Destination Antarctica

With a bit of frantic packing, sorting out cameras, mailing extra clothes, running errands and fitting in last minute visits with friends, I somehow managed to pull my act together with the less than 3 days notice I received that I'm leaving for the ice today. There are a lot of things I'll miss while I'm gone but I'm a cold weather girl at heart and I love being in the middle of nowhere, so Antarctica has always been a favorite place for me.  



First stop is Christchurch, New Zealand to pick up extreme cold weather gear and have a last yummy meal of Thai or sushi.  I don't think I'm going to have time to get to the botanic gardens unless we get delayed though. Keeping fingers crossed that we do! 


Then a long flight to McMurdo Station, Antarctica. I don't know how long I'll be in McMurdo but hopefully long enough to catch up with old friends, catch a glimpse of a penguin or two if they're around and hike to Hut Point. I'd ideally like to take some polaroids while I'm there too.


Then it's off to South Pole for a fun summer of coordinating chaos! Temps will probably be somewhere between -40 to -50 when I arrive and by New Years, with any luck, we might hit zero, but it can't be counted on. In any case, it's going to be chilly, but a fun year with the 100th anniversary of Amundsen & Scott making it to the pole.


I'll post pictures as soon as I can. Stay tuned...

BioFlex- What's Not to Love?

I got this BioFlex a few months ago and promptly turned it into a linocut.  It's one of my favorite prints and maybe just the start of a series of linocuts of all my favorite vintage cameras.  It's a large camera- much bigger than an Argus Seventy-Five so it looks a lot like a toy.  

The unfortunate thing about this particular camera (mine) is that the winding knob was broken when I got it so I very carefully super glued it back in place but apparently not careful enough because now it's solidly locked in place and doesn't wind at all!  So I have yet to actually be able to shoot this camera.  Lesson learned... I'm still trying to find a way to undo the glue without ruining the camera but in the meantime I just enjoy looking at it.

In other news... less than 24 hours to go till 'Roid Week 2011 begins!

Cheers,
Andrea

More Back to Basics.... No. 2 Folding Pocket Kodak Model C

In keeping with yesterday's theme... I've also begun to get away from digital photos and am returning to using film- Polaroids, Holga and some other cameras.

I was in an antique store a couple of weeks ago and found this beautiful little Kodak camera that's almost 100 years old. It didn't have a price and I expected it to be priced terrifically high but when the shop owner told me how much it was, I knew it was coming home with me.

I love the brass and wood on this camera. They just don't make cameras like this anymore. I'm still trying to find out if there is a modern-day version of film for it, or a way to modify the camera and/or film in order to use it. Even if there isn't, the beautiful design of this camera makes it well worth keeping around.

Test Shots with Impossible Film: PX 100

The Impossible Project has created some new film for Polaroid SX-70 cameras since Polaroid stopped making instant film for their cameras several years ago.  I've been waiting for this film to arrive and it showed up last week so I took it for a test run this morning.  Here's the film in its sweet packaging, which I don't really care about, any my camera.

I got impatient yesterday and decided to try out one test shot at home. After all, how finicky can the film be?? Finicky! 1 shot blown.























I read all the information I could find online about how to best use the new finicky film and found some great information by rommel on flickr, as well as helpful info left in the comments section of his post here. This really saved me a lot of hassles today and probably saved numerous pictures from being completely destroyed as I'm not sure I would have figured these things out on my own so easily. So, having info on handling the finicky film, I set out on my little yellow bike to see what I could do with said finicky film.

First stop downtown, the old ACME building, which now houses urban lofts. Lesson learned with ACME building shot- move fast when grabbing film and putting in dark location!























Next I headed to Union Station. I've had my eye on shooting this location ever since I heard the film was coming out. It's a gorgeous building that anchors LODO.

Lesson learned here- don't hold the little black card up too high or you'll lose the bottom of your photo! In this case it actually worked to my advantage by fuzzing out a not so attractive fence that I had a hard time shooting over.























I went around the front of the building for some closeups. I took three pictures here.

