Archive for August, 2009
Moving Ever Forward
Posted by GZ in Life, Photography on August 18, 2009
Big Boy Cup
I’ve been doing this a while now, sort of casually rolling along, picking up tips and tricks along the way but mostly telling myself about all of the big things I was going to do to take things to the next level. A vacation and the counsel of friends gave me a burst of inspiration, and I started a to-do list.
It’s not a lot so far, but I’ve already been able to cross a few things off. In just the last two weeks, I …
- Shot some film with the bbf.
- Produced some decent B&W shots (with said bbf).
- Scanned some of my own negatives.
- Bought an couple of iPhone camera applications (you can see the product of one, ShakeItPhoto, above).
- Visited a new location at El Bosque del Rio Hondo.
- Attended a much-needed workshop, with a focus on lighting.
- Worked with wireless radio flash triggers for the first time.
- Directed a model, albeit clumsily, and gained some confidence.
- Met a new group of photographers.
Not bad. Time to add more things to the list.
Big Squeeze
Posted by GZ in Events, Gear, Photography on August 9, 2009
Big Squeeze
I got the first roll back from the blackbird on Saturday, and I have to say, I was surprised by the results. I put a roll of Kodak BW400CN through it, and even with Costco quick processing, I like what came of it.
I started with a few attempts in the back yard, but both focus and exposure on them were way off. Apart from an interesting mistake, there was nothing worth posting. A trip to the Orange County fair gave me better opportunities with light and subjects I could play with. The camera drew a lot of attention and a couple of people asked about it.
For the first batch, I decided to go with the square mask. It’s pretty tough to frame up a shot properly, looking straight down at a small clear plastic box with the much smaller black box of the black frame outline printed on it. I started to get the hang of it near the end of the roll. Consequently, a lot of shots are too dead-center for my taste. Focusing became easier as I got my head around the process, and the small aperture makes for a forgiving depth-of-field anyway. I like the grain and contrast, and the square aspect adds something to the feel.
You can see a set of images here. There’s a roll of FujiColor Pro in it now with the rectangular mask, so we’ll see how that turns out.
Going Small to Get Bigger
Posted by GZ in Gear, Photography on August 1, 2009
Going Small to Get Bigger
Turns out I’m jealous of all of the cool square-format, lo-fi, edgy film stuff my friends are doing, mostly with vintage medium-format cameras like Bronicas and Rollieflexes. I can’t pay top-dollar for exotic film and processing right now, and I don’t have the time to nurse finicky fixer-upper gear back to health, either. At the same time, I’m fascinated for some reason by the dodgy aesthetic of the Holgas and other plastic toy cameras enjoying popularity now.
So, I bought the blackbird, fly, a plastic toy that does square-format and edgy on cheap 135 film. It actually does a couple of frame sizes/dimensions through the use of some snap-in masks inside the body. While I considered a cheap Chinese-designed Holga (with all of its known and desirable flaws), the TLR form-factor and the common film stock use pointed me toward the blackbird. I saw some sample prints and they looked pretty good. The sales guy said that Superheadz/Powershovel, the company that designed and sells it, were somehow associated with Holga at some point, but that the Japanese just couldn’t bring themselves to make a crappy camera. Consequently, I paid about three times what a base Holga would cost.
I loaded it up with some Ilford 400 B&W and took it to the Orange County fair today. It’s not going to be easy to use without some practice. For one, it’s tiny, and feels a lot smaller in my hands than I thought it would when I read the online reviews. Like most twin-lens reflex cameras, the viewfinder is on top, and you look down into it. Left and right are reversed in the VF, and since one lens feeds the viewfinder and the other is for the exposure, you can’t see the effects of your focus efforts. Speaking of focus, it’s accomplished through a geared mechanism and is set by distance (which is marked in meters, of course). I’m sure the first roll or two will be full of botched focus frames.
The experimenting keeps me going. I’ll post results when I have them.
Featured
Imagekind featured artist, July 24, 2009
I was one of the Imagekind featured artists on July 24, 2009. For those who don’t know, Imagekind is a site/service where artists can feature their work for sale as nice prints, bare or framed. They do really nice work.
My bio and a link to my work was featured on the homepage all day. They choose two a day, supposedly based on a number of criteria. I garnered a number of new “fans” and comments, but no sales came of it.
It seems the only peiople who frequent Imagekind are people who are selling things there themselves. If I’m going to sell anything, I think I need to take a look at SmugMug or Zenfolio, and do some actual promotion.
Soon.
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