Forgotten Impossible Project PX600 Color Protection - Paint

Impossible Project PX680 Color Protection in an SX70 Sonar

It's been a while, but I used to post my lost and forgotten photo's all the time. This particular image is one that's been sitting on my table at home since the beginning of the year. While shooting with an artist and illustrator for my Roll-A-Week project I snapped a couple quick instant photos as well. I distinctly remember not liking this image, that it was washed out and just overall bland. Now, probably some six months later, it's a pretty nice image. Some people might complain about the constantly changing effects and appearances that some of Impossible Projects films have, but, in cases like this you end up really appreciating it. The film wasn't bad, and neither was the photo, it just needed a little time...

Expired Polaroid ID Ultraviolet Film - Sydney Perez

This weekend I had the chance to shoot with a fantastic team of people - model Sydney Perez of Taxi Model Management in Cleveland, make up artist Shayna Wilson, and hair stylist Ty Kendrick. The shoot went over great and we ended up with some awesome photos from the day.

While I shot mainly digital, I did shoot my roll of film for the week, and, struggled through some different instant films which for some reason were giving me grief all day. One of my last packs of Fuji 3000B45 failed when I pulled the first tab of the pack. I was able to get it working again, but only to have it fail on me again later in the afternoon. My Polaroid 250 with expired Polaroid ID UV film worked, but most of my shots were coming out pretty dark, overly red and unusable. At the end of the day though, I was able to salvage this one shot seen above. I guess it's hard to complain too much about the blown shots when this one turned out so well. Enjoy.

Impossible Project PX680 American Woods - Elizabeth and Natasha

Yesterday I had the pleasure of shooting with two models and a very talented makeup artist/stylist. The models, Elizabeth and Natasha, were both a pleasure to work with and really did a fantastic job on camera. The 70's vibe of the shoot was put together by makeup artist and stylist Shayna Wilson. Shayna was also a joy to work with and is incredibly talented at what she does. 

The goal of the shoot was to put together a cohesive editorial spread, which I shot mainly with digital, but of course I also had along a few other cameras as well. I ran through two rolls of medium format film along the way, which is yet to be developed, and then shot these four images using my SX-70 Sonar and some of the Impossible Project PX680 American Woods edition film. I think the setting of these images works perfectly with the American Woods film border and seeing the instant film has me really excited to see what kind of results I'll get out of my medium format. Enjoy.

Impossible Project PX70 Color Protection Formula - Food Photography

This past weekend as part of my Roll-A-Week project I came into the studio to work on some tabletop food photography set-ups. I've always been a fan of simple, well-lit food photography and have lately been reading a few different blog posts that highlight some easy available/window light setups and so I thought I'd take an afternoon pretending to be a food photographer. 

Still life and composition is something that I've always explored when shooting instant film, and since it's been so long since I've shot with any of the Impossible Project's films in any serious way it seemed natural to bring along my SX-70 Sonar to shoot each of my setups  alongside my roll of film. The images that I have here today were all taken with the SX-70 and Impossible's PX70 Color Protection Formula instant film. Each was left unshielded out of camera and developed face down in a relatively comfortable temperature (somewhere around 68 degrees fahrenheit). Enjoy.

Impossible Project PX680 American Woods - Spring Daffodil

Today I have a really quick post of an image that I took late last week when the weather was particularly warm out. This photo (actually taken at the same time as this photo) was taken with a Polaroid SX-70 Sonar using Impossible Projects PX680 American Woods film, which is probably one of my favorites special editions that they've come out with to date. I've already gone through one of my three packs (with mediocre results at best... that being my fault) but look forward to using the other two soon as the weather continues to get warmer. Enjoy.

Expired Polaroid ID Ultraviolet Film - Polaroid Land 250 - Hillary

I realize that recently I haven't been posting a lot of instant photos - something that I used to do pretty regularly. One of the big reasons behind that is simply that I've haven't been shooting as much instant film recently as I've been so focused on shooting my film for my Roll-A-Week project. I know that in order to get through my roll each week I must dedicate a good deal of my shooting to using the roll of film for that week, otherwise, I will get distracted, start shooting with 4 different cameras, 6 different films and my phone. To that end, I've really limited the number of cameras and film types that I've been carrying with me when I go out to shoot.

Shooting instant film though, is one of my favorite photographic formats and something that I don't plant to stop doing anytime soon. While I may not be shooting quite as much of it this year, I will definitely be making a conscious effort to continue to use it regularly enough that I have a few extra photos to share here on the the blog. 

Today's photo is from a shoot I did this past weekend with Hillary, a model from Cleveland's Taxi MGMT. This is actually the only instant photo that I took through the entire session, but, I think it came out pretty well. The film is expired Polaroid ID UV and it was shot using a Polaroid Land 250. More images from this set, shot on 35mm Ilford 3200, will be coming soon over on the Coalesce52 Blog as part of my Week 9 post.

Enjoy. 

