Rainbows and Ektar
March has us thinking about the revival and reawakening colors of Spring. You know, rainbows after rainstorms, Lucky Charms cereal, disco balls scattering little flecks of light across the room? That slightly giddy feeling when winter finally loosens its grip and the world starts to feel playful again?
That’s Jennifer Lawrence in a nutshell.
Jennifer approaches photography with the kind of joyful curiosity most people grow out of somewhere around elementary school. She still believes sparkles make things better, that flowers belong in photographs whenever possible, and that if the light looks good across a field, the only logical response is to run toward it with a camera and see what happens.
Watching her work feels a little like watching a kid on Christmas morning. She will (and has been known to) skip across a field if the light is right. She gets genuinely excited about pastel colors, twinkle lights, or that random flower she saw on the sidewalk that she just knows will look amazing in a double exposure. That enthusiasm isn’t a gimmick or a fake selling point for her. It’s 10,000% real, and the photographs that come out of it carry that same bright, playful, full-of-life feeling people wish they could bottle up.
And her favorite tool for whipping up that magic? Kodak’s Ektar film.
The Film that Changed Everything
Ask Jen what film stock defines her work and she does not hesitate.
Not just her favorite. The reason she shoots film at all.
“It’s the reason I shoot film,” she told me. “Hands down. If they ever stop making Ektar I’m not entirely sure I would still be a photographer.”
She remembers the exact moment everything changed. She got a roll of film back from the lab. Two photos of her kids playing in the ocean. When she saw the film scans, her heart stopped. “This is what I’ve been searching for. Now, what do I have to do to get these results every single time?”
It sounds simple now, but the path to mastering it was anything but. This was before workshops, before YouTube tutorials, before the endless online resources photographers have today. Jen learned the hard way through trial and error, and if you’ve ever shot Ektar, you’ll feel it when she says it was mostly error.
There were bad rolls, confusing scans, and plenty of moments where things didn’t work the way she hoped. Funny thing is, that process is exactly what made it stick. Ektar made her work, but the experience left her armed with a whole lot of knowledge she’ll never forget.
She studied every frame, talked with her lab, trying to understand what the film was doing and how she could guide it toward the results she wanted. Exposure adjustments became experiments. Light became something to study more carefully. She basically put herself through the film school of hard knocks because she wasn’t about to let this go.
Somewhere along the way she realized something even bigger. She had found a film that looked the way she sees the world. Pastel, bright, and full of color and sunshine.
A film that felt just like her.
The Inspector Gadget of Cameras
Watching Jen photograph something is its own form of entertainment.
Cameras everywhere. Different bodies hanging from every appendage with different film stocks for each situation. A bag that feels suspiciously like Mary Poppins would wield it.
I jokingly call her the Inspector Gadget of photography, and if you’ve ever seen her at work, you’d agree it fits.
Want a different camera for a different look? She has one. Or four. (More likely the latter.)
Need something sparkly that could look like literal magic layered in a double exposure? She’s got you covered.
Her goodie bag, historically, has included things like prisms, fabric, twinkle lights, flowers, and objects that catch light in slightly magical ways. Come Christmastime, you’ll definitely see Jen in the clearance bins at Target shuffling though anything shiny to add to her arsenal.
And the enthusiasm isn’t fabricated. It’s 100% real.
There are moments when she will literally run toward a patch of sunlight saying something along the lines of, “Wait, wait, wait, this is going to be amazing!”
Occasionally there is skipping involved. Absolutely all of it is genuine and completely reflective of who she is, with or without a camera in her hand.
Part-Time Meteorologist, Full Time Photographer
Photographers generally know their way around the weather app. We tend to check in with Mother Nature a few days ahead so we can plan and help our clients plan for any conditions that aren’t ideal. That’s normal across the board. Having said that, Jen is not one to casually check the weather. She studies it, speaks to it, befriends it. She becomes so well acquainted with the up-to-the-hour conditions that you wouldn’t be shocked if she showed up to their family reunion. That neighbor of yours with the binoculars looking out the window curtains? That’s probably Jen. But don’t worry, she’s just checking the cloud conditions.
Some of her clients are literally on call for them.
“We have white puffy clouds! How soon can you be ready?”
Yes, she actually does this, and her clients love it because they know they are getting the best possible version of their photos.
