SoFoBoMo 2010

And this is why you haven't seen me in a few weeks. :) Since last year was a bust, I decided to really make an effort to complete this year's book. The truth is, I love film. It is also really difficult to complete a book of 35 photographs in 31 days and shoot film. And I didn't want to shoot digital and spend hours in Photoshop trying to recreate the lovely look of film. But, if you remember... I just got an Android and downloaded the Vignette app for it. This lovely app lets me set up the look and feel of film before I even start. So, Photoshop was relegated to merely adding the text and the black borders (to make the book assembly much easier).

My book is called, "Little Horses". I've had these miniature Breyer horses sitting around since I picked them up at a thrift shop a couple of years ago. I had always wanted to use them in a series of photographs and I thought this would be a perfect time. My goal was to make the viewer unsure if these were toys or actual horses. Some, I think are quite successful... Others, not so much. But, I like that, as well. Overall, I'm happy with what I have accomplished in 19 days!

So, without further ado, the book...

Week 14 - Camera Phone (CotW)

"Seriously?", you say. Yes, seriously. This week (or 2... I stopped counting), I used my good old camera phone. Well, actually, it's a new phone. With a 5MP camera. I can download apps. Camera apps. But, it's not an iPhone. It's the Motorola Android. It's awesome, I love it. I bought an awesome camera app within the first hour of owning the thing. I sat in the parking lot playing with it. It's fun.

"What's so great about a camera phone with an app?", you ask. Well, it makes all my digital pictures look like they came out of a lovely fantastic plastic camera. I can include light leaks, square format, "fake" frame numbers when I "bleed" to the edge of the film, x-pro, polaroid frames... This list goes on and on. This lovely app is called, Vignette. And I'm in love (at least for a little while).

It will never replace my film, because, well... nothing in this world can replace film. But, it is a lovely little toy and I'm having fun. Isn't that what photography is all about?

My favorite, by far (and I love A LOT of them), is the one I took of my daughter swinging.

Week 11 - Noblex Pro Sport (CotW)

It's nice to have friends with cool cameras. This (3) weeks' camera was the Noblex ProSport panoramic camera that my sister-in-law's very generous boyfriend loaned to me. After taking and entire roll of my fingers (because of the very wide angle lens), I figured out just how to hold the thing. It is a very heavy camera (I'm so used to plastic ones) and holding it with just 4 fingers (2 on top and 2 on bottom) seemed dangerous. (Don't worry Jerre, I had the strap around the wrist ALWAYS!) I did, however, get 2 rolls of film with absolutely NO fingers!

I still don't know why I shoot color film... Everything looks better in black and white. Of course, 9:30 isn't exactly the ideal time for good morning light either, so I guess I deserved that. And I still have to work on scanning cross-processed film, but those negs were pretty dark anyway.

I thought the Fredericksburg Battlefield would be a great place to really tryout the panoramas and I was not disappointed. However, I do need to go back again to get some shots with another camera (Holga) of a tree I absolutely fell in love with.



Week 12 - Lomography Supersampler

Week 5 - Pinhole Blender Mini 120 (CotW)

Well, week 5 of Camera of the Week got off to a bad start. After days and days of dark grey skies and snow, I finally took the Blender out for some fun. I also decided to shoot with a zone plate instead of the pinhole. Unfortunately, with the roll of film inside (ISO 400) and the aperture of f/64, the exposures were less than 1 second. That is quite difficult when your shutter is a piece of gaffer tape! There were light leaks on most of the roll caused by opening up the can and... OOPS ...finding a roll of film in there. The color on the roll wasn't very colorful, so I changed it to black and white... I definitely will take this out again in the spring!



This week's camera is the Golden Half Chelsea Maika edition. Stay tuned...

Hmmm...

So, this week will have no post for CotW since the east coast had a blizzard and my film is stuck in Richmond or Fredericksburg. So, hopefully I'll have 2 posts for next week. My Holga film is here and ready to be developed when the snow melts. :)

In the meantime, a view from my porch...

The Diana F+ (+ accessories!!)

