Crappy photos from crappy cameras
When photographic inspiration is low there is a small and quite inexpensive way to rekindle the urge to shoot photos - pick up a Holga camera and start using it! Or in my case, choose two of them, in bold colors!
So long my friend...
I had planned that this week’s blogpost would be illustrated with analog images from a recent photowalk in Malmö with the IgersMalmoe group, but last week I found out via Facebook that one of my longest online friends had passed away, so I’ll postpone that idea into the future. I just don’t have the urge to write a whole lot of words on photos I haven’t had the urge to edit.
The 365 Project Mark IV - The Eighth Month Summary
Wrap-up post number eight of the year and only four to go now before this year’s edition of the 365 idea is done. Yay! It did feel a bit endless there for a while in March when I was on month three, but now it absolutely feels like something I’ll finish, making this my third success out of four tries at this sort of thing. Of course, by saying it like this I’ve no doubt jinxed myself somehow…aw well…shrug
Festival days, part II
Last blog post I showed some of my digital images from the recently finished Malmö Festival, the annual event held in Malmö, Sweden (for the last 35 years). I took analog shots too during my visits to the event, but I had yet to develop them at the time. I’ve done that now and scanned them as well, so this week’s entry in this blog is all about the analog shots I took, both with my 135 camera (a Canon 650) as well as my 120 camera (a Kiev 60).
Photowalking is fun!
A little while back I went on a lot of different group photowalks, both in my photo club, in various Facebook groups as well as through Instawalks with the IgersMalmoe group/collective/heap of photographers (whatever noun fits). Lately I’ve done more solo meanderings through cities with my camera; not because I find anything wrong with group photowalks, it’s just something that’s evolved over time.
Out in the streets again
The weather is no longer arctically (is that a word? if not it should be!) frigid outside, so the Swedes suddenly sport all kinds of color in their choice of clothing rather than the dark blue, black or brown we seem to wear during the winter months (yep, I am guilty as well with my black coat), so it seemed like a good idea to head out there again for some street photography. I’ve not done a whole lot of it this winter, and the little I’ve done I haven’t really felt the urge to post on the blog.
An outing to the "Troll Woods"
For the longest time I’ve had a roll of Fomapan 200 loaded into an old Zeiss Ikon Nettar folding camera and since I now shoot my medium format stuff mostly with my “small” Kiev 60 camera that roll has been there for quite some time. Just to not let it get too old I brought it along when my dad and I went out to the beech forest near a small village called Torna Hällestad. That is a place where some of the beech trees have a strange tendency to contort themselves while they grow, turning them into quite surrealistic shapes in some cases.
The 365 Project Mark IV - The First Month Summary
The 365 project is back! Actually it never left after I took the 365th picture of 2018, I just kept going into the new year. I didn’t feel done with my one picture per day thing, partly because I didn’t upload the pictures daily during the year - I just stored them on my computer and inserted them into my book file, yet to be printed.
This year though, the still somewhat new and shiny 2019, I am going back to uploading the daily image to my Instagram account. I am widening my sources of images too, no longer restricting myself to cell phone shots only. As good as the Samsung S8+ is, I have snapped quite a few good ones with my (to me) new Kiev 60 medium format camera too, so I will include a few of them here and there as the year progresses, and possibly other analog photos as well.
"The Beast" in action
In the last two years that I’ve shot A LOT of film photography I’ve mainly done “regular” film, the 135 format kind or “full format". I’ve stayed away from the TLR cameras (of the Hasselblad or Rolleiflex kind), because I’ve never gotten to like the whole looking down the “chimney” to focus, and because they’re eye-wateringly expensive as well.
At the Nerd Parade...and yes...an actual new blog post from me
As I post this on my site it is November 29, 2018. It also happens to be my brother’s birthday with mine happening yesterday (so yay us I guess). I figured that it being our birthdays was a good time to restart posting stuff to both here and to various social media presences…because let’s face it…it’s been quite a while, hasn't it?
My analog adventures continue
Once again I've got some analog images to show in this blog, and unlike last week's batch I think I nailed the focus in at least one or two of these with "my" (technically dad's) Zeiss Ikon Nettar 6 x 6 camera from 1957. I must say I am starting to like these large negatives...the amount of information in them is pretty amazing!
More analog endeavors...in search of good focus!
In my ongoing exploration of analog photography I've dabbled with 120 format before, but not really to the extent that I've done 135 format, so I figured it was time to "remedy" that. I picked up a 5-pack of Tri-X 400 film at the local camera store and put a roll into my father's old Zeiss Ikon Nettar that I've temporarily appropriated for my usage.
Using coffee for developing photos?
When a fellow board member of my photo club said that this semester we'd have a "Develop with Coffee" class It certainly wasn't the first time I'd heard of the phenomenon known as "Caffenol". I'd even seen a video or two of it on YouTube, but I hadn't tried it myself before. So I figured, why not give it a go. The worst that could happen would be that a film would be ruined and I wouldn't have those particular pictures...really not the end of the world.
I'm on the way down the analog rabbit hole...
During 2017 I have shot more and more film, all on Tri-X 35 mm film and I have enjoyed getting better and better at it. I am still not at the level where I am confident that I won't accidentally get an entirely black frame on the roll here and there, but I am getting there...slowly.
I've been asked why I shoot film when there's digital available and my answer to that has several parts. I do it because it forces me to slow down and think before I shoot. It's VERY easy to snap away like a lunatic with your DSLR and ending up with 700 pictures to go through (done it many times!).