Expired Kodak Gold 800 - Canon Canonet QL17 - Cancun Mexico

When I was packing for Cancun I had a difficult time narrowing down what cameras I would take with me. My SX-70 Sonar was a no brainer as I pretty much use it exclusively for my Impossible Project films. I wanted to take a medium format camera to shoot some 120 slide film, and, decided pretty quickly on my Mamiya 645 as I've been shooting it more often lately. When it came time to pick a 35 mm camera thought I was a bit stumped on whether to take my usual kit - a Canon FTb with a 55mm f/1.2 - or something much smaller, lighter and much less valuable - the Canon Canonet QL17 Rangefinder that I've never even run a roll of film through.

In the end I decided to go with the Canon rangefinder for it's portability, and, in all honesty because if something tragic happened to it I wouldn't be heart broken over it (which would not be the case when it comes to the Canon FTb kit). Upon getting my film back from the lab this week and taking a couple days to scan it all I was really surprised with the quality of the images that I got and pretty happy with the decision I ended up making. I'd even go so far as to say after shooting with this camera (which has a great feel in your hands) and seeing these photos that this camera moves up my list as one of my favorite cameras to shoot with.

As I mentioned, the Canon Canonet is a 35mm rangefinder that is relatively inexpensive (unless you can find the more rare solid black model) and easy to use. There is, of course, a full auto mode on this camera that essentially turns the camera into a type of shutter priority mode that only allows the shutter to fire when the exposure falls safely in the camera's range of f/1.7 to f/16. The only issue with this automatic setting is finding the proper battery to get your light meter to work. Originally this camera used an old mercury battery (1.3v) which you can no longer buy. There are, however, plenty of resources out there for replacement batteries for this type of camera. The one I ended up with was the PX625A - a slightly higher 1.5v Alkaline battery. While I couldn't tell you exactly how far off the light meter is from using a higher rated battery, I'd guess to most it's negligible. 

 

As far as today's photos... they were actually all taken on a roll of expired Kodak Gold 800. This was, by far, the cheapest film that I had with me on this trip and, surprisingly, ended up producing some of my favorite photos. There's a fair amount of grain in some of these darker photos, but, I think this film actually rendered out some beautiful, soft colors that are sometimes reminiscent of a painting. 

This would also probably be a good time to give a little plug to the lab who developed all of my film from this trip - Old School Photo Lab in Dover NH. I went with Old School for a couple of reasons - they are friends and a great asset to the film community, and, I had some slide film in the batch that I wanted processed from a reputable source. Needless to say, Old School did a great job with this film and have with any film I've ever sent their way. If you are not familiar - I highly recommend them for all of your film processing needs.

I think that about wraps up everything I wanted to say in today's (lengthy) post. As always... I hope you found some of this information helpful, educational or even slightly entertaining. If not, then I hope you at least looked through these photos and found one or two that you like as much as I do. There will be more photos coming soon and if you've read this far... thanks, and I hope you've enjoyed. 

Impossible Project PX680 Test Film V4C - Cancun Mexico

I just got back from a seven day trip to Cancun Mexico. I'm not going to bore you with details of my vacation, but, I will say that if you've never been down that way or been to an all inclusive resort, both should be on your bucket list. 

Surprisingly, I only took three cameras with me on this trip - my SX70 Sonar, my Canon Canonet GIII, and, my Mamiya 645. The majority of the film that I shot throughout was 35mm with my Canon (mostly due to how compact and portable it is) but I did get in a roll of slide film with the Mamiya and some instant photos with the Impossible Project's film and the SX70 as well. 

Today I am posting a few of the instant photos that I took with my SX70 Sonar and Impossible Project's PX680 Color Protection film. All of these shots were taken unshielded and left to develop in the shade, a pocket, or some other location with indirect sunlight. As a whole, I'd say this film really held up pretty well in the sunny conditions as well as the heat. With temps around the 80's most days this film did have a tendency to start quickly shifting to warmer tones, but, overall the colors remained pretty true throughout. I made it a point to move the photos back into an air conditioned room as soon as possible after shooting though, so I can't really say how warm these colors would have shifted over a longer period of time.

I'm sure I'll be sharing more instant photos from this trip soon, and, once I get the remainder my film developed I'll start posting a few of those as well. Stay tuned and enjoy.

Impossible Project PX70 Test Film V4B - Pomegranates

This past weekends grocery trip left me with two pomegranates, which, I bought specifically to take a photos with. Last night after work the sun was still bright enough to use the window light to snap these two quick shots. Both photos are taken on Impossible Project PX70 Test Film V4b using an SX70 Sonar. Images were left unshielded out of camera and developed in my pocket to add a little warmth. Final results aren't too shabby.

Impossible Project PX680 Test Film V4C - Yellow Van

Here's another image from my impromptu Sunday walkabout with my cameras. I happened across this little van and painted fence down a quiet side street in town and thought it'd be a good photo. This was shot with Impossible Projects PX680 V4C test film on an SX70 equipped with an ND pack filter. Lighten/darken was set half way to darken. Film was unshielded out of camera but left for full development in my pocket. Approximate development time 30-40 minutes with a continued shift away from magenta over the next hour or two.