Expired Polaroid Type 57 - Graflex Crown Graphic - Self

As something a little different for today's Polaroid Week post, I thought I'd take and share a self-portrait... though I should say semi-self-portrait as I had to have my wife come out and man the release cable for me. I would definitely have to say the self-portrait is definitely not my strong suit. Shot with a Graflex Crown Graphic and some expired Polaroid Type 57.

Fuji FP-3000 B45 - Graflex Crown Graphic - Hillary

Last week I shared two different posts (here & here) of different instant photos that I shot with Hillary. The first was some of the new Impossible Color Film for SX70 and the second some expired Polaroid Type 57 large format film. Today I have my last instant photo from this session to share, one of my favorite films that I will miss greatly when I run out - Fuji FP-3000 B45. Enjoy. 

Expired Polaroid Type 57 - Graflex Crown Graphic - Still Life

Slowly but surely I've been working my way through the 4x5 sheets of expired Polaroid Type 57 that I have. While I hate to see my stash of this scarce film slowly start to dwindle, I keep reminding myself that it's only going to degrade more and more the longer I hold onto it. If I truly want to shoot and enjoy this film, there's no better time than right now. 

Shot with a Graflex Crown Graphic these still life's were all taken at my parents house this past weekend. The place is full of things reminiscent to what you might find in my house... there's just more of it. It's pretty much made for shooting still life set-ups. Enjoy.

Fuji FP-3000B45 - Graflex Crown Graphic 4x5 - Portraits With Ciarra

As I promised yesterday, here are the other two large format images that I shot with Ciarra this past weekend. Makeup for these shots, like the previous image, was done by Jason Kelly. The camera used was a Graflex Crown Graphic 4x5 press camera Fuji FP3000B45 instant film. Full view is recommended on these guys.

If you'd like to see more of my work with Ciarra (this look and others) keep an eye out over on the Coalesce52 blog for my Week 6 images - A roll of Kodak Tri-x that I shot throughout this shoot with Ciarra. Those images should be posted sometime in the next day or two.

Expired Polaroid Type 57 - Graflex Crown Graphic

You might remember, some time ago, that I mentioned purchasing two boxes of expired Polaroid Type 57. Well... it's taken just about a month, but, I finally have an image to show for it. Above is what I would consider my first successful shot on this 09 expired Polaroid Type 57 4x5 sheet film. By my calculations, this is the eighth attempt with this film - which to me just means I have 32 more good shots left in me.


Initially I thought the problem with this film was bad chemistry. Luckily, during Cleveland's Analog Pulse event, we did a large format walk with none other than Mat Marrash - a great large format photographer and co-host of the Film Photography Project's bi-monthly podcast. When Mat found out I was having trouble with my 57 he became determined to figure out why. What he found was that my film didn't appear to have any issues at all, but, it was in fact my Polaroid 545 back that was broken. Despite his best efforts, and many attempts at taking the back apart and reassembling, I eventually had to pick up another 545 off of Ebay.


All of that brings me to this week, and, up until this point I had probably wasted four sheets of film in learning that my film back was in fact never working. From there it only took one gross over-exposure, one bad pod with uneven chemistry, and then one gross under-exposure to eventually come up with this - Sheet number eight and my first successful (read useable) photo using this film.


It's not the best shot in the world, but I'm pretty happy to find this film in working order. There's definitely some grain and despite it's 3000 iso rating I'd venture to guess that it is actually closer to 2000 speed these days. Still, I'm shooting original large format Polaroid film. For a guy who really didn't even get a start in any analog photography until after the closing of the last polaroid factory... I'd say that's pretty cool.

Fuji FP-100C45 - Crown Graphic 4x5 - Creative light around the house

Last night I had a little more time to work with my new Crown Graphic after work. I did quickly get a chance to take a shot outside before the light faded entirely, but for the most part I was working in my dining room. The scene was definitely something to behold considering I didn't take any lights home with me. So, like I've done a time or two before, I pulled lamps from all different rooms to put together a couple different lighting setups.


