Black & White Wednesday: The Finale

The black and white photo lab I've been doing wrapped up last week. I didn't shoot as many rolls of film as I would have liked to, but that about seems par for the course. I've never been much of a film shooter before, let alone developing my own film and making prints, so this was all new to me. My cameras of choice were the Diana (modeled after the 1960s classic medium-format plastic cameras), and some old cameras picked up at thrift stores and flea markets. They're pretty much basic point-and-shoots with minimal (if any) exposure and aperture settings, and result in soft lo-fi images with light leaks and edge vignetting.

Troy, who headed up the lab, worked with a guy who’s parents own a local wine shop. They offered up the wall in their shop to host our very own exhibit. So, we've spent these last few weeks making prints that we could hang at the show. I didn’t really have a lot of images to choose from, and ended up choosing some images from a roll that I shot out in the yard.

I didn't realize I had the number of exposures set for “16” rather than “12”, and I ended up with this funky overlapping on all of my images.

Troy convinced me that this was a feature, not a defect, and making it work to my advantage, I printed two images as diptychs showing the overlap.

My other print was just a normal cropped image.

Saturday night was our “Opening Reception” (photo courtesy of Troy Freund). The shop normally has a wine-tasting on the second Saturday of each month, so we already had a gathering for the show. Each of us were asked to give a little talk about out images, which I wasn't exactly thrilled about doing, but Denis said I did alright. We have an interesting assortment of subjects including a Civil War reenactment, nature shots, rainy night-time shots, barns, and Dia de los Muertos.

I think we’re all pleased with the the work that we have on display, and they’ll be there for at least the next month. Pretty good for a finale.

Something Really Scary

For whatever reason, I did not go gang-busters with Halloween this year. (That is really scary!) I did, however, sign up for Val's Halloween swap, and this year's theme was Zombie Dolls. I got paired up with Little Messy Missy, whom I have done some very nice charm swaps with before.

Mmmm, a creepy Raggedy Anne? Maybe she should be called "Mauly". Definitely not the type of doll you snuggle up to for bedtime stories.

She also sent lots of sweet extras to accompany Mauly, although it appears she fed well before the trip.

I attempted to put together a nice creepy doll for Melissa, but after several failed attempts I ended up going with a pattern from the Zombie Felties book.

I tried to include some supplies for the potential of a Zombie Apopcalypse. It never hurts to be prepared, as even the CDC has put together a Zombie Survival Guide.

The truly scary thing, is that now that Halloween is over, Christmas is right around the corner, and I'm so not ready for that.

Sister's Weekend

A couple of weeks ago, Carol, Karen and I had a long overdue Sister's weekend in NYC. And it was great...

Friday night after Karen and I got in, we hung out at Carol's catching up, ordering pizza, watching the boob tube. On Saturday morning we hit the diner for sustenance, and then headed into the city. Of course, we had to make a stop at Tinsel Trading, especially since I knew they would have their Halloween stuff out.

Afterwards we made our way to Times Square for the matinee of Follies. The story was not as light-hearted as we thought it would be, but it was still an enjoyable show. Our evening was also enjoyable as we met up with John for drinks and a fabulous steak dinner. My one wish for the weekend was to eat "good" food, and I certainly got that.

Sunday we did a small bit of shopping, as my sisters were gracious enough to indulge me in going to The Evolution Store and Obscura (from the SyFy channel Oddities show), to look for some unusual items for my upcoming Michael deMeng workshops.

I did bring my camera along, although you wouldn't know it based on the few photos I actually took. These were taken as we walked along the High Line on our way to brunch on Sunday.

We usually take a picture of the three of us, but when we remember it's usually when we're sitting down to eat. This time we remembered to take a non-eating picture along the High Line.

It's too bad that we live so far apart, as it's always a fun time getting together with them. Guess we just gotta plan that next Sister's weekend.

B&W Wednesday: Proof is in the Print

I never realized how involved the whole process of making film prints is. Each week I've focused on trying to get one image printed decently. Last week I worked on an image that I took with an old Ansco Panda that I picked up at the flea market.

