Tag Archives: instant
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.
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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
One of the greatest joys of parenting is finally getting to the moment when you can really mess with your kids. For so, long we’ve encouraged them, told them the truth about most things and treated them like the sweet little things they are but during our vacation, the parents got their revenge (I swear this story is photography related…just wait for it).
All the cousins, girls and boys ages 12 to 5, were playing very nicely together and, much to our surprise, had started playing with some baby toys, including a stuffed elephant they dubbed Elf. They goofed around, pushing him, a doll named Bertha and a dinosaur named Dino Baby in a baby carriage, rolling it down hills at break-neck speed and crashing it into fences, walls and stairs until the contents spilled out at which point they all laughed maniacally. One day Elf went missing and they accused the adults of hiding him so when he turned up the next day, we decided they needed a little mystery to solve. Uncle Harry hid Elf and posted this ransom note for the kids to find:
The look on their faces was pure surprise and delight. They immediately formed teams and went all CSI on us, asking for handwriting samples and alibis. They all swore they would continue to eat their ice cream. Finally, in an effort to try to crack us, they said they had found Elf and that he had a rip in his side. We knew we had to up the ante, so (here’s where photography comes in) I suggested we take a Polaroid of Elf and post it the next morning. Uncle Harry and I staged a kidnapping scene, complete with Elf tied to a pole, electrical tape over his mouth and a saw at his throat (yeah, it was a little macabre, but these are some crazy kids). Here’s what they found the next morning:
The flurry of activity and screams of delight after finding THIS note was CRAZY! They searched the house and found the room in which we staged the photo. Again, alibis were demanded and drawing samples obtained. That night they ate cookies for dessert, as the ransom note suggested, and the next morning, Elf appeared. It was crazy-fun for everyone and when Uncle Harry finally confessed they claimed they knew it all along.
I took some other less ominous Polaroids during my trip as well and tried a little experiment. I recently read on The Impossible Project’s website or Flickr page about warming up the color Push film for more vibrant colors so I decided to try it. This is the control picture in which I just let the film develop normally
The next picture I warmed with a hair dryer for the first minute of developing and this is my result
I’m not really sure which I like better. The lighter color of the first one is nice but the intensity of color and depth of shadows and light in the second shot are much truer to what I was seeing with my eyes. It’s a little over exposed but generally, not a bad picture. The experimenting with this film will continue with the acquisition of a green filter, which is said to cut down on the magenta tones.
My favorite TIP film will remain the Silver Shade. I love the sepia tones, the old-fashioned feeling and the consistency of decent, well-exposed pictures. I feel this film is much more forgiving than the Color Shade. These are my Silver Shade vacation pics:
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4 comments | tags: "Silver Shade", "The Impossible Project", analogue, antique, callard, camera, cheap, elephant, Elf, fi, fidelity, film, instant, ipdegirl, jenni, lo, lo-fi, lomo, lomography, low, note, photo, photography, polaroid, postaweek2011, ransom, retro, stuffed, TIP, toy, vacation, vintage | posted in My Adventures
Whenever I travel I bring a film camera along and our latest trip to Philadelphia, PA was no exception, but there was one little twist. Usually I bring a 35mm or medium format camera with me but yesterday I brought along my Polaroid Spirit and three packs of The Impossible Project’s instant film. It was a little bit of a risky move for me because it’s tough taking instant shots on the run: My family gets tired of stopping for me and often leave me in the dust so I have to be fast with my composition, focus and button pressing. Also, I’ve not yet mastered TIP’s films and usually get crappy results.
Of course, I also had my iPhone with me and I set a mission for myself. Take some macro shots of anything but flowers. They’re so easy as macro subjects, beautiful too, but I wanted to try to branch out (no pun intended). First thing I needed to do was find out what kind of film was left in my Polaroid–color or black and white. These two shots were the last of that pack.
Lesson # 1: I got much better results on the second shots because I turned the light/dark slider to the middle, where it should be been in the first place for a bright sunny day, instead of all the way to the light side, as is often recommended for TIP films. So from now on, I’m going to set that slider where I think it should be, not where they recommend it be set.
We got a late start leaving and didn’t arrive in Philly until well after 1:30 pm so the first stop was lunch at Reading Market. I had a VERY yummy Italian Pork sandwich with broccoli rabe and provolone cheese from this shop 
Lesson #2: You can actually take a decent Polaroid picture inside a busy market! I was shocked that this one came out as well as it did but I applied the knowledge gleaned from lesson #1 and voila!