In this first picture, because I was having trouble keeping the pictures warm with my freezing cold hands while they were developing, I decided to put it down my shirt. Yes, that's right. I'm a girl, I can do that. But I don't recommend it, because as you can see, the photo is a little overdeveloped.

The next two shots I went back to warming the photos with my hands inside my messenger bag. This seemed to work well and I continued using this method for all the other shots as well. I like that you have a little control over how they develop.  For the 3rd photo below I warmed it for about double the amount of time that I kept the 2nd photo warmed and it seemed to develop a little more.


































































Next I moved on to the Ice House building. While I was laying in the parking lot taking this shot the parking meter guy came by and told me to move it along. Lesson learned here is that empty parking lots are not for loitering, taking photos or for citizens to use.























I really wanted to get a few shots at Coors Field but game day does not make for good shooting from the middle of the intersection. It was nuts and I kept getting interrupted by people that wanted me to take their pictures for them. So I got one shot, did a few good deeds and headed to Dixon's for breakfast.























After sitting on the patio at Dixon's for a while I got this last downtown shot of the seed building across the way. While I was taking it this guy set up his camera next to me taking pictures of something else and introduced himself as the guy that runs www.polaroid-art.com I didn't actually catch his name and can't find it on the site, but there are some really cool manipulated Polaroids on his site.

The seeds building photo is my favorite. Perhaps because I'm a little overly enthusiastic about all things plant related.























I stopped on my way home to try one last shot of some beautiful blooming trees, but no luck. I would chalk this one up to complete and utter operator error. 























Overall, I love this film. Finicky? Yes, a little, but not nearly as finicky as I had expected based on some of the comments I've seen online. I love the pearlescent whites in this film in conjunction with the sepia effects. I also like that it's slight finickiness requires more concentration, forethought and work than other film- you have to be engaged with the process of this film in order to get results.

If you've shot with this film, I'd love to hear your thoughts on it as well.  If you haven't shot this film yet, I do suggest reading up on what others have to say about the best ways to handle this film before heading out to use it.  This will save you a tremendous amount of time in the field, not to mention minimizing your lost shots.

Ode to Polaroid and The Impossible Project

Today is THE big day!  The Impossible Project is releasing their new film for Polaroid cameras.  I've been anxiously awaiting this day for months.  The test photos they released with the big press announcement on Monday are amazing and I can't wait to try this new film for myself.  I've been collecting Polaroid cameras for just such an occasion.  Happy Polaroiding everyone!

The Impossible Project: It's Possible!

If you're not familiar with The Impossible Project  let me familiarize you with it.  The Impossible Project is a group that bought one of the last Polaroid instant film factories after Polaroid decided to stop making the film in 2008.  This group decided to take up the challenge of reinventing instant film for the thousands of old Polaroid cameras floating around in the world.  It's been a long project for them, but TODAY after many months of waiting they unveiled their NEW instant film and it's gorgeous!!!!  You can see some of their super fabulous test photos here. The film will be for sale starting March 25th- only 3 short days from now!

I've been not-so-patiently waiting for this big day.  I'm really excited.  I mean REALLY excited!  Here's my Polaroid camera collection just waiting to test out the new film:

Polaroids

I've always been fascinated with Polaroid pictures. When I lived in Alaska years ago my boyfriend at the time gave me a green Polaroid camera that went everywhere with me for years until I lost it.The thing about Polaroid pictures is that they're lovely but to me they also always seem to have a lonely, nostalgic sort of feel to them.

I recently had the chance to pick up a couple of Polaroid cameras and some film, so I thought I would start documenting some of the more urban aspects of Denver with them, along with my Holga.

These are some of the Polaroids I took yesterday while out photographing graffiti in my hood. This first one is the intersection that I live near. STOP! And maybe say hello?



These next couple of photos are from this fabulous graffiti fence that I wrote about yesterday. I'm enthralled with it and I'll be sad when the graffiti paint cops come and paint over it next week and the abandoned field once again turns back into a boring, weed filled blight on the urban landscape.







And finally, a photo of my new Holga camera. Isn't she cute? Unfortunately you really CAN'T take a Polaroid from 2 feet away... So a bit blurry, but I like it anyway.