Tag Archives: art

March 31, 2012

Two New Cameras plus Works of Art Through the Eyes of the iPhone

By ipdegirl

My parents, who so generously got me the Yashica 635, arrived at my house last week with two more vintage beauties for me. This Konica C35 was purchased at the same time as my Yashica.

I know next to nothing about this camera but am excited to play around with it. The other camera came from my Mom’s cedar chest. It was her camera back in the day….a Polaroid Land Camera Automatic 103

This one I am familiar with. It’s the relative of another Polaroid Land Camera that I own, the 220, and just like my 220 (which I affectionately refer to as Aunt Bertha’s camera because it came with EVERYTHING in the case, including a little lace hankie, and smelled like the top of a moth-ball-filled closet), it included the case, manual and a flash unit. Once I get a battery for it I’m going to give it a try. I’m hoping the roller functions better than the 220 so I don’t get gluey rollers half way through my film pack. What a pain it is to clean.

I’m still waiting for my first Yashica roll to come back from the developers. I took it out last week on a foggy morning as we took the kids and dog for a walk in the woods. I’m hoping for some moody, misty shots. Until then, I will share some iPhone photos I took while at the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

Curators are masters of using light to highlight the best parts of an exhibit. Whether the lighting is very low, casting gorgeous shadows on the walls, or warm and inviting, everything is beautiful and begging to be captured by an intrepid photographer. Whenever I visit a museum I treat it as a workshop in lighting. I push myself and try new techniques to see how my camera best responds. This first shot was taken through my Holga Lens Turret’s blue filter.

This last shot was in the cafeteria. I used the Salvadore 84 lens on all the pictures that look doubly exposed.

Museums are also great places to test out your camera’s macro abilities. The iPhone is phenomenal at close up shots and even better with the Holga Lens Turret’s macro lens.

The rest of these pictures are taken without the macro lens.

Leave a comment | tags: analogue, antique, art, callard, camera, cheap, Delaware, fi, fidelity, film, Hipstamatic, instant, ipdegirl, iPhone, iPhoneography, jenni, Land, lighting, lo, lo-fi, lomo, lomography, low, macro, museum, photo, photography, polaroid, postaweek2012, retro, study, vintage | posted in My Adventures

March 10, 2012

1600 iso—is it the way to go?

By ipdegirl

The first roll of 1600 iso color film that I ran through my Fuji Natura Classica has returned and I must say, it has given me mixed results. The camera performed fabulously in low light conditions with faster film, but there were some pictures that left me scratching my head.

For example, a few of the photos in natural light were blurry. I’ve heard of this phenomenon with the Natura Classica, but this is the first time I’ve personally experienced it. These pictures are from a trip to Twin Lakes Brewing Co. in Greenville, DE. I HIGHLY recommend a trip there if you’re in the area. The brewer, Sam Hobbs, personally sits down and weaves a tale of history, brewing basics and the environmentally sound practices that his brewery adheres to. The brewery is on a farm that has been in Sam’s family for seven generations and has played a large part in the history of northern Delaware.

See? Just they’re just this side of out of focus. Not enough to make them horrible pictures, but disappointing nonetheless. There was a pleasant surprise on this roll. I posed with the “Stanley Cup of Beer Growlers” and had Sam take a shot of it with my iPhone while Jake took the shot with the Fuji.

Wow! The Natura Classica did a MUCH better job! Here are a couple more pictures from our brewery experience.

That’s a giant bag of hops.

There were also pictures on this roll of our trip to the Philadelphia Art Museum. I had lots of opportunity to play with light and shapes. First, I have to show you the picture that almost got me kicked out of the museum. I snapped this shot of Van Gogh’s “Sunflowers” and a security guard TOTALLY busted me, telling me to put away the camera. No pictures allowed. I figured it was no FLASH photography, but I was wrong.

There’s lots of graininess in this picture, but I don’t think it detracts from the subject.

This last shot is one of my favorites

There was a beautiful display in a dimly lit room of some iron work. The play between the hard shapes and their shadows was interesting.

I think this is the point at which the Natura might have been on the outer edges of its range. While I really like these pictures, they would’ve looked better if they weren’t so grainy.

Here’s another fun comparison shot between the iPhone

And the Natura Classica

The 1600 film gives the second picture a much different feel and character than the digital Hipstamatic shot.

Lastly, we had dinner at Garces Market and I took the opportunity to snap some pictures.

Again, for comparison, here’s an iPhone shot at the restaurant.