Next we visited the Franklin Institute where I tried to take some macro shots but there just wasn’t enough time. We had to move quickly through the museum because we only had an hour and ten minutes before it closed. These are my macro attempts 
This diamond patterned metal never looks as cool close up as it does far away. I’ve tried a couple of times to do macros of it and haven’t found an interesting way to photograph it close up. I did, however, get some other really cool photos 
The entrance to the museum
Pendulum filled with sand that drew a pattern on the table as it traveled
Pola shot of some optical illusion art
Looking down the stairs at the pendulum on the bottom floor
Surgical instruments
Cool, glowing light sconce
Old pocket watch and my eldest daughter in the background
We had a long walk back to Independence Hall and had to plot our course, so we stopped at the giant fountain in Logan Circle where I got one of the best shots of my three kids to date.
First they were goofing around. My son waded up to his knees in the water and then I got….
The Money Shot!
I saw them sitting staggered on the side of the fountain and took two shots, in which my son was giving his best cheese-ball grin, before I got this one. Look for it in this years’ Christmas card.
Lesson #3: The best family portraits are ALWAYS spontaneous!!
Our hike included Chinatown where I got some of these pictures
Loved the red in the lady’s hat and bags that echoed the red ribbons on the Foo Dogs necks
I’ll probably texturize this in Pic Grunger at a later date, but I loved the symmetry
On to the Liberty Bell and Independence Hall where I KNOW I got the coolest shot of the day
I was FLOORED that this came out so well!!!!! It’s far and away the coolest Liberty Bell shot of the day. Here’s the picture I took with my iPhone. It’s a bit of a different angle, but you get the idea
No where NEAR the same detail. Which brings me to
Lesson #4: Just because a film has performed poorly in the past doesn’t mean it will perform poorly in the future.
I did NOT expect to get the crazy, detailed results of the Bell in those poor lighting conditions but, once again, I switched the light/dark switch all the way to dark because it wasn’t very well-lit, and I got a fantastic picture.
Other cool stuff from that area…
Granite wall with the names of George Washington’s slaves
Looking for something for dinner we strolled through what must’ve been the young and hip section of the city. All the beautiful people were sitting in tables on the sidewalk eating fancy food at restaurants with one name. That’s not really our style, especially with the kids in tow, so we found an alley with some excellent Irish-style pubs. Dinner was eaten here
Then, it was back on the subway for the trip back to the car. There are TONS of things to photograph in the subway. Here’s my Philly subway collection.
It was a really fun day and I learned some important lessons. The last of which is…
Lesson #5: Go with the flow. You may start out your day expecting to do one thing (taking macro shots of stuff other than flowers) but that thing might not be in the cards for you that day. Something better may be planned for you instead (getting excellent family photos and Polaroids).
Thank you, City of Brotherly Love, for inspiring my photographic journey. My little family and I will be visiting again very soon.
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2 comments | tags: "DiNics", "Franklin Institute", "Liberty Bell", "Reading Market", "The Impossible Project", analogue, antique, callard, camera, cheap, Chinatown, exposure, family, fi, fidelity, film, history, instant, ipdegirl, iPhone, iPhoneography, jenni, kids, lessons, lo, lo-fi, lomo, lomography, long, low, macro, PA, Philadelphia, philosophy, photo, photography, plastic, polaroid, portrait, postaweek2011, retro, subway, TIP, toy, vintage | posted in My Adventures
Have you ever wondered what camera your favorite musician might use? OK, maybe I’m the only one. Since I love jazz I was thinking the other day about what kind of lo-fi camera some famous jazz musicians might use or which camera best captures the spirit of that person. Here we go…
Duke Ellington: Elegant, classic, sharp as a tack, refined, beautiful harmonies, smooth…..all the things I think of when I use my Kiev 88
Thelonius Monk: Crazy genius, marches to the beat of his own drummer, eccentric, always in motion. Kind of like my Spinner 360
Ethel Ennis: Smooth, elegant, vocalist with velvety voice, dreamy, soft. Born in one of my favorite cities, Baltimore, MD. I think she’s a Diana.
Dizzy Gillespie: energetic, Be-Bop trumpeter with crazy technique and great cheeks. I’ll give him an Action Sampler and see what he does with it.