Jen customizes her sessions down to the smallest detail. What you wear, where you go, what kind of light you need. But all of that starts with the right questions.
“Send me photos of mine that you love.”
Then she digs deeper.
“What are you drawn to?”
“What emotions do you want to capture?”
“What do you want to remember about this part of your life?”
Because the truth is, words can mean different things to different people. Happy might mean bright sunshine to one person and quiet snuggles to another.
So, Jen gets to know her clients, what they love, how they want their photos to feel and then builds the session around that. It is not just “show up here at this time.” It’s thoughtful, personal, and intricately designed for no one else but you. You mentioned purple irises remind you of your grandmother you just lost? She’s likely bringing those with her to your session. Your family are comprised of proud Irish decent? She’ll incorporate that. If someone wakes up on shoot day and just does not feel like themselves? She reschedules. Because the goal is not simply completing the session. The goal is joy.
The Micro Moments That Matter
Art for Twenty Five Dollars
One of Jen’s favorite photography truths is wonderfully simple.
You don’t need expensive gear to make great art.
Some of her favorite images were made with cameras that cost twenty-five bucks. Plastic cameras from Urban Outfitters, brightly colored Holgas, and so many other little toy cameras bodies that look more like toys than professional equipment.
“If you know film and you know light, you can create anything.”
In fact, she says about ninety percent of her favorite photographs come from those cameras. Without all the bells and whistles, they force you to understand what you are doing. You don’t get to rely on technology to fix mistakes. You have to know how light works, how film responds, how to get it right in camera and not in post. The creativity that comes from that is often more exciting than the most advanced gear. Of course, Jen still carries multiple cameras to a shoot. Different bodies for different ideas. One for blind doubles, one for portraits, one for light leaks, etc. It’s a rare day indeed if you see her with just one sole camera.
Inspector Gadget would undoubtedly be proud.
Why Her Lab Matters So Much
Jen is also quick to point out that film photography is never a solo process. A roll of film passes through more hands than most people realize. The shutter is only the beginning. The relationship with your lab matters, and relationships require actual conversation.
When she looks for a home base for her film scans, three things matter.
- Quality and consistency – Understanding how you see color and translating that to the people scanning your work is a huge part of consistency. Her journey with Ektar was built through that collaboration. Sending scans back and forth. Analyzing what she was seeing. Learning what adjustments would get her closer to the result she imagined. The goal isn’t identical scans every time, (because film isn’t a domesticated house cat, it has a temperament all its own.) but a lab that can translate your visual language with care is what she aims for.
- Open communication – Being able to have the occasional awkward conversation when you don’t love your scans is part of the process. A good lab can explain what happened, understand what the photographer is aiming for, and adjust accordingly. No one enjoys the “this isn’t quite it” email, but the labs that welcome those conversations tend to produce the most consistent work over time. The bonus of jumping on a video call with a real person from the lab with decades of experience who can look at your scans with you? That’s priceless. Film rewards honesty while silence mostly just makes confusion. Film is not just pressing the shutter. It’s a real partnership. That connection with your lab can make all the difference.
- Supportive and caring towards their customers – Businesses where you can feel the real people behind the scenes is worth searching for. The ones that aren’t just looking for the “celebrity” photographers and other big names to make them look good. She’s looking for the one who she can call anytime and feel like she’s talking to a friend. That’s huge. She values a lab that takes pride and supports all of their clients, professional or not. Knowing PhotoVision is the kind of place that gets giddy right alongside her when talking about film and color? That’s a match made in heaven to be sure.
Lean In
If there is one piece of advice Jen believes in, it’s to lean into small joys. Buy the flowers, hang the disco lights, let yourself get excited about sunshine and bubbles and twinkle lights.
Jen surrounds herself with the little things that make her happy. Flowers, colorful cameras, sparkly objects, the Target holiday section and of course, Ektar film. That philosophy feels like the perfect reminder for spring.
More color, more creativity, more joy.
And if we’re really lucky, maybe even a few white puffy clouds.
Jennifer Lawrence is a travel and lifestyle film photographer specializing in creating vibrant, artful stories for families, couples & brands. Based in Chicago and LA. Travels worldwide. Keep up with Jennifer and her adventures on Instagram by following her here.
Do you love Ektar just as much as Jennifer? Tag us @photovision.co and use #Photovisionfilmlab so we can see what you are creating out there in the wild!