Instant Successes: Park Portrait

     I have spent a lot of time discussing and blogging about Impossible Project film in the past.  This quick post will further illustrate why I love the stuff!  Using a pack of grey border PX 600 Silver Shade film I bought ages ago, I took a few portraits in the park after a relaxing bike ride and reading session in the sun.

     The results were as usual: a bit unpredictable with the shading and exposure, a few quirks with the film and/or camera, and amazing!  The colors in Silver Shade film, in my opinion, are very warm and flattering for the photographer and the subject.  The border options make this film very appealing too.  Check the Impossible website for all the great options!

Enjoying the Sun
Taken with Polaroid Amigo 620 on Impossible Project PX 600 Silver Shade, grey border edition

Instant Successes: Found Lamp

     Yikes!  Sorry it's been so long since I posted anything.  I'm sure you're all becoming desperate...

     One great thing about living in a large city is that you can always find strange things that others leave behind. I stumbled into my apartment entrance one day to find two old, somewhat ugly lamps, which I took.  I fixed them a little bit where the cord had come loose and gave one to my girlfriend.  Now I have a fairly awesome lamp in the corner of my room, as does she.  It was free!

Found Lamp
Taken with SX-70 on Impossible PX100 Silver Shade

Instant Successes: Volunteer Park Water Tower

     Few things work their way into my photos as frequently as utilitarian, man-made structures.  Have I mentioned I love them?  Yes, I have.  Got some bricks?  I'm taking some pics.  That's my motto.  I just made that up right now, but I already promise never to say it or write it again.  Another thing I like is Polaroid's theobromine-infused pack film, Chocolate 100.  This is essentially tinted black & white film, and makes for some very interesting photos.  As the name implies, the pictures come out in shades of brown, making shadows shadowier and skies a creamy cacao color.  This film makes scenes look like depression era snapshots, and I absolutely love it.  Polaroid made two other colors in the same "line" of pack film: Sepia, and Blue.  The Blue film uses the textured silk paper, which I wrote about briefly here, and I have had great success with it.  The Sepia, on the other hand, has been hard to work with for me.  I may have just had a hard time getting used to the light settings and the development time, but everything came out too light.  My personal preference, though, has been Chocolate.

     Can you even tell what year this was taken?  The Volunteer Park Water Tower looks as stunning as ever, but that silvery-blue conifer really steals the spotlight.  I love trees, I love brick, and I love Chocolate 100.  Winning combo, every time.

Volunteer Park Water Tower
Taken with Polaroid 350 Land Camera on Polaroid Chocolate 100

     Sorry for the pink border.  Cheap scanner.

     FYI, Chocolate is out of stock on Impossible Project, but Sepia is available for now.  Give it a try!  You can also follow these links to some pretty great examples of what the film can do in the hands of some real professionals (or hobbyists that are more talented than I am).

Instant Successes: Whidbey Island Ferry Crossing

     I grew up on the South end of Whidbey Island, so I have crossed the Mukilteo-Clinton ferry hundreds of times.  Occasionally, since my family still lives on "the rock," I have to cross over to the island to hand something off and then walk right back on the same ferry to go back home to "the mainland."  On one summer day a couple years ago I had to do just that.  I decided to take advantage of the situation by bringing my Polaroid 350 Land Camera, loaded with fresh batteries and a pack of Fujifilm FP-100C.  I was lucky enough to have to do this at twilight, too, and began my trip at the very beginning of the sunset.  It looked like this:

Mukilteo-Clinton Crossing
Taken with Polaroid 350 Land Camera on Fujifilm FP-100C

     The sunset simply became more and more stunning, as sunsets are wont to do.  I was, somewhat surprisingly, able to continue taking great photos despite our sun rapidly fleeing over the Olympic Mountain Range.  Here's one of the last good photos I was able to get before the gloaming came to a triumphant end.

Clinton-Mukilteo Crossing
Taken with  Polaroid 350 Land Camera  on Fujifilm FP-100C

Instant Successes: Volunteer Park Conservatory

     The Volunteer Park Conservatory has long been one of my favorite places to take photos.  Built in the early 1900s, it is in need of some money and renovations, but it is still a beautiful place, and their money and time clearly goes toward upkeep of their extensive flora collection.  The room I most find myself drawn to, which is usually the most crowded, is the cactus & succulent room.  These spiny little guys look pretty out of place in our soppy city, but they sure are well taken care of!  This photo was actually taken in a different room: the Fern House.  This is one of the more humid rooms in the conservatory, so I took a nice, foggy picture with my SX-70.  I always get some interesting looks when I bring one of these blasts from the past out around all the DSLR toting married couples in this place, but I guess telling people that the Impossible Project is selling new film is half the fun of using Polaroid cameras anyway, right?

     I should have written down the name of this plant, but was too caught up in how awesome the "skin" looked on it.  Like dinosaur skin.  I'll try to remember to walk back over there to write it down.

The Fern House
Taken with SX-70 on Impossible PX 70

     The little ripple effects were an unexpected thing.  I'm guessing that was from the steam on the lens.  Or ghosts.

Update: This plant is Amorphophallus Titanum.  None other than our friend the "Corpse Flower."  Even though it's one of the most treasured possessions of the conservatory, and I have marveled at it in the past, I guess I didn't recognize it without its reeking spadix.