Miles Davis: Can NOT forget one of the best musicians ever. His trumpet style ranges from frenetic be-bop to smooth, low, dreamy jazz. A true innovator always pushing the boundaries, always re-inventing himself, just like the Holga.
Tito Puente: Latin jazz master who plays some of my favorite percussion instruments (I played the marimba in high school….it rocks). Always on the beat but always trying new, crazy different things while staying within the confines of the tremendous genre known as Latin Jazz. I think a Lubitel is in order.
Joshua Redman: One of my favorite modern jazz artists, I went to see him when he first started touring. His style is unmistakable but not too crazy. Clean but innovative. His sound and his interpretations are unique and noticeable (to me, anyways) from afar. Polaroid SX-70, anyone?
These are just a few of my favorites….add to the list now, why don’t ya?
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6 comments | tags: "Action Sampler", "Dizzy Gillespie", "Duke Ellington", "Ethel Ennis", "Joshua Redman", "Kiev 88", "Miles Davis", "Spinner 360", "Thelonius Monk", "Tito Puente", analogue, antique, callard, camera, cheap, Delaware, Diana, fi, fidelity, film, Holga, instant, ipdegirl, iPhoneography, jazz, jenni, Land, lo, lo-fi, lomo, lomography, low, Lubitel, music, musician, musicians, personality, philosophy, photo, photography, polaroid, postaweek2011, profile, retro, Russian, SX-70, toy, vintage | posted in Lo-fi Philosophies
It’s been one hell of a week, but yesterday really set me over the edge. I’m going to give you the dirty details and it might be TMI so be warned.
Thursday evening, as I was in the middle of my second twelve-hour shift in two days, my husband calls to inform me our middle daughter has lice for the second time in one year. Last summer after horse camp, a funky riding helmet was the source of our first experience and I really wasn’t looking forward to all the laundry, hair-washings and comb outs we were going to have to endure over the next few days.
After my irate husband called me to inform me that our doctor’s office had given us the run around (the front office there is more inefficient than the MVA, I swear to God), I had to go to my sources in the Emergency Room to get a prescription for the ‘nuclear option’ of lice shampoo (big fat thanks to my girl Kerri in the ED!!!!!). After treating both of my daughters with this stuff (that smells like Pine-Sol on acid) we stripped their beds and threw anything soft and cozy into the dryer to kill the bugs & eggs.
Yesterday—I went to get more prescription stuff and it’s OUT of STOCK. May have to wait until Monday to get what we need to get the job done. Meanwhile, I spent four, count ‘em FOUR hours (240 minutes) inspecting two heads of very thick and long hair. My shoulders are sore and my patience is very thin.
I decided the girls needed their hair cut before the next medicinal bomb; no dice. No one will (understandably) touch them because of the lice. Screw that dude, I took matters into my own hands and cut their hair by my own damn self, something I haven’t done since my children were less than a year old. I have to say, my hair styling skills aren’t the best, but they’re not half bad.
Now I KNOW we’ve all had similar unmentionable things happen to us and I’m going to mention them now because it’s about time someone said them out loud (maybe it’ll break the curse, you know?) Here comes the TMI part…. in the past two years we’ve dealt with bed bugs (Thanks, NYC for the gift that kept on giving!), fleas (courtesy of the ‘cat that came with the house’) ants, which never really go away but just kind of hibernate in the winter (Terro Ant traps work really well) and lice. I’m sick and effin’ tired of critters. Really. We never had to deal with this crap in Baltimore. Sure there were the occasional alley cats, punk-ass kids and my favorite, Mr. Glass-Pack Motorcycle who LOVED to rev his louder-than-Fenway-Park-during-the- 2004-Series bike at 2:30 am, but they didn’t require any real investment of personal time to get rid of. No, they just were.
We finally get to the crux of this post. I am tired and stressed out. The house is a fucking mess. There’s crap everywhere, dishes in the sink, laundry on the sofa and to top it off I wasted a phenomenally gorgeous day inside. That really pisses me off. I wanted to run outside. I wanted to go to the beach. I wanted to take some photos. I did NOT want to spend the day inside. So, how does a girl bust this stress? The arts.
If you’ve read my bio you’ll know I’m a musician. It’s been something that’s been an important part of my life since I was itty-bitty. I remember going to sleep to classical music when I was just a wee girl. I started playing the flute when I was nine and have always dealt with stressful things by listening to a great piece of music, really loudly, over and over and over again, or going to the practice studio and pouring myself into the latest piece I’ve been trying to master. I was able to play the piano last night to get the stress out and it felt great. My hands are a little sore this morning (I always seem to play much more than my muscles will allow) but mentally, I am more balanced.
