Tag Archives: white
Yes, it’s another Fuji Natura Classica post, but this one is a little different. Here are the results from the 3200 iso Ilford film, which a friend of mine told me really acts more like 1600 iso film. This is the first time I’ve used this film (I never really had a reason to use it before) and I’m very pleased with the results. Overall, the high-speed black and white film photos are much nicer than the color photos I took using 1600 iso film.
For one thing, the contrast is phenomenal.
This tree picture looks almost like an HD digital picture! I also love the way the pine needles were captured on the floor of the woods.
The weather was overcast on the day I took these shots, but it wasn’t much of a challenge for this film and camera combo.
I also took some photos at the beach at dusk.
See the lights in the background?
The following pictures were taken at a restaurant. I wanted to see just how low I could go with the lighting.
Finally, I took some pictures of my favorite, rusty road sign.
The Natura Classica plus Ilford 3200 iso film is a winning combination! I usually develop my own black and white film, but I sent this roll out to be developed by someone (or something) that can load the film onto a spool without screwing it up. I still haven’t quite mastered that skill, but because I plan on buying many more rolls of this film, I guess I’ll get more opportunities to practice.
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4 comments | tags: "Fuji Natura Classica", 1600, 3200, analogue, Beach, black, callard, camera, Delaware, fi, fidelity, film, film photos, Ilford, ipdegirl, jenni, lo, lo-fi, lomo, lomography, low, photo, photography, postaweek2012, review, white | posted in I love this film!
One of my closest friends, Mike, practices Aikido, a form of martial arts, and was kind enough to invite me and my family along when his group was training on the beach. I was thrilled to capture the group’s flowing motions, stark uniforms and weaponry against a backdrop of sand and surf. Since Mike also appreciates the lo-fi aesthetic I was ready to capture some beautiful black and white images with my Holga and maybe print a few for him. But, as often happens in the toy camera world, that’s not exactly how things worked out. I made a totally amateur mistake when I forgot to check if the shutter was set to “Bulb” instead of “Normal” (you can see where this is going now, can’t you?).
Big fat whoops on my part. I really wished these pictures had actually been in focus. Somehow, I did get a shot of the group that came out really nicely.
It probably wouldn’t have been much sharper had I had it on the Normal setting. In retrospect, even though the shots didn’t come out the way I planned, I really like them. The motions look ethereal and ancient, which I feel reflects some of the character of the martial arts. Also, the sun was going down at the time and the bulb setting gave me the light I needed for a decent exposure.
Before I take a shot with any toy camera, I often follow the advice given to me by a photographer when I was a kid: Hold your breath, then press the button. That advice certainly saved some of these photos from being completely disastrous.
Then there are these last two shots. After I got home and realized my mistake I fired off these last two shots. The first is of four circles of roofing nails. They’d be much cooler in macro mode, but I seem to have misplaced my diopter, so this is what I got.
And finally, my wonderful children showing their love for each other at the dinner table….
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Leave a comment | tags: aikido, analogue, Beach, black, callard, camera, cheap, Delaware, exposure, fi, fidelity, film, Holga, ipdegirl, jenni, lo, lo-fi, lomo, lomography, long, philosophy, photo, photography, plastic, postaweek2011, toy, white | posted in Lo-fi Philosophies
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!
How many times has this happened to you?
You get a new camera you can’t WAIT to use, quickly run a roll of film through it and just as quickly get it developed. It’s now scanned on the computer and ready for editing and then
it’s sits there and waits
and waits
and waits
for you
to edit
it.
I recently found a monumentally cool roll of film whose fate was just that until the other day. This summer I got a well-loved Imperial Satellite II camera. It’s a 127 format camera similar in size and shape to the Brownie Bullet. The recently unearthed roll featured scenes from my favorite surfing beach this past summer. I am totally in LOVE with the results from this camera but they might be an acquired taste for some. I purposely didn’t clean the lens or insides of the camera so that I could keep that dirty retro-look. The film advance looked as though it may have slipped up with every other turn of the knob because there are a couple unintentional doubles on the roll that turned out really well. The overlapping lines and soft focus really makes me think of old movie stills. I love it and hope you do too.
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Leave a comment | tags: analogue, antique, black, callard, camera, cheap, Delaware, double, exposure, fi, fidelity, film, forgotten, jenni, lo, lo-fi, lomo, lomography, low, photography, plastic, retro, review, Satellite, surfboard, surfing, toy, vintage, white | posted in Camera Reviews
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!!
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1 comment | tags: analogue, art, Artscape, Baltimore, black, camera, cars, fi, film, Holga, lo, plastic, recycled, toy, vans, white | posted in My Adventures
Wow, OK, so it’s been awhile. You know how life gets in the way. The good thing is I’ve been able to take some pretty cool pictures lately.
My little family and I visited some friends and relatives in NYC at the end of March and I loaded up my Holga and Brownie with B&W film and went to town. Coming from my rural home, it was quite the sensory-overload experience and I must say, this small-town girl had a few panic attacks from the claustrophobia I felt with all those people around, not to mention trying to keep track of 3 children who have little big-city know-how. Yikes!
