Artist Feature – Emie McGee

Emie McGee‘s beautiful picture of the Redwood Forest in California is featured in the month of March of this years Revolog Calendar. Want to know her 5 reasons why she loves analog photography? Then read on!

Where are you from, how old are you?

Good old Landrum, SC USA and I’m 26 years old.

Would you like to tell us a bit about yourself and how you came to be a photographer?

I’m a nature and animal enthusiast and absolutely love birding.  I worked as a biologist for two summers and now I’m about to start the adventure of working in vet medicine as an assistant. I got into photography in the cliché way of being a child who always had a camera in hand.

 I became a photographer in college when I went from point and shoot auto to full on manual (including manual focus).  Since then I haven’t taken my camera off of manual anything 😛

I’m always working on improving and I’m excited to see what 2019 holds! I became a true analog photographer in college as well when I picked up my first Pentax spotmatic from an antique shop (my first official analog camera was a $1 Ansco 1050 yard sale gift from a family friend.  Meant for decoration but it actually worked…ish).  

My love for analog became stronger last year when I took my film camera on my work adventures, best decision I could have made in terms of what gear to bring.

Do you professionally work as a photographer?

Not officially but I do plan to get a business license in the future and start working towards being a professional on the side at least.

Why do you like to take analog pictures? Do you shoot digital as well?

Yes I do shoot digital along with my film. I love my digital camera but there are some things I can capture on film that I cannot get with my digital camera.  The reasons I shoot film are:

1. I don’t know what I get until I develop it (why I love buying expired film, plus it’s a little cheaper).

2. You’re limited to a few photos so you’ve got to make them count.

3. It’s really fun to take double exposures on film.

4. I enjoy reliving memories and emotions from photos and I find it easier on film (mainly because you can only take 24-36 frames).

5. I’m a bokeh lover and my gosh the separation of subject and background just blows me away.

Is there a certain background story behind the picture that is featured in March of our 2019 calendar? If so, would you like to share it with us?

That photo was taken on my road trip back from California to South Carolina.  My boyfriend and I had so many places we wanted to visit and the Redwood National Park and State Park was top of our list.  Walking around in that forest (on designated trails) was breathtaking and I truly felt like we had gone back to a ‘land before time’.  The trees were so massive and so incredibly no camera or lens could truly capture their glory in one shot.  So I tried to capture something and I love how this photo turned out.  It’s hard to see the scale (I think) but the fact that the redwood tree looks red on the film was a super cool touch 😉 

Do you have a favorite subject to photograph? If so, why?

I want to say portraits of any living being, person, horse, snail, praying mantis, cats, trees, plants, etc.  And even better, candid portraits 🙂

What’s your favorite analog camera?

Pentax SP 2 is currently my favorite.

Do you have a favorite revolog film? 

I’m really stuck between Kolor and 600nm.

Do you have a favourite photograph (revolog or not) that you would like to share with us?

Do you have any future projects you’d like to talk about?

Over the summer I finally tried and figured out how to take double exposures with my Pentax spotmatic.  So now my future project is to continue to improve those double exposures and so I’m working on a few ideas that I have and now that I’m developing film at home I’ll be able to have faster feedback 🙂 


Thank you for taking the time to answer our questions and sharing your photos with us, Emie!

Follow Emie’s work on her instagram @emiesphoto

Featured films: 600nmKolorCalendar 2019

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