Polaroid

I know. Polaroid no longer makes film. But some very determined people decided to "re-invent" the instant photograph and The Impossible Project was born. I was never really a "Polaroid" photographer, but I did have a One-Step around and occasionally would pick up a pack of film at the store when I thought of it. Well, after spending too much time on Flickr and seeing so many beautiful Polaroid photographs taken with the Polaroid SX-70, I just had to have one of those cameras. Not to mention the incredible engineering it took to build such a beautiful camera. Once I get it into my head that I want a camera, I cannot seem to let it go. And for the last year, I've been searching for a reasonably priced and working SX-70. But, there is such a demand for that camera, it's rare to see nice ones for under $100. Since the film is upwards of $20 a pack, that was an investment I was not willing to make. Until...

About a month ago, while perusing Craigslist for cameras (as I often do), I decided to search on "polaroid". And much to my surprise, I saw an ad for "Polaroid SX-70 Time-Zero Autofocus - $7" in Sperryville, VA. 7 DOLLARS? It had to be a piece of junk. 7 DOLLARS? But, I had to click on the ad. And it said, "excellent condition, working, with a pack of refrigerated expired Time-Zero film". What? You can't even buy Time-Zero film for $7 on eBay! So, I just had to see if this was really true... You know what they say about "too good to be true". I emailed the person asking for more information. A few days later, I got a call...

I talked with the man selling the camera for nearly 20 minutes. He was a pediatric dentist that used to use the camera at his office before digital cameras. He was so very pleasant to talk to and seemed like such a nice person, that I just had to be honest with him about the price of the camera. He said that he had no idea that it was such a valuable object in the "photographic world", but that he really didn't care about making money on the camera. Well, we talked photography, The Impossible Project, and darkrooms. His son was into photography once and had an enlarger sitting around. He asked if I wanted that, too. How much? Free. Really? Yes. Wow. Since we live over 2 hours away from each other, he said the next time his son (who lives closer to me) came for a visit he'd hand the stuff over to him and I could pick it up.

Weeks went by, I was only slightly worried. Then I got a call from him. His son was going to visit him and he was going to give the camera and enlarger to him. Then the part came when I was literally speechless, which is very hard to do to me.... His father had an old Polaroid 250 that had the portrait and macro lenses and a flash with flash bulbs. Did I want it? How much? Free. ..... Hello? Um, wow. *laughs* Seriously? Yes. He said his 90 year old father would just love the fact that someone would want to use it.

Wow. I picked them up from his daughter-in-law October 15. These cameras are in working, near-mint condition. For $7. I went to Batteries Plus and they still make the 4.5V battery for the 250. I'll have it in a week. I'm ordering the pack film online. I have shot 1 frame in the SX-70. I'm in love with it. The picture is far from good. I think I was excited and nervous to see what would happen when I pressed the red button...



...and I can press it 9 more times.

Blog? What Blog?

Oh yeah, this blog. Hello, loyal readers (what few I have left!). It's funny that I feel I need to apologize for my lack of CotW posts. Truth is, I've never been good at keeping up with those sorts of things (I could never do that 365 without going mad). Honestly, I think I do those types of things as a creative jumping board for what really matters to me.

Oh, but I digress. Quite a while ago (I'd hate to say a year, but it might be nearly that), my neighbor suggested that I look into the local dance/art studio that had opened in the area. Her friend had started it and was looking for local artists to possibly teach there. She suggested that I teach photography. I laughed. I don't teach...

Then, I met the owner at a get-together 4 or 5 months ago. We chatted a bit about what she was looking for and I said I'd think about it. Then in June, I decided that I either needed to do it or just say no. So, I just said, "yes". Once that contract was signed I couldn't turn back. And I had 3 weeks to get a class together!

I spent those 3 weeks poring over all of my photography books and old class notes to come up with a 3-day workshop. The first day was basic camera instruction and photographic composition. Then the class would go on a photo walk-about where the students could practice and ask me questions. The final class was to be a critique of the photos they had taken.

The class went without a hitch and I had a blast teaching! Everyone said that they had learned a lot and the only "critique" was that I seemed nervous at the first class. I laughed. I said that I seemed nervous because I was incredibly nervous. I am deathly afraid of public speaking and "public speaking" to me is any more that 1 person! :) It was so much fun, I'm going to do it again!

Here is my class during our photo walk-about, taken with the Lomography Spinner 360°:

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...