So, on my last birthday (over a month ago), I decided to go ahead and splurge on something I'd been looking at for awhile. And since it was nearly Christmas, and the Lomography Store was having oodles of sales, I decided to make a purchase (or 3). I really thought I'd like the Diana Mini, but it was so...limited. So, I decided to get the Diana F+ because you can buy so many more accessories! There was a great sale if you bought 2 or more, and I'm always a sucker for a sale. So I ended up with the Diana F+, the 35mm back, and the wide angle lens.

I'm happy...

Week 1 - P-Sharan (Camera of the Week)

The week of January 10-16 was the first week of my "Camera of the Week" challenge. Of course, it would happen that the P-Sharan was the first out of the bag (literally). That has been the camera that I've been using almost exclusively since I got her. Ah well, that was the chosen camera. Not too much exciting to talk about, except when I got that roll of film back, pressed it against the window of the van to see it better, my breath was taken away.... I am amazed EVERY time I unroll that film. Everything looks lovely through that pinhole...



I'm using the Agfa Clack this week... Stay tuned!

And So It Goes...

I am still working steadily on the book, "Impressions through a Pinhole". I've also installed BookSmart from Blurb, where I'll be publishing the book. I've started playing with the layout of the images and have found that many fit so well as a double page spread. I am thinking that I will single out my favorites or the strongest images on a spread of their own.

I am going to have these professionally scanned so I can make decent size prints of them (the negative is smaller than 35mm) and hopefully find a venue for a solo show once the book is done.

I have just recently gone through another roll from the P-Sharan and got 5 images out of the 16, so this has really gotten my excitement going again. I have nearly 25 images to choose from now. And now for another sneak preview...

No Mo SoFoMoBo

As my faithful readers know, I signed up for SoFoMoBo way back when with the full intention of completing a photo book of 30 images in just 31 days. Well, I'm just 6 days to the end of my "month" and I have 15 images that I just absolutely LOVE and 15 images that I haven't even seen, yet. So, what to do? Well, I have decided that I will not be finishing the SoFoMoBo book. It is not because I am Giving Up. It is simply because I do not want to make a book filled with images that are just "OK" to me. But, SoFoMoBo has been an incredible jumping off point for what I am going to be doing. With these 15 images that I have already (all from the P-Sharan, of course), I will be completing a book by the end of the summer. It will be the book I wanted to make for SoFoMoBo, but with the time, effort, and creativity needed for the quality book I will be proud of. So, keep watching the blog for previews of the images for "Impressions Through a Pinhole".

I love my P-Sharan pinhole

I know, I've gone on about this camera before. But, this camera is just giving me dead on exposures every time (and I mostly use the helpful little suggestions printed on the back). And that ghostly quality of them, is just to die for. ;) But, I mentioned in an earlier post about participating in SoFoBoMo 2009 and I've been thinking about how I was going to accomplish this task. I think I've decided to dedicate the whole project to the pinhole images I make with the P-Sharan. The most obvious obstacle, and biggest, of course, is the time it will take between making the images and waiting for the processing. Maybe this will get me back down in the darkroom for home processing. At least, I won't be waiting 2-3 days... This will put a crunch on at the end of the month, I suspect. But, seriously, how could I shoot with anything else???

First roll from the Yunon...

I'm decently pleased with my new Yunon YN500 since every image came out perfectly exposed. I shot a 100 speed Fuji B&W film (the name escapes me and I'm not running down in the basement darkroom to find out, it's cold down there!). The only issue is that occasionally it only partially wound the film. It happened 3 times on the roll and seemed to occur randomly. So, I had a look. Well, since it is completely manual, it has this nice little button under the right-ish side of the camera to be used while only rewinding the exposed roll. It is a perfect place for someone's thumb while using the camera because it is aligned with the shutter button. So, apparently, I was occasionally pushing the button while advancing the film which, of course, caused the film to only partially wind and I got lots of junk. No happy accidents. Unfortunately, it also caused a partial double exposure of my favorite image on the roll, which I thought would have been better with out it. Luckily I could do a little dodge & burn in photoshop to lessen the effect, but you can still see a little of the ghost frame. The good thing about this??? I've got a sure way to do double exposures on this thing. So, I suppose I did get a happy accident, even if it was a discovery and not an image. Boy, did I ramble....