It's really nothing more than a plastic child's box camera from the 1950s. It has a TLR-style lens, and images are composed at waist level by looking down into the viewer. Of course, everything you view is in the reverse which makes composing quite interesting. In it I used some 620 film from the 1940s that I purchased on eBay.

So, my night's printing process ended up something like this:

10 seconds, straight print

Too flat looking, not enough contrast.

14 seconds with a #3 contrast filter added

A bit better, but still too flat.

20 seconds with a #4 contrast filter

Now we're getting somewhere, but almost too contrasty. Also, due to the age of the film, there are a lot of specs on the negative which really showed up in this print. The light leak along the bottom of the image is more evident as well.

21 seconds with #4 contrast filter. Additional 6-second burn to sky.

I wanted to fill in some of the sky by giving it a bit of extra time while trying to keep the building from getting too dark. Now the branches on the left no longer have the definition that was there from the previous print.

20 seconds with #4 contrast filter, and 3-second burn to sky.

My final print of the night, and I'm mostly happy with it. The branches still lack definition, but I think the blocks on the water tower show good contrast and definition.

And the crazy thing is that you pretty much have to go through this process with every single image you want to print. I suppose if you have a series of images that are taken similarly, you could use the image you were happy with as a starting point for the next images to be printed. Kinda tedious, but still interesting. This is why I'm lucky if I can get one decent print for the night.

B&W Wednesday

For the past couple of weeks, I've been taking a B&W film printing lab. I've actually had to get out with the camera, and shoot some film. A few weeks back I thought the cemetery would be a good place to go. I shot these with a Canon AF35m 35mm point-and-shoot that I had gotten from my mother.

It looks like the film might not have seated properly, because some light leaks seem to appear along the sprocket edges. Or, I screwed up when I loaded the film into the developing reel. I've never developed my own film before, let alone try and make prints. So this is all a new and interesting experience for me. The fun (and aggravating) thing about film is that you don't know what you've got until the film is developed. I'm more okay with the images not being perfect than when I'm shooting film. Since I'm using low-tech cameras, I'm trying to embrace the imperfections.

Last week our instructor told us about an opportunity to have a small showing at a local wine shop. He told the owners of the shop that he would ask us if each of us would be interested in putting up 2-3 images. Everyone loved the idea, and now I have the dilemma of coming with some things that I think are not only print-worthy, but something I won't be embarrassed to hang in public. The guys in the class have been shooting for a lot longer than I have, and they're quite geeky about their cameras too. They'll usually come in to show-and-tell their latest acquisitions. It's pretty funny, and pretty interesting too, even if most of it goes over my head. I guess film's not quite as dead as most people thought.

Best-Laid Plans

So, I've given up on the August Break daily photo.

I've really hated trying to come up with a decent picture every day, and most times I would procrastinate until later in the day, and then end up with a picture I wasn't totally thrilled with.

I've also been struggling with using the Instax, and getting the exposure setting right. Last Sunday we went downtown to see Jersey Boys and then walked a few blocks for a late lunch/early dinner at Water Buffalo. I snapped these two pics along the way, which one was over-exposed and the other under-exposed (same thing happened at the cemetery on Friday). At a buck a picture, it's getting to be a costly experiment.

But, I think I'm come up with a solution. Rather than trying to take a picture a day, I'm going to push myself to come up with a location or event to shot every week. If I use the Instax, hopefully I can figure the proper exposure setting for that location in one or two shots, and then shoot the rest of the pack at that time. I'm also taking a B&W film processing lab, so I've been using an old 35mm that was my mother's to shoot B&W film. This process should hopefully give me a roll to experiment with and develop each week, unless something else goes awry.

Reaching

Even after gathering all that great inspiration for pictures, I'm coming up short in my images. I knew that little "I Voted" sticker wouldn't turn out, but I waited way too late to take anything else, and was at the point where I really didn't care too much anyway. Six Wisconsin state senators were up for recall elections yesterday, and the only thing I will comment is that I'm glad they're over and the commercials are off the television. I can only imagine how scathing the 2012 Presidential election advertisements will be—because it's always the other guys fault.

