[Photography] 'Roid Week Autumn 2010 Last Five.

Second batch of 5 shots from the Fall [Autumn] Roid Week 2010:

[Branches] - Polaroid 635cl + Polaroid 600 Edge Cut

[Alter] - Polaroid SX-70 [Red] + Polaroid ATZ.

[Horn] - Polaroid SX-70 [RED] + TheImpossibleProject PX70 ColorShade FF.

[Flowing] - Polaroid SX-70 [RED] + TheImpossibleProject PX70 ColorShade FF.

[Autumn Diptych] - Polaroid 635cl + Polaroid 600 Edge Cut.

That it for 'Roid Week 2010. Was fun, looking forward to next year, which should be 100% on TIP film as Polaroid film is almost gone for good.

[Imported from old photoblog] 

[Photography] 'Roid Week Autumn 2010 First Five.

Halfway through the Fall [Autumn] Roid Week 2010. Here are my first 5 shots:

[Ferns] - Polaroid 635cl + Polaroid 600 Edge Cut.

[Field of Colour] - Polaroid Land 100 + Fujfilm FP100c.

[Secret] - Polaroid SX-70 Alpha + Polaroid ATZ.

[Private] - Polaroid 635cl + Polaroid 600 Edge Cut.

[Tranquillity] - Polaroid SX-70 Alpha + TheImpossibleProject PX70 ColorShade FF.

5 more will follow between now and Friday. I'll blog 'em then.

[Imported from old photoblog]

[Photography] Lo-Mob fakeryness.

Been playing about with the "Lo-Mob" application on my iPod. iPod you say? Yes, I dont have an iPhone, but I do have an iPod Touch. And a BlackBerry. So I take the shot on my BB, email it to myself and pick it up on iPod, edit it and upload it to Flickr. Not the easiest workflow, I admit, but it works.

As you can see, Lo-Mob is kind of like Hipstamatic. It gives you the chance to "retro" up your mobilephone photos. Unlike Hipsta, you can edit shots stored on the iPod rather than only as you take the shot. Hand for those like me that have a iPod with no camera on it.

When yo go to process the photo, you get the option of:
"Classic Vintage" - seems to be Holga and Diana style
"35mm Film Experimentation" - 4 types of 135 in a medium format camera, plus 2 slide styles
"Through The Viewfinder" - 8 different TTVF options, from mono to colour, square and wide
"Emulsions" - 6 different retro print styles
"Instant Matic Photography" - 2 Polaroid 80 clones, 5 Polaroid 600/SX-70 styles, 2 Fuji Instax styles, and 4 Polaroid/Fuji 100 effects
"Contact Mask Photocards" - 3 photocard styles, the most basic and simple of the effects.

Some of these are more impressive than the others. Some dont work well at all (Instax clones) and some will get boring after a while (the same backpeel on EVERY Polaroid 100 fake...); but overall it kind of fun.

So was it worth the £1.19 and the hassle of moving files from the BB to the iPod? Yup. The camera on the BB is OK, but the lack of any image editing software or app annoys me. This gives me the chance to play with images without having to download them to the PC and bother with Photoshop

 

I know some out there will moan about these fake Polaroid, Holgas etc. but does it really hurt anyone? If I upload these to Flickr, they will be marked as fakes, with the name of the software used to create them. Im not going to try and dupe anyone. And anyway, Ive got the real deals here... SX-70s, Holga, Lubitel... so it's not like I dont do film at all. It's just a bit of fun!

[Imported from old photoblog]

[Photography] Scottish Landscapes.

Hills in the Galloway Forest.

The Banks Of Loch Doon.


Ayrshire Sunrise.

Three new landscapes from Scotland. Im only just getting round to processing these shots and some of them are coming out so much better than I thought.
The Sigma 10-20 served me well up there, creating some vast sky-scapes that worked well with the sparse, harsh land.

[Photography] Images Of Broken Light Which Dance Before Me Like A Million Eyes.

These are the results of my first play with double exposures on the Holga. Not had the urge to try it before, but one of my contacts on Flickr had some excellent work in her photostream with shots of sky and trees double exposed, so when I loaded up some Fujifilm Reala 100 in Cornwall I thought it would be a good time to give it a try.
I love the effect it gives. Will definitely give this another go at some point when the trees are bear of leaves and look more spooky.

[Photography] Becoming Less Defined As Days Go By.

A collection of SX70 ColorShade FirstFlush photographs from my Poalroid SX-70 Alpha in Thorndon woods, Brentwood, Essex. All from August 2010.

[Photography] Sweet Summer Days When I Was Feeling So Fine...

A collection of shots using a Sigma 10-20mm ultra-wide lens designed for digital cameras on a Canon 500n film SLR. The result is a huge vignette and a lot of distortion.

These shots were all from the start of summer, when there was actually some sunshine. Thorndon Country Park in Brentwood if fast becoming my "muse" for photography. More and more of my stuff is being taken there. I shot off a load of Polaroid and digital stuff during the weekend and I assume I will shoot up there again soon. There is such a variety of landscapes and tings up there - fern covered forest, pine woodland, lakes, grassy hills, rural paths, open fields - that you will always find something to shoot. Some of the views looking out of South Essex are good too, might have to capture a sunset up there as one hill slopes off due west.

I think I have had my fill of using this lens on the Canon 500n now. The effect is nice and it is a real revelation to look through the lens as such a wide vista; but things go get a tiny bit samey if you are not careful.

This is the second batch. The first lot were on Fujifilm Neopan Acros 100 monochrome film. This lot were on cheap Kodak film I picked up in PoundLand for £1 per roll. 24 exp ISO 200, a good general use film I'm going to use to test cameras out. A bit of a bargain IMHO.