Instant Successes: Stamen

     As somewhat of a continuation of a previous post, here is another experiment with macro lenses and instant film.  This one employed a considerably more DIY technique, however, in that I was holding a macro lens in front of my Fuji Instax Mini camera while simultaneously holding a card in front of the flash.  These cameras are a lot of fun, but the flash is way too intense - especially for close-ups.     

Schlumbergera Stamen
Taken with Fujifilm Instax Mini 7S on Instax Mini film

     This camera, by the way, was one of my best thrift store finds ever.  I was already planning on dropping the nearly $100 on a new one, but found this at a thrift store on my way home from work.  I had had a bad day and as I was about to pass the store I got a strange feeling I would find something to cheer myself up if I stopped.  Sure enough this camera, which appeared to be brand new, had a $4.99 sticker on it.  The guy at the counter laughed at me for buying what he thought was a kids camera.  He even gave it to me for half price because it looked so strange to him.  $2.50 for a brand new Fuji Instax Mini 7S.

Instant Successes: Ropes

     As the first photo I ever took on Polaroid's 125i Silk film, no longer available (that I know of), I think it's easy to see how the textured paper adds a nice touch to the photos.  The film seemed to be identical to the regular 100 type pack film except for that texture, but I have always liked the way it handled light a little differently.
     I'm not sure what was going on on this cell tower, but there was a tangle of ropes all over it.  The yellow smudges at the end do not appear to be light leaks, as this camera doesn't do the same thing with any other film.  The yellow frequently shows up with Silk, as does a slight variance in hue toward the middle of the film, especially with lighter colors.

Ropes
Taken with Polaroid Super Colorpack on Polaroid 125i Silk

Instant Successes: Ducks in Green Lake

     Here it is.  It took me quite a while and quite a few pieces of wasted film before I got a good shot out of the Impossible Project PX 70 First Flush film.  This was the Impossible Project's first batch of original film after taking over the last Polaroid factory in Enschede, NL, but they made good on their promise to keep it going and to keep improving.  They gave great instructions on how to use the film on their website.  I understood that I had to shade the film from light until it develops, but I struggled.  Maybe it's my lack of technical understanding.  I just had a hard time.  Then I got this one and I felt pretty good about it.  It has surprisingly fared pretty well over the time too, where many of my other photos have faded or turned orange or some other color.  I took this in the evening last summer at Green Lake and rejoiced for the rest of the night.  Thanks again, Impossible.  And thanks, ducks, for allowing me to do this.

Ducks in Green Lake
Taken with Polaroid Pronto! on Impossible PX 70 Color Shade FF

Instant Successes: Farmers' Market

   I have been following The Impossible Project since the beginning, and have been buying their new film as it is developed in order to ensure they have funding for further research.  In general, their films are more unstable than the original Polaroid stuff, but I definitely have to hand it to them.  They are always trying new things, always improving, and they always own up to their mistakes.  The other thing I love is that they do not seem to be very wasteful.  Even their flawed film gets sold in reduced price "as is" packs.  I snap these up when I get the chance because you never know what you're going to get!  Here is a picture I took of some squash in the Capitol Hill farmers' market last summer.  The top has faded out into an orange cloud, and the photo has turned pretty orange in general, but it's a great testament to the mysterious qualities the film can have.

Late Autumn Squash
Taken with Polaroid Pronto! on Impossible PX 100 Silver Shade

     I can assure you, if I had some extra money I would be snagging some of the new gold frame film...

Instant Successes: Holgaroid Macro Shots

     Two years ago, or thereabouts, I picked up a Holgaroid from the Impossible Project back when it used to be called Polapremium.  I had already been an avid type 100 film shooter, and I was also taking a lot of pictures with my red Holga, so the prospect of combining these was one I jumped on.  The Holgaroid is a film back that takes type 100 pack film and attaches to the back of a Holga, in lieu of the usual roll of 120 film and the camera back.  Polapremium did charge me somewhat of a premium for the Holgaroid, but I have found this to be completely worth the purchase.  Perhaps I will write an official review of the Holgaroid at some point, but for now I would just like to show what I have been working on most recently.
     As the camera that launched me into my current appreciation for film cameras, junkstore cameras, toy cameras, etc. I have been very good to my Holga and it has been very good to me.  Always the innovators, the folks over at Lomography are always coming out with new accessories.  Some of these accessories are all over the place (fisheye attachment, 35mm adapter, etc.) while some I have only found in a few places.  One of these seemingly rarer finds was a set of macro lens attachments for shooting at 30mm (about 1.2 inches) and 60mm (you can do the math.)  There is actually also a separate close-up attachment set as well for 120mm, 250mm, and 500mm.  I picked these sets up and have had a great time experimenting with them.
     Get to the point, right?  Ok.  Well lately I have been experimenting with putting the Holgaroid back on the Holga and putting a close-up or macro lens on the special Holgaroid lens adapter, which is apparently meant to make up for the difference between the distance from the lens to the film roll and the distance from the lens to the Holgaroid pack film.  Take a look at one of the first really great images I was able to take of one of my Schlumbergera, also known as a zygocactus or Christmas cactus.  Quite a timely post given the season, no?

Pink Schlumbergera blossom
Taken with Holga at 60mm with Holgaroid on Fujifilm FP-100C

     I'll try to get more photos posted after I do some more scanning.