I took along three cameras with me today for any picture-taking opportunities. They all ended up staying in my bag, and so I quickly snapped some dappled sunlight on our freshly mowed lawn for today's last minute pic.

Mosaic Monday: Instax Inspiration

I haven't been "in love" with the Instax photos that I've shot so far this month. It's a bit of a challenge for me because I can't zoom in close, and details don't show up all that well. I thought more pattern and texture would help, but it's not working so well. And I need to get better at determining shooting distance, up close isn't that close after all.

So I turned to Flickr for some Instax Inspiration:

1. mainliner, 2. 03-03-11-2010, 3. black hole sun, 4. polaroid donkey, 5. Imperial Beach Instax, 6. Scootahhh, 7. Untitled, 8. Untitled, 9. Fujifilm Instax, 10. under the stairs, 11. img125, 12. graffitti , 13. Amusement, 14. Green Door, 15. spring green, 16. Cafe Gratitude

I'm gonna keep the camera in the car, and keep my eyes peeled for more interesting photo ops than I seem to have around the house.

Blue Skies

Whereas yesterday I was looking down, today I decided to look up...

Actually, I thought the cloud pattern was interesting this morning, so I grabbed the camera and stepped out quickly in my PJs to capture it. Only took 2 tries ;-) Starting the day off positively.

Path to Nowhere

Did not do well with picture taking today. I burnt through 8 exposures before finally getting one that I was okay with.

The bad thing about the Instax is that it insists on flashing. So my indoor photos were getting blown out from the flash. I tried to soften the flash with some wax paper, but then the exposures were too dark. I went outside and shot in full sun...over exposed. Trying a shot in the shade, yeah, that seems to work. Grrr! I guess I get so aggravated because each shot costs money. Not like digital, which I think of as free. (At least I got the camera for cheap—$6 at Goodwill.) I know I need to embrace my mistakes, accept them, learn from them, and move on. And I guess that's what this daily process is for, taking me forward along the path.

"So easy even I could do it...."

Didn't I just say that in my last post? Taking a picture a day for the month of August should be something even I could handle. Yet, this is pretty much the same thing that happened when I gave up on my Project 365 last year. I knew I needed to get a picture taken yesterday, but nothing was inspiring me. I waited until about 8:30 last night when I forced my butt up off the couch to take a picture of something. However, doing the whole analogue thing really requires more forethought, as evidenced by what I did shoot. Bleh!

So I cheated, and did a "do-over" this morning.

Denis had mentioned something about getting a croquet set, but I think it surprised him when I brought one home from the flea market a few weeks ago.

And I went ahead and got today's shot done and out of the way...

some Coneflowers and Queen Anne's Lace.

I'm kinda liking these mini Instax pics, that I think I'll do it for the entire month. I stocked up on film before going to Europe figuring I would take the camera along with me. As I was packing all my stuff, I asked myself if I really thought I would take it along in my daybag with my large dSLR. No, I didn't think I would, so it ended up staying home. Now I have lots of film to play with. Good thing since I wasted six exposures on my "experiment" last night. But then that's all part of the learning curve.

Taking a Break

Yep, it's been nearly a two-month break since my last blog post. (In a funk, I suppose.)

But this is the break that I mean...

Susannah Conway hosts the August Break where you simply share one photo (or more) per day on your blog. Sounds easy enough that even I could handle it. Plus it will get me to post more frequently, even if I feel like it's a non-blogworthy day, and take more pictures. Although, I think I'm going to focus mostly on using film this month. I just shot my film for It's a Photo Swap!, so I'm in an analogue frame of mind. Plus I could use the practice in using these cameras to make every exposure count.

We were gone all of last week, and the dogs had to be boarded. Sure did miss those girls, and I think they're pretty happy to be home too (they haven't let me out of their sight for a minute), so I figured they would be good subjects for today.

Camera: Fuji Instax Mini 7
Film: Fujifilm Instax Mini Instant Film