[Photography] WaterColourShade.

TheImpossibleProject PX-70 ISO125 ColorShade FirstFlush film for Polaroid SX-70 Cameras.

Yeah, that would have been far too long for a title, don't you think? So this is my impression of the brand new PX-70 film from TIP. These are the only 3 shots I've taken so far, testing the waters before I brave using in the wild at the weekend (weather dependant).

So here it is, new formula COLOUR film for Polaroid cameras. I cant say I've been waiting for years for this as Im a relative new comer to the world of instant photography - my first ever shots were on PX600 (SilverShade) back in May this year on my wife's old 600 CoolCam. Since then I've acquired a nice SX-70 and a 635cl.. I've shot Time Zero (half a pack as left in the SX-70 when I got it), Artistic TZ, Poalroid 600, Edgecut ATZ, Edgecut 600, PX600 SilverShade FirstFlush and PX100 SilverShade. Each film has been a revelation, different things to remember, different styles that suit them. For me, ATZ has been the most fun as the colours really looked good on the woodland stuff I liked shooting.

Now I have a new film. The ColorShade (hard to type without sticking a 'u' in there) has a really nice blue hue to it, really muted colours and tones too. The exposures I've taken so far benefited from having the lighten/darken dial moved 1/2 way to dark. The paint and the paper were shot like this, and brushes were shot with the dial at its rest position. I prefer the contrast and tones from the slightly darker image. it has been said by people on various photo sites that the film should be rated a lot faster than the ISO (ASA) 125 TIP say it is, more along the lines of ISO 300 maybe. That explains why a touch of underexposure helps out. And therefore popping this stuff in a 600 with some over exposure should work too. I'll try that I think at some point.

So, first impressions are that Im impressed with the tones and "colours" from the film. I would like to see more true colours in later versions of the film; but like SilverShade I do hope we will be able to get this experimental stuff in the future because, as an artistic medium, its good. Fingers crossed for no dramatic fading or "killer crystals" on this stuff - I've lost both packs of PX600 and most of my PX100 to them so far!

[Imported from old photoblog]

[Photography] Now I Just Stare Into The Sun And See Everything I've Done.

Another sunset shot from the Canon 400d. We went to a 1st Wedding Anniversary party for some friends of our who have a farm. Of course I packed a camera or two. This was the choice image of the day, the sun set perfectly behind this tree and the orange glow licked out between the branches at just the right spot. The golden field helped with the colouring and I couldn't have asked for a better sky.

The shot need a few bits done in Photoshop. The sensor on my Canon is getting really dirty and you could see a few blobs of dust on the final image. I also had a small tweak of the levels and a crop as my framing was out.

[Photography] And Now I'm Fine, My Mind Is Clear And Nothing Bad Can Touch Me Here.

I've been loving the Fujifilm Pro120 ISO400 colour film in my Holga recently. I don't know if this summer has had some different level quality, but the tones and colours I'm getting from this film make the Fujifilm Superia 400 look positively muted.

The 2 shots here were taken on Summerleeze beach in Bude Cornwall. Both were taken quickly to try and get no-one in them and no footsteps. I didn't notice the "safe swim area" flags until afterwards. never mind though, as the colours came out as I wanted - nice rich brown/yellow sand and some saturated but Holga-blown sky.

Both these shots made "Explore" on Flickr. I like that.

[Imported from old photoblog]

[Photography] I Have Burned My Tomorrow And I Stand Inside Today.

The Breakwater in Bude, Cornwall.

I've longed for years to get this shot, the Breakwater at sunset. I've seen the Breakwater all my life, different times to day, different times of year. I've seen water rushing over it on a high, stormy tide, I've seen it it sitting in the middle of the sand at low tide. I've walked to the end of it and up the steps.

I've shot it before, just after sunset in May 2009. The sky was pink, blue and purple.

But this was the first time I've seen the sunset behind it over the Atlantic. My Dad and I had originally planned to drive to Widemouth and get some sunset shots from the top of the cliffs there, but as we drove through the town we saw the orange glow along the canal and decided to stop there instead. So glad we did, Im really happy with this image. I shot the sunset of loads of cameras and set-ups. Digital wide-angle, digital ultra-wide, film slr, cross processed film... even on Polaroid Blue as featured in my previous update. This was the one I was happy with the most though.

The sunset was nice and slow and gave the clouds time to drift slowly in and out of the scene. The seagull sitting on the pole stayed there until the last light had gone and we had stopped taking photos and then flew off.

[Imported from old photoblog]

[Photography] Coaxing The Shadows Back To Let The Sun’s Light Shine On Through.

So this is Polaroid Blue film. Its packfilm (or peelapart, depending on which school of thought you are) meaning that its not like the integral stuff people are used to with the Polaroid name. You have to take the shot, pull the film out, leave it for some time and them peel the positive from the negative, and it is awesome fun to use.

Even more fun when it is like the Blue film. You see, the blue film is meant to be monochromatic film, but you will notice that within the blue colour cast you can see hints of greens, browns and reds.



Take the sunset shot above. That was taken looking towards the breakwater in Bude, Cornwall. As soon as I saw what the film did, I knew I wanted to capture a sunset with it. It came out exactly as I wanted it to.

I've also noticed that the hints of other colours come through more if you leave the film longer between taking it out and peeling it. Of course, that means richer blues if you peel it quickly. Sometimes you cant help but peel it right away; other times there is no way you can peel it (out on Bodmin Moor for example) so you have to leave it until you get home. its part of the charm of the film.



[Imported from old photoblog]