I love to improvise. It takes me to another place, just like finding a beautiful object to photograph or meditating on the ocean can get me out of myself. I really needed that last night and I am thankful to all the other musicians and artists who came before me. Thank you musical cosmos, thank you photographic cosmos. My day is better and my life is better because of you.
I promise a more photo-centric post next week 
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4 comments | tags: analogue, Arts, avoidance, callard, camera, cheap, childhood, Delaware, digital, fi, fidelity, film, Holga, instant, ipdegirl, iPhone, iPhoneography, jenni, kids, lice, lo, lo-fi, lomo, lomography, low, music, photography, piano, plastic, postaweek2011, retro, Russian, toy, vent, vintage | posted in Uncategorized
Who else thinks it’s just wrong that my hunter green Polaroid One Step broke in the middle of Polaroid Week?
I was pretty upset. I do have an SX-70 as well but my 600 series was relegated to the parts pile after the velcro strap broke while I was taking it off the shelf. It crashed to the floor and a plastic bit flew away.
After purchasing 2 more 600 Series cameras (the Polaroid Spirit and another camera that was identical to my green one, except it’s blue) I was all set to try The Impossible Project’s latest version of Silver Shade instant film.
According to TIP’s website, PX 600 Silver Shade UV+ has a special UV coating to bring out the blacks and whites. Anyone who has used previous versions of Silver Shade knows it’s tendency to look more sepia-toned than black and white. I was THRILLED with the results I achieved with this new instant film.
I took my Spirit 600 and a pack of this new UV+ film to my daughter’s soccer tournament in Pennsylvania. The weather there is a bit cooler than at home so unfortunately, my white Chuck Taylors were a poor footwear choice. Wandering out into the soccer fields I saw some nice, gnarly looking trees. With my slider set to the middle of the light/dark setting, these are the shots I got.
Not bad. The blacks are much nicer and the whites fall more in the tan/cream/antique white family than the tan one. The sun was brilliant, the weather crisp (around 55 degrees) and there wasn’t a cloud in the sky. I couldn’t figure out why I was still getting some light spots so I moved the slider all the way over to the dark side and got this
BINGO!!!!
EXACTLY WHAT I’VE BEEN HOPING FOR!!
Beautiful, dark contrasty blacks and grays. White that is sepia-ish, but not brown (like in the previous incarnation of Silver Shade). I also love how there is more definition to the subject in this black and white film. As with other TIP films, it performs randomly in cold weather and by randomly I mean awesomely-randomly! I love what happened to the background in these next two shots.
The cool-looking crackiness adds a little element of electricity to my shots of these power lines. Those random white circles in the middle of each shot? Those are from me holding the film too firmly while I was trying to shield it from the sun. I’m going to try not to do that in the future but it does get the creative thoughts flowing (manipulation, drawing, etc. like the good old Time Zero film of past).
Here are a few more from that pack of film.
The last shot was taken in dimmer light, thus the more brownish tones. No worries. It’s still fantastic.
This latest version of Silver Shade is fan-freakin’-tastic. The improvement in the lighter shades is noticeable. It’s not snow-white and that’s a good thing because I really love the yellowish tones and the authentic vintage look you can create with it.
Seriously, I need to buy, like, 1,000 more packs (So, Santa? If you’re out there? I’ve been pretty darn good this year–downright well-behaved. How about some TIP film in my stocking?)!!
I can’t WAIT to see how TIP improves on this version.
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1 comment | tags: "PX 600 Silver Shade UV+", analogue, antique, black, callard, camera, cheap, Delaware, fi, fidelity, film, Impossible Project, instant, Instant film, ipdegirl, jenni, lo, lo-fi, lomo, lomography, low, photography, plastic, polaroid, Polaroid Processes, retro, review, vintage, white | posted in I love this film!
My husband would SO disapprove.
Let me explain. He is a firefighter. We faithfully change our smoke detector’s batteries twice a year and don’t even have candles in our house because of the fire danger. In fact, we were at a friend’s house one year for a Christmas party and she had LOTS of lit candles around her apartment. He tried to ‘covertly’ blow every last one of them out. Needless to say, she caught him and the story lives as an illustration of how safety-conscious my husband is.