The photo at top was lit with one of those cheap pole lamps you can get from target or Walmart (like this, but all plastic). The lower arm used as a key light causing a bit of the shadow you see, and the top lamp just bouncing into the ceiling for fill. It was still a longer exposure, but it worked out pretty well. The benefit of this lamp was the ability to mix my light temperatures - the key being a compact florescent (close to daylight) and the fill a regular tungsten. The combination of those two and all the other ambient light bouncing around the room seems to be what gave the photo it's washed out, almost sepia toned, color.

This second photo, an old(ish) coffee advertisement clock, was shot with a single light source. With the rest of the lights in the room off, I used one of those "paper shade lamps" which you can see there in the specular highlight in the glass of the clock. The light source here was completely tungsten which, with the daylight balance of the Fuji FP-100c45, shifted the color of the image more towards an orange/yellow tone. This shot also displays the extent of a close up for this camera/lens combo.


And, for good measure, here is that photo I mentioned at the top of the post that I was able to shoot outside before the light faded and before the cold ran me back inside. 

This ship, the Buffalo, has been parked in this shipyard in the Flats for a few weeks now for maintenance. It always amazes me the size of boat that is able to maneuver through this small area of the Flats and I've been wanting to get a shot of this one for quite some time now as it can normally be seen rolling down the river once or twice a week. I overexposed this image a bit more than I would have liked, but with the temperatures outside and the development time resulting from those temps I would have had to stick around for quite a while to see what my results were in order to shoot an adjusted photo.


In any event, I think I will be shooting more with this film/camera this upcoming weekend and I'll post some of those images early next week.

Fuji FP-100C45 - Graflex Crown Graphic 4x5

Months ago I decided that I wanted to get into large format photography. I did a ton of research, read up on all the different formats and types of cameras, looked into the accessories for each and all the different costs. I decided right off the bat that I was probably better off starting with the 4x5 format over the 8x10. Cost obviously played a factor in that decision, but, I also thought that something like a folding press camera would be a better way to become familiar with large format, film loading, composition, etc., without jumping directly into a large monorail camera that would require learning a lot more than the basic camera movements of large format (rise, fall, tilt, shift, swing) and the results of all of those combined movements on the photo. 


The camera I decided to go with is one of the most tried and true of the press cameras - the Graflex Crown Graphic. Here's a photo of the one I just purchased -

This particular model (there are many variations within the Graphic series) comes with the f/4.7 135mm Graflex Optar lens paired with a synchronized Kalart rangefinder. With it I also got some sheet film holders, a Graflex 23 roll film adapter to shoot 120 on this camera, and a Polaroid 545 back (which at this point is nearly obsolete.) To compensate, I also went out an got the Polaroid 550 back which holds the Fuji 4x5 packfilms - FP-100C45 and the discontinued but still available FP-3000B45. The seller also threw in a few extras like an original case, changing bag, two flashes and some sync cables.


This all arrived yesterday in the mail and to this point I've really only gotten to take two photos. The ones you see here in this post are the first two out of this camera and were both shot on the Fuji FP-100C45 pack film. I didn't have a lot of time, so I pretty much just took a walk around the block with the camera and a tripod till I found something I could shoot. I also didn't have my light meter on hand, so, both of these were metered with my iPhone's free light meter app that I had previously calibrated with a real meter. The image at top, my first photo, is of the Crittenden building downtown and I used a front rise and tilt on this image to get the tilt-shift look that you see. The one below, shot in the same area, is a more straight forward photo.

These two photos were pretty much all it took to fall in love with this camera, and, with large format photography. There's nothing that compares to viewing, framing and focusing an image onto a large ground glass like you get in large format. I am really looking forward to getting out to shoot more with this camera soon, as well as the opportunity to load up a few different sheet films. The only downside... I know this camera is just a gateway drug. The 8x10 monorail camera that looked so frightening during my research seems to have become an inevitable future investment at this point.


Stay tuned, I hope to have some more interesting images to share from this camera soon...