larry reeves - beautiful work, jose!

Julianna - so utterly beautiful!

nancy ray - love love love. your composition is stunning.

matthew - i want that (range)!

stephanie - freaking gorgeous ;-) I'm dying to take my old Pentax out ;-)

Nate Perkes - Jose! I have become a HUGE fan of yours of late. So wait...maybe this is a really dumb question, but do you shoot weddings with film? No Digital at all? I LOVE your pictures above.

Katarina Souto Mera - beautiful! you should post more often, can't get enough :))

ChrisF - Jose...keep film alive, it's what "photography" really is... When you expose for the shadows, do you give -2 stops and let development take its course, or do you then additionally pull the film? Be interesting to know your preference and how you work to achieve such good results....400H has to be ! lol

Nathan - Dear Jose, I love shooting in film, and your work is an inspiration to us all. It's all about the light isn't it. Soft light + film = GOLD. I've always wanted to ask what your thoughts are about Fuji discontinuing their neopan 400 & 1600 films, and the 400h & 800z 220 films. I think it's really sad cuz neopan was such a beautiful b&w film. With 220 film gone for the 800z and 400h, isn't it going to make shooting weddings alot harder? Well, unless you have your own trusty sidekick film loader by your side that is, heh heh

jose villa - thank you for the nice words .. Rich -- Yes I will dodge and burn in PS, but very RARE.. ChrisF -- these were all shot of 400 h. Love that stuff.. when I say expose for the shadow i mean I take an incident meter reading on the darkest part of the image.. I keep it very simple. No need to complicate things with -2 or any of that jazz.. Nathan -- Im very sad to see both the Neopan 400 and 1600 black and white films gone and the 400 h in 220. But since Im such a minimalist Im ok with it all .. I love the neopan 400 b/w stuff and the 400 h stuff and if It means I have to shoot in 120 then I will. The color is to die for and I cant seem to break away from that.. I have however been playing around with a new kodak film that is very soft and close to this 400 h look that I love. so it might take a little more testing through my LAB, but Im sure it will happen soon. Not to worried about it to be honest with you.. So long as there's film Im a happy guy :)

Nate - beautiful jose. Are these all with the contax 645? How often are you shooting 35mm nowadays?

Heather - always have, always will LOVE, LOVE, LOVE what you do with film....xo

Morgan - And this is exactly why I love film. Beautiful work, Jose. These are so gorgeous!

Steve France - beautiful as always Jose... you possibly moving to the new portra 400 ?!?!?! Jonathan Canlas is shooting that stuff..

Matt - Hello Jose, thanks for sharing. Evaluating your exposure technique I have calculate that you are over exposing by 3 f/stops, which is amazing. I love the lattitude of film, just love it. You have an ISO 400 film, meter it as ISO 200 (that's one stop), and meter the shadows (that's at least 2 stops), similar to treating an ISO 400 film as an ISO 50 film. Very cool. Please let us know how the new Kodak Portra 400 you are testing responds to a similar 3 stop over exposure.

Mel - Inspiring as always :)

Lindsey Joy - Jose, I love these! Your work is always so beautiful and inspiring! I think I need to dust off the old film camera :)

Chantz Hough - Hey Jose, Seriously. I love how you answer everyones questions on your blog. Says a lot about your character. which is the reason, I think, why Michael Wachniak says your images give him calmness and peace. for me it makes me happy. I think that is because your images seem to be a part of you and your character. Always look forward to your posts. ON a separate note. Any film camera lens recommendations? I'm looking to start playing around with film for fun to see if I have the eye/skill/talent for it? It seems that all the images I fall in love with are film. Anyways, Take care Brotha and thanks again.

Nick - Jose, Since I've discovered you and Elizabeth Messina I've made the transition to film, and I'll never look back! I have a question similar to Matt's above. I watched a short interview with you where you stated you rate your film one to one-half stop brighter. In this post you state that you expose for the shadows. Does this mean you are shooting the midtones and highlights 3 stops brighter? Would love to hear some more insight to your technique!