How the heck does this relate to film? Having recently acquired the coveted SX-70 camera and TZ-Artistic film from the Impossible Project folks, I decided it was time to dive into manipulation head-on. Where else does one go for instruction? Why, You Tube and Flickr, of course.
I found this handy video that explained the basics of film manipulation but was still not feeling confident enough to try it myself. Needing more inspiration, I searched Flickr for SX-70 film manipulation groups. The artwork I found was amazing. What one can do with an instant photograph is amazing. There were photos that looked as if they were watercolor paintings and impressionistic masterpieces, photos that looked as if they’d been unearthed from a time capsule from 1970 and some that were whimsical with lines, squiggles and shapes added to otherwise blank areas in the photograph. The possibilities were endless and I was inspired. Some photographers gave detailed explanations of their manipulation processes, which was very helpful. A few described heating the photo to increase the time the emulsion could be manipulated. Sounds fun, right?
My first photo is my absolute favorite. A simple shot of some flowers on a blue table taken from above. I used a Q-tip to push the emulsion around a bit but wasn’t quite satisfied. I took the grill lighter and held it beneath the picture and found that I got these neat bubbles which created interesting snowflake-shaped patterns. I could also squish the bubbles for a more intense look. This got me thinking–what would it look like if I peeled off the white border? I’d seen some photos with the border removed and they were really gorgeous. After deconstructing my photo, this was the finished project
I love the distressed and aged look I got with this one!!
My second attempt was an indoor shot of a palmy plant. I wanted to try to mimic some paintings that I’d seen where a grid is very lightly painted over the entire picture, rendering a really interesting texture to the piece but at the same time, not distracting from the subject. I messed around with this one and heated it up a little and this was the result
Not quite as spectacular as the first one but still kind of interesting.
This shot seemed a bit dark so for the last picture I went outside in the late afternoon light and snapped a shot of a red hummingbird feeder. While it was still developing I traced the outline of the trees with a pencil and traced around some of the details of the feeder. All that was lost when I held the flame beneath it and it bubbled out. No worries, it was still pretty interesting looking.
I much prefer the first picture to the other two and I’ll be mimicking those results pretty closely. What I love most about the whole process is the uncertainty of the results. Since I’m so new to the technique my results are even more uneven, making for some crazy results. Look for more SX-70 manipulation really soon and if you have any helpful hints, please leave them here in the comments section.
Oh, and I didn’t set myself or any parts of my house aflame. Thank goodness!
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2 comments | tags: analogue, antique, callard, camera, cheap, Delaware, fi, fidelity, film, instant, jenni, lo, lo-fi, lomo, lomography, low, manipulation, modifications, photography, polaroid, SX-70 | posted in I love this film!
If you’re a fan of instant photography you owe it to yourself to check out The Impossible Project, a group dedicated to bringing back instant film for your favorite vintage Polaroid cameras. As they put it on their website:
“The Impossible mission is NOT to re-build Polaroid Integral film but (with the help of strategic partners) to develop a new product with new characteristics, consisting of new optimised components, produced with a streamlined modern setup. An innovative and fresh analog material, sold under a new brand name that perfectly will match the global re-positioning of Integral Films.”
I checked out their shop last week and found some SX-70 film for a decent price so I had to get some. After purchasing an SX-70 (the cool, retro white one with the rainbow stripe) camera on eBay for around $15 (I can’t believe how much people will pay for these. I’ve seen them in the $150 range!!!) I was ready to go.
I shot the first roll today, some shots inside and some outdoors on a beautiful, sunny, warm early spring day. I didn’t do any manipulation (gotta do some research on it before I figure out what I’m doing) but I am astounded by the results. This film is really, ultra-cool. The first four shots I took indoors in dim light. The subjects of the pictures are pretty unremarkable but the crazy colors are wild.
The shots from outside have a streaky painting-like quality about them. I tried to keep the pictures as flat as I could while they were developing. Even still, there are some rather nice streaks going on in the blue, blue sky. I’m hooked. I don’t think I’ll ever want to use ‘regular’ instant film again!
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1 comment | tags: "The Impossible Project", analogue, callard, camera, cheap, Delaware, fi, fidelity, film, instant, jenni, lo, lo-fi, lomo, lomography, low, photography, plastic, polaroid, retro, SX-70, vintage | posted in I love this film!
