the darkerside to rants

Before there was digital, there was another way of getting instant gratification in photography: Polaroid.

The company has gone now to the dogs a few years ago, but there are a handful of people who are trying to resurrect at least part of the company, the Impossible Project. They have apparently at least partially succeeded and have announced a press conference on March 22nd 2010. Good for them.

For me the “return” (I put this in quotes as I am not really returning to instant photography, never really did it a lot, though my parents had a Polaroid 660) started last week when I was given an old Polaroid Land 103 camera.

I initially ran into some problems, no not getting film wasn’t the Problem, Fuji still makes it, rather that it needed a new battery and that wasn’t that easy to get, as in, only online.

But no fear and borrowing a soldering iron from a Friend, I managed to “adapt” a more modern battery to it and started snapping.

Walking around with a camera like the Land is… interesting. I am used to people staring, sure, not when I shoot with my Canon EOS 1v, it looks like any modern Canon dSLR, but be it with my Yashica D or my Zeiss Ikon 532/16 (yeah, you can tell that Zeiss had mostly engineers), though occasionally even my Contax G1 gets me roped into discussions, not to mention my Kiev-4. But I am digressing. But the really cool thing for me about the Land was how quickly you see the result and how good it looks.

Focus, frame, shoot, pull first tab, pull second tab, wait 90 seconds. Separate the print from the backing and wait a few moments for it to dry –> Done.

And it looks good too. Most people associate this kind of washout look with Polaroids:

But this was actually done on the iPhone with Camerabag, so not real at all.

The other advantage is: You get a real version of the print, not a small tiny image on a tinier screen that may or may not look later like you think it does. No, what you see is truly what you get.

Is it cheap? Not really, each frame cost me around $2 if I buy the film local, but if more people would shoot instant the cost would obviously go down. How did we ever let it (almost) die?

Over the decades “Street Photography” has become a new “category” in photography. It is, essentially, a way to catch a candid moment. Well, that’s how I see it anyway, others perceive street photography as anything that happens outside, faces, moments etc.

I have been a bit “shy” shooting people in the past, mainly because I found it intrusive, though I have gotten a bit better lately.

The challenge, for me, lies doing this without being noticed, there is a “voyeuristic” aspect to it. The photo above is an attempt in this, I am not too happy with it out of a few reasons:

1. It’s not in Focus.
2. It’s too grainy for what I shot.

The first one stems from me trying to use a rangefinder, set to two metre distance and an aperture of f/8 in order to get the shot. I clearly should have set the focus a bit further out and thus have her fully in focus.

There is also some bluriness due to me walking as well and a rather low shutter speed of 1/125th. This I should change as well, rather a wider open aperture and shorter focussing distance.

The second “issue” stems from the development. It came from a test roll I shot on a new film and developed in a way, as I later found out, that wasn’t quite suitable, because of the development in the jobo drum system it turned overly contrasty.

Ah well, live and learn

Yesterday I got my last two rolls of Kodachrome back. It will be posted on my flickr over time.

Sad…. I wish I could have gotten more.

I have been trying several different developers over the last few months. One rather popular one is the D-76 made by Kodak (and the pretty much identical ID-11 made by Ilford).

Both of these developers are highly regarded by some, but I find my results… lacking.

Now don’t get me wrong, they have their charm, they create a “look and feel” of the 1930s, slightly desaturated tones and an overall “light” feel to the image. I have tried it on several different films with pretty consistent results which makes me think that it really is the developer.

If I would have to pick a favourite developer / film combination right now it would be Adox Art 100 pulled by one stop in HC 110 solution H…

Funny, eh? How we find “loves and hates” so easily.

There was a “neat” little story about the VPD intimidating a photographer for the Province to give up his camera. Didn’t take long for Jim Chu to try and… well, “explain” the situation.

My thoughts on this are …. well, rather direct:

I have to say I am a bit disappointed that the photographer caved. If the cop would have gone through with his threat and arrested him it wouldn’t have stuck and it would have made a much more powerful point about the abuse of policing powers.

But hey, let’s face it, if Jim Chu really would want to change the perception of the force I’d have a few ideas:

1. Take the cops out of their cars, when was the last time anyone here had a casual interaction with a cop? Most of the time they only approach you when you have done something wrong or you need them. Hardly ever do you see a normal relationship between the force and the people they are serving.

2. Get rid of these paramilitary type uniforms. The average “beat cop” looks like he’s part of a riot squat, only missing the helmet and club.

3. Stop trying to whitewash police transgression, get rid of the “cops investigating cops” theme that is going on. The VPD reports to the city. Cityhall should set up their own investigation group, even if they their findings won’t be binding (not sure about the law on this one).

4. Lastly: Educate yourself about your rights. The charter trumps whatever a cop may think they can do, and then STAND your ground and don’t just cave in and then whine.

It’s rather simple, I am actually partly waiting for the VPD to do a something like this on me. I am severely pissed at how the police in this Province has been behaving and Jim Chu and his fellow “top cops” don’t do anything to make me feel better. Either the people stand their ground now, or all is going to be lost.

Okay, the film is actually not 50 years old, but the formula that was used to make the film is.

I found myself happily surprised by the result. I noticed after the first roll that the Tessar lens does sometimes something amazing to the film (and sometimes not so great, the Fuji Neopan 400 I thought looked rather crappy with the lens). But the Adox one really makes the Zeiss sing. It looks right. Here’s another portrait shot of Jim that shows this nicely as well.