Our visit was on a weekend with mostly foggy weather and the remnants of a recent snowstorm. I was THRILLED that I had conducted my foul weather experiments in January because the lessons learned came in handy.
I love using the Holga for long-exposure shots. It turns out I guess the shutter time right most of the time. Here are some of my favorite outdoor shot taken in Central Park.
My favorite is the reflection of the fence in the puddle with No Carriages, No Dogs, No Bikes painted on the curb. After I took it I couldn’t wait to develop my film and see if it turned out as I expected and it actually did! That’s happening more and more often, which I love. I used Ilford FP4 + iso 125 and developed it in Ilfosol 3. I haven’t developed the Brownie shots yet but I finally got a 127-sized film reel so they should be finished soon.
Up next, some low-light shots I took in a museum.
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4 comments | tags: analogue, bad, black, bulb, Central Park, exposure, family, film, fog, foul, Holga, lo-fi, long, low, New York City, NYC, photography, rain, setting, trip, weather, white | posted in My Adventures
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
In these tough economic times it can be hard to part with your cash, even in support of your photography addiction. If you’re longing for an LC-A but just can’t scrape together the money, try an Olympus XA2, often called the ‘Poor Man’s LC-A”
An evolution of the Olympus XA, the XA2 has more auto controls and is less expensive. The original XA has a more complex lens compared to the XA2′s Zuiko F 3.5. But you’ll never notice the difference. It’s 3-zone focusing system (similar to Holga and Diana) allows you to get within a meter of your subject at close range for crisp shots with all the character of an analogue camera. There is a small degree of vignetting but for the most part this is a tough, reliable camera that will become a staple in your bag of tricks.
It’s clam shell design provides protection for the lens and camera controls. Open it up and the zone-focusing switch defaults to mid-range. A very nice feature. Set your film speed with a flick of the switch below the lens. The XA2 has quite a range, from ISO 25 to 800. I’ve run 100-400 speed fims through my camera with beautiful results. Black and white film also comes out quite nicely. A snazzy little flash is attached to the left side of the camera. The A11 flash unit is pretty weak and only effective at short ranges, but at least it’s an option. In addition to film you’ll need 2 SR44 batteries to get your XA2 rolling.
I’ve been quite pleased with the XA2 and am very content to play around with it for awhile until I can stash enough money away to get an LC-A. Purchased for just $11.00 on e-Bay, it was well worth the money. Thanks to www.diaxa.com for technical information.
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5 comments | tags: 1980s, analogue, black, camera, fidelity, film, LC-A, lo-fi, low, man's, olympus, photography, poor, review, specs, white, xa2 | posted in Camera Reviews
A spankin’-new bottle of Ilfosol 3 developer has finally arrived at my house and I’m pleased to be able to share the results. I got a Diana F+ a few weeks ago and took it for a spin on World Toy Camera Day then again this weekend at the Seawitch Festival in Rehoboth Beach, DE. I really love shooting with the Diana! So light and easy. Nice neckstrap, good lock on the bottom of the camera to keep the back firmly attached (unlike my lovely Holga) plus I got the Wide Angle and Close-Up lens package with my camera.
It was so very convienient and easy to use the Diana. I was able to do lots of ‘covert’ shooting by wearing my camera around my neck and looking the other way while snapping the shot that was right in front of me.
The Diana’s images are soft, fuzzy and dreamy. When I sit Holga and Diana images side by side the Holga shots look positively crisp compared to the Diana F+. It’s a great camera to use when you want your images to have that fantastical quality.
I haven’t developed any rolls yet using the close-up lens. Those images are still away at the lab. I plan on taking a few rolls using the close-up lens as one of the main reasons I purchased the Diana F+ was it’s ability to convert to a pinhole cam plus the lenses available to use. A word about switching lenses. My original lens was extremely hard to get off. It wasn’t just as easy as twisting it like the directions suggested. I have a feeling the tabs that hold the lenses on may break off prematurely but it’s still a really nice feature to have in a toy camera.
Can’t wait to play with the Diana F+ more!
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Leave a comment | tags: 120, 2008, analogue, Beach, black, camera, clone, DE, developer, Diana, F+, festival, fidelity, film, format, Ilfosol, lo-fi, low, medium, Rehoboth, review, Sea, toy, white, Witch | posted in Camera Reviews, Uncategorized
So, here’s my blog. I’m Jenni, a semi-professional but mostly-amateur photographer who loves analogue or lo-fidelity photography. My favorite camera-of-the-moment is my Vivitar Ultra Wide and Slim and I develop my own black and white film. If you too enjoy creating art from film and crazy cameras then check back, leave me comments and pictures and share your ideas so we can spread the love that is only created in a lo-fi way.
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6 comments | tags: black, camera, film, jenni, lo-fi, lomography, photography, toy, Vivitar UWS, white | posted in Uncategorized
ipdegirl