Sifting and Sorting

I'm still going through the negs from last weeks trip to the Fredericksburg Battlefied Cemetery. Seems the P-Sharan was the winner of the day with quite a few images I'm pleased with. The P-Sharan SQ-35 has 4 different photographic "styles" (regular pinhole, "soft focus", regular pinhole w/ vignette, "soft focus" w/ vignette). I was playing around with all of them that day and I'm liking the regular pinhole w/ vignette. I've noticed that the "soft focus" leaves a little ray of circles (like the pattern of the soft focus pinhole) and I'm not too fond of that. Besides, handholding the camera gives everything a soft focus, right?

New Holga WPC....

I just scanned the first roll of film from my Holga WPC. Very cool. My only concern is the terrible vignetting on only one side. It is almost as if the pinhole isn't centered. Don't get me wrong, I love a good vignette. I just don't want to feel as if I'm looking through a very small hole. Even though, essentially, that's what is happening. Anyway, I need to check that out after my next roll of film, because it's all loaded and ready to shoot color this time.

Anyway, about *this* roll of film... It was Fomapan 200 BW (I think). The exposures for the roll were 6-10 seconds each. And if you know me, I never read instruction manuals for anything. But, I decided to read this one because I knew there was some kind issue with skipping frame numbers to account for the extra long negative (6cm x 12 cm). Well, I set the counter for the wrong size anyway, even after reading instructions! So, the first few pictures were blended together. Not only did they make an even LONGER negative, but the images were taken along the river and included the upper & lower parts of the river. It turned out really nice, I think.

You see...

My holga is my best friend... whining child or not.

Negative Space

The Center for Fine Art Photography has a Call for Entry for an upcoming show with the theme Negative Space. I will be entering 3 pieces, including Two Poles, Colonial Beach Pier After Ernesto, and my hope for glory, Bridge with Train taken with my Pinhole Blender...

For the Love of Film....

Sometimes I wonder why I shoot anything but my Holga. Sometimes, I will go many months before finishing a 12 frame roll. What's up with that? I can knock off nearly 100 images in the digital camera before an hour is up! The ONLY nice thing about taking so long to get the roll developed is that I completely forget what is on the roll. Mostly, I am VERY happy with the images that come back developed. And every time I open the box, unroll the film, and press it against the van window to see what I've got, I'm overjoyed. Then I vow to make more images with the Holga. I get 3-4 frames in and... then it goes into the abyss for another couple of months, waiting for its turn in the sun. Ah well...

Long lost trip to DC

I made a trip to DC quite a few weeks ago with the hubby & daughter. Reminder to self... Never take daughter downtown after bad night sleep. We were there for almost an entire hour! Seriously, I think the travel time in & out were longer than the time spent in town. So, my pictures were SERIOUSLY lacking even though it was a PERFECT sky that day. Many clouds and cool shadow & light play. Ah well. I did get a nice pinhole shot of the Washington Monument.

My new pinhole "Can-mera"

Well, I've finally done it. I've made a pinhole camera from one of those decorative popcorn tin cans with houses covered in snow and decorated for Christmas. Just perfect for a hot July! Can't tell if there is a light leak or if it was the fact that my paper was expired. Not to worry, there will be many more to come! Here is one of my successful images from it.

My first ETSY sale!

I just sold my very first print on etsy.com. I am SO excited. Bye, bye "Under the Colonial Beach Pier"! Enjoy Florida!

Pinhole Photography

Seems odd that after all these years of photo classes and my use of "toy" cameras that I haven't ever used a pinhole. Not that I didn't want to, it just seemed so limiting since you basically need a darkroom nearby. Now, I'm talking the box (or paint can) with a pinhole and a piece of photo paper in the back. That nice big paper negative. Well, I was lucky enough to sign-up for the last spot in a pinhole workshop at Gari Melchers home in Fredericksburg, VA. It was taught by Steve Griffin, a professor of Art at UMW and pinhole photographer. His favorite subjects include the beach scenes of Colonial Beach, VA. This is quite convenient since his studio (including traditional darkroom) is just blocks from the water. Anyway, he set up this make shift darkroom a kitchen and 11 of us walked around the grounds with our pinhole paint cans that Steve provided. It was an amazing experience! I am even more motivated to build my own and get the darkroom in my basement back to work. Here is my favorite catch of the day. I scanned the paper negative and positive and combined them as a diptych.



Want more information on pinhole photography? Check out the Pinhole Resource and Eric Renner's book "Pinhole Photography".