All in all, I’m quite pleased with this roll of 1600 but once again, I’m reminded of the limits of film when it comes to dim light. I still love my Natura Classica and will continue using it on a regular basis, especially at places like museums and restaurants. Sometimes the graininess of the fast film adds character, sometimes it just detracts. The experimenting will continue.

1 comment | tags: "Fuji Natura Classica", "Twin Lakes Brewing Company", 1600, analogue, art, callard, camera, Delaware, exposure, fi, fidelity, film, ipdegirl, jenni, lo, lo-fi, lomo, long, low, museum, Philadelphia, photo, photography, postaweek2012 | posted in My Adventures

October 29, 2010

Macro iPhone

By ipdegirl

I love turning an ordinary object into an abstract work of art and my favorite technique is macro photography. According to the Wiki :

Macro photography is close-up photography. The classical definition is that the image projected on the “film plane” (i.e., film or a digital sensor) is close to the same size as the subject.^{[citation needed]} Lenses designed for macro are usually at their sharpest at macro focus distances and are not quite as sharp at other focus distances.

In recent years, the term macro has been used in marketing material to mean being able to focus on a subject close enough so that when a regular 6×4 inch (15×10 cm) print is made, the image is life-size or larger.^{[citation needed]} With 35mm film this requires a magnification ratio of only approximately 1:4, which demands a lower lens quality than 1:1. With digital cameras the actual image size is rarely stated, so that the magnification ratio is largely irrelevant; cameras instead advertise their closest focusing distance.

Blah, blah, blah, right? I like the definition that states the image would be life-sized or larger and that’s normally how I execute my macro photos.

With my iPhone 4 I’ve taken some really nice close-up shots without any extra lenses. Here are a few examples:

When I want to get wickedly, uncomfortably, we’d-better-be-really-good-friends kind of close, I use a magnification loupe. You remember those, don’t you? Once upon a time when we didn’t have digital cameras we used loupes to view our negatives on light boards. Here’s a little portrait of mine

It’s a little plastic thing that has 8X magnification power and is one of the coolest macro tools I have. Simply place the loupe over the object you want to magnify and move the phone in and out to achieve the correct focus. It’s fun to play around with the area of focus when you’re trying to take a shot of a flower or other object that is very dimensional. By moving the loupe around the subject you can create bokeh within the macro shot.

The one thing you do need is a lot of light, just as you do when using a macro or magnification lens on an SLR. You can see from the picture of my loupe that the edges and corners throw a lot of shadows around. This is another thing to beware of. It takes some practice and patience to get all the angles right so that there are no shadows or tell-tale vignetting but it’s well worth the results. Here are a few of my favorites.

Leave a comment | tags: "close up", "Dogfish Head", "How to", art, bokeh, callard, Delaware, Focus (optics), ipdegirl, iPhone, iPhoneography, jenni, lo, lo-fi, lomo, lomography, low, Macro photography, photography, plastic, toy | posted in How do I....

August 23, 2009

Plastic Camera Van

By ipdegirl

Artscape is held each year in Baltimore and is one of the largest free arts festivals in the nation. If you’ve never gone you should ABSOLUTELY make the pilgrimage one year–it is well worth it! Not only are there fantastic works of art in all the traditional mediums, there are also great ‘unconventional’ works of art. This year I saw tons of items made from recycled goods; bottle-cap necklaces (of which my daughters fell in love with), t-shirts made from other t-shirts, watch bands and bracelets made from old belts (got one and I love it!), broken tile jewelry and so much more.

My favorite thing to see every year is the art cars. Fantastically decorated by insanely talented individuals, these art cars really are moblie masterpieces. This year featured the ‘Handy Van’, a beach car, Yellow Submarine car, Music car, a van with metal things attached and, my personal favorite, a van covered entirely in PLASTIC CAMERAS!

It was UNREAL! Covering this old van were Polaroids, Brownies, a Diana clone and even a Hassy! On the driver’s side was an enourmous circular lens-looking object made of lenses that had been removed from various cameras. The passenger’s side included three monitors which may or may not be fuctional. They weren’t on for this exhibit.

Everyone there must have thought I had lost my mind because I couldn’t stop snapping pictures of this crazy thing. I specifically brought my Holga loaded with Ilford and my Vivitar UWS filled with none other than Fuji Velvia that I planned to cross-process. I couldn’t find the owner of this magnificent vehicle but when I do, oh boy look out!

Here are a couple of my black and white shots. Check out my Flickr site for the Vivitar UWS cross-processed pictures. Plastic Rules!!