Last week I told you about my experiences in the fog. It was very educational taking my toy cameras out in the foul weather and trying to make decent pictures so this week, when we got a rare snowstorm, I decided to try another foul weather photography session.
This time I brought my Polaroid Land Camera 220 and my Fed 2 out to play. I still used black and white film in both cameras (the Fed 2 still had the roll from the previous foggy weather session) as it’s a very pleasing medium for rough weather and uncertain exposure times. Plus, it’s hard enough getting the blacks and whites right let alone trying to get the colors in balance.
There were large, wet snowflakes coming down at a pretty good clip when I took my toys out to play. My Land Cam has no numerical controls for the aperture, instead there is a switch that lets you change the Lightness and Darkness of the picture to varying degrees. You can set the film speed on the Land Cam but they are odd film speeds that must’ve been common back in the 1960′s. The closest corresponding number was 75 (my Fuji film was 100 iso). I sort of liked the idea of the nebulous “lighter” and “darker” switches but in actual practice, it was a pain. Again I was plagued with balancing the very light snowy areas with the dark colors of evergreen foliage, bare tree branches and the dark wood on the side of my house.
I started my experiment in the usual way taking the first shot with the light/dark switch right in the middle. As you can imagine it was horribly dark, although not nearly as bad looking as my Holgaroid shots.
I fiddled with the switch for a few shots and eventually got some nicely exposed photographs of my snowy backyard.
Still a bit dark, but better. Details of the birdhouse are visible, but no snowflakes.
I tried to shoot the falling snow against the dark background of this dark evergreen but still had no success.
The one thing I wanted to capture but wasn’t able to was the image of the snow falling. I just couldn’t get the large snowflakes to show up in the picture. It was a bit frustrating and I suppose, has to do with the limits of the camera.
Not wanting to waste anymore film I decided to stop trying to capture the falling snow and concentrate on shapes, like this bare tree.
The icy droplets on these wisteria branches were also a decent subject
Last Polaroid shot of the day was the white snow on the dark wood of my back porch door.
I’m hoping to have better results with the Fed 2 film as I used my light meter to get the correct exposure time, then bracketed a few shots. I finally finished that roll on this snowy day so as soon as I pull them from the developer I’ll post my results.
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1 comment | tags: 2, 220, antique, black, camera, contrast, developed, experiment, Fed, fi, film, foul, instant, Land, lo, lo-fi, photograhpy, photography, polaroid, self, snow, toy, vintage, weather, white | posted in My Adventures
Now that the turkey has been eaten and the pumpkin pie put away, it’s time to get back to some camera talk.
Awhile back I posted some mods for my Polaroid Land Camera 220 so that it would accept Fuji instant film without getting stuck. I finally shot the last few pictures in that pack and was able to unload it and take pictures of what I actually did. Unfortunately I’m still running into problems with the Fuji film but more about that in a minute.
When you open up the back of your camera you’ll see this. That little metal bar, visible right below the roller towards the top of the camera, is the root of the Fuji film problem. In my camera that little bar was kind of bent down causing the film to jam up when I tried to pull it out. At first I tried bending the two prongs back. It didn’t work. Then I tried to bend to bar back into shape. That didn’t work either. If the camera was going to function properly the bar was going to need to be completely removed. I removed the two small screws, visible to the right of my thumb, and the screw in the top middle of the black plate which you can see is slightly recessed below the roller. Here are a couple of shots of the bar.
Once that metal bar was removed I throughly cleaned the rollers, which were all gunked up with glue from the film. I used rubbing alcohol and a Q-tip and scrubbed until they gleamed. I thought my problems were over so I loaded up another pack of film and went searching for suitable subjects around town. All was going well until the 5th or 6th picture then things started jamming up again. I wasted the last half of the pack trying to figure out what the hell was going on.
I discovered that my rollers were, again, totally clogged with glue residue. Look closely at the sides of the rollers in the first picture and you’ll get an idea of what happenend. There were even little bits of the paper tabs stuck in the glue. Now I’m baffled. I don’t know how to fix this problem. I clean the rollers after each and every pack of film and it doesn’t make much difference. If anyone has a suitable solution by all means, post it please!! I’m going to go surf the net now to see if I can find some answers. Until then, here are some of the good shots I got with my crazy Land Camera.
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Leave a comment | tags: 1960s, 220, analogue, camera, fidelity, film, instant, Land, lo-fi, low, modifications, mods, photography, polaroid, retro | posted in How do I....
ipdegirl
