides” from filmmaker Sofia Coppola told a tragic tale through gauzy, sunlit suburban scenes. Her characters in the movie, and her subsequent works including “Lost in Translation,” “Somewhere,” and the soon-to-be-released “Priscilla,” about Priscilla Presley’s relationship with Elvis, are marked by their sense of yearning; no matter the era or geography, her protagonists are adrift, searching for connection and meaning.

Now Coppola is releasing “Archive,” an anthology of rare behind-the-scenes images and ephemera collected during the making of her movies. Filled with sketches, letters, magazine clippings and diaristic polaroids of her muses, including Kirsten Dunst and Elle Fanning, “Archive” fits neatly in Coppola’s nostalgic coming-of-age narratives and adds another romanticized dimension to her output.

Coppola’s groundbreaking deep dives into the psyches of young women have each taken their place in their zeitgeist, even when they haven’t been box-office hits. (“Marie Antoinette,” her exuberant take on the ill-fated teenage monarch, received mixed reviews in 2006 and offended the French, but its cult status has made a generation of period pieces far less stuffy.)

As she pointed out in a published interview in “Archive,” very few moviegoers saw “The Virgin Suicides” during its original US release, despite its popularity at Cannes. “The studio was nervous about a film about girls who are going to kill themselves. So it barely came out, and no one here saw it,” Coppola said. “Since then, a whole new generation of girls has discovered it, which makes me happy.”

As Coppola’s directorial debut turns 25, and the biodrama “Priscilla,” starring Cailee Spaeny and Jacob Elordi, premieres in Venice this month, the monumental tome is a time capsule of her career so far. In “Archive,” Coppola reflects on the threads woven through her films, including her latest, which is based on Presley’s 1980s autobiography, “Elvis and Me,” and focuses on how she navigated her teenage years after meeting the superstar.

Below, take a peek inside of “Archive,” which publishes this month by MACK, for a look at some previously-unseen insight into Coppola’s films.

PUTNEY — Acclaimed alternative-process photographers Vaune Trachtman and Rachel Portesi will exhibit their work from Sept. 8 to Oct. 29 at the Michael S. Currier Center at 418 Houghton Brook Road in Putney. An opening reception is scheduled from 4:30 to 6:30 on Friday, Sept. 22.

Trachtman and Portesi are Vermont-based artists who each use photographic processes that meld historical and contemporary technologies. Trachtman’s photogravures bring together cellphone imagery and archival negatives, while Portesi’s work ranges from tintypes to Polaroids and includes film, 3D imagery, and sculpture. Thematic similarities in their work include the impact of family, the passage of time, and photography’s unrelenting gaze.

Both artists have received Creation Grants from the Vermont Arts Council and the National Endowment for the Arts. They will also be available for a meet-and-greet from 2:30 to 3:30 p.m. on Oct. 8 at Putney School’s annual Harvest Festival.

In the last 12 months, Trachtman has been a Photolucida Critical Mass Top 50 honoree, the People’s Choice Award Winner in Klompching Gallery’s Fresh Annual, a winner in Soho Photo’s International Alternative Processes Competition and the Julia Margaret Cameron Awards, and the recipient of the Olcott Family Award in The Print Center’s International Competition. Her series “Now Is Always” was named a Top Portfolio by Rfotofolio and an Outstanding Work by the Denis Roussel Awards, and her series “Roaming” was shortlisted for the International Hariban Prize. Both series will be on display at the Currier Center. She is a graduate of The Putney School and lives in Brattleboro.

Portesi’s work in tintypes, Polaroids, film, and 3D imagery explores the nuanced transitions in female identity related to motherhood, aging, and choice. Her work has been exhibited throughout New England, most recently at The Griffin Museum of Photography (MA), The Newport Art Museum (RI), and in New York at Freight+Volume Gallery. Portesi’s work has been featured in Vogue, Forbes, the Boston Globe, ArtNews, Musée, and many other journals. In 2022 Analog Forever magazine named her as one of the year’s top 40 analog photographers. She is featured in the new publication, “Counterculture in Contemporary Photography” alongside Putney’s own Sally Mann. In the spring of 2024 Portesi will debut a new work commissioned by the Wadsworth Atheneum in Hartford, Conn. Portesi lives in Saxtons River.