Expired Polaroid Chocolate - Polaroid 250 - Ivy 02

A few more images from a recent shoot with Ivy. Expired polaroid Chocolate with a Polaroid 250. Enjoy.

Expired Polaroid Chocolate - Polaroid 250 - Ivy 01

Monday night I had a quick shoot with Ivy, another model with Taxi Model Management here in Cleveland. We didn't plan much in the way of styling and ended up just kind of winging it last moment. Along the way, I ended up shooting some Polaroid Chocolate in addition to my digital work. Chocolate is definitely one of my favorite instant films ever created, and as it's starting to age well past it's prime I decided that I should start using some of my stock before it's completely turned. I'll post a few more soon, but in the meantime... enjoy. 

Expired Polaroid ID Ultraviolet Film - Polaroid 250 - Suzy

This past weekend I had the pleasure of working with Suzy, a local Cleveland model represented by the Docherty agency. She was a great model to work with, with a great attitude who delivered tons of great photos. Besides all of the great digital work, we also ended up with some great instant images including these two shot on expired Polaroid ID UV film using a Polaroid 250. Enjoy, and check back tomorrow for two more instant images with Suzy.

Expired Polaroid ID Ultraviolet Film - Polaroid 250 - Isola

Quick post today to share some more instant images that I took a few weeks back with Isola. Some expired Polaroid ID UV Film shot with a Polaroid 250. Enjoy.

Expired Polaroid ID Ultraviolet Film - Polaroid 250 - Marblehead Lighthouse

On Monday, my wife and I headed out of town and up to Marblehead (just outside of Sandusky) to avoid the insanity of Cleveland St. Paddy's day and to celebrate my birthday on the down low. Here's one of the only instant photos that I took that day - the Marblehead lighthouse on expired Polaroid ID UV film with a Polaroid 250. Enjoy. 

Expired Polaroid Type 57 - Graflex Crown Graphic - Hillary

Following up yesterday's Impossible Color Film for SX70 photos of Hillary, I thought I'd share one of the large format instant photo's that I took during the same shoot. This was shot with my Graflex Crown Graphic on some expired Polaroid Type 57. Enjoy. 

Expired Polaroid 664 Film - Polaroid 250 - Cheyenne 2

As a quick follow-up to yesterday's post, I thought I'd share the other two images of Cheyenne that I took with my Polaroid 250 on expired Polaroid 664 film with available light. Enjoy. 

Expired Polaroid 664 Film - Polaroid 250 - Cheyenne Portraits

After a long 52 weeks, my year-long Roll-A-Week project (seen at Coalesce52) is finally over. It was a great, and sometimes tiring, experience that I'm glad I undertook. I'm equally excited, though, to return some of my attentions to this blog. My hope is to return to a more regular posting schedule here again this year and be able to share a wide selection of film and instant film along the way. I also have a few new goals for the year which hopefully provide me with some great new content to post. Until then though, on to today's photos...

These images, shot with my Polaroid 250 and some expired Polaroid 664, were taken a short while ago while working with a great new Cleveland area model, Cheyenne. I've been interested in getting back to lighting and shooting some simple portrait work in the studio and decided to my own simple crown of flowers for our shoot together. Of course, I shot a bunch of digital and some Kodak Tri-X as well, but today I thought I would share these instant images on their own. Enjoy. 

Expired Polaroid 664 - Jackie

Just a few weeks ago I had the opportunity to shoot with Jackie, a new model from the Pittsburgh area. Though she said she's only been at this for a few months, she's really quite comfortable in front of the camera already and very easy to work with. While she was in town I took the chance to shoot some of my final pack of expired Polaroid 664 that I had in the fridge. Enjoy.

Expired Polaroid ID Ultraviolet Film - Emily

It's been nearly two months since I've had the chance to post to this blog. Things are pretty busy, I'm shooting a lot of film weekly for my year long roll-a-week project and I've all but neglected shooting instant film or posting to this site at all. That being said, when I do get the chance I try to continue to add some instant film into the mix of my work and do plan to post here more and more after the new  year when my year long project and other blog has come to a close. 

All that aside, here are a few images from my most recent shoot with the always talented Emily Wallace. I've worked with her a few times now and posted some other images of her on this blog earlier in year. These images were all taken with my Polaroid 250 and some expired Polaroid ID UV film. Enjoy.

Expired Polaroid Type 100 Chocolate - Jay Elle

This past Saturday I woke up early and drove into a rainy downtown to shoot with this model, Jay Elle, who was making her way through the area during her current travels. It's a rarity, but every once in a while one of these full time traveling models makes there way through my area and I'm luck enough to be able  to work out a shoot with them.  

While I did end up shooting a bunch of digital and a roll of 35mm for my year of film, part of my arrangement with Jay Elle was that I would pull out some of my remaining Polaroid Chocolate stock that I've been hanging onto and that after I scanned them I would sign a couple for her to take with her. Since most of my Polaroids just make their way onto a shelf or into a box after I scan them I was more than happy to make that arrangement. 

These three photos are just a few highlights from the pack of film that I shot with a Polaroid 250. Over the next few days I may post a couple more that I've got as well. Stay tuned, and enjoy. 

Expired Polaroid ID Ultraviolet Film - Alexandra

Last night I had the chance to work with another local model, Alexandra, from the Docherty Agency. We shot in a few different downtown locations throughout the evening. I shot mostly digital and a roll of expired Kodak Gold, but, did end up taking this one instant photo along the way. Taken with my Polaroid 250 and some expired Polaroid ID UV film. 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.

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.

Fuji FP-3000B45 Negative & Positive - Graflex Crown Graphic 4x5 - Emily Wallace

This past weekend while shooting with Emily I attempted to take a couple of large format Polaroids using my Crown Graphic and some of the Fuji FP-3000B 45 I had loaded into my Polaroid back. Well... I pretty much failed on all accounts when it came to getting a decent exposure. I used up the remaining three sheets of film that were in the pack to no avail. 

There was one photo, though, that I didn't hate. It was overexposed for sure, but I think it was also the culprit of a pesky light leak from not securing my Polaroid back properly. Still, the photo was interesting and so I decided to scan it. Here's what it looked like:

Then, while it was scanning, I noticed that the paper negative (the GOOP) actually had more information in the blown out lower right hand side of the photo. There was a little more detail. Some dynamic range held on. Again, I thought this was interesting and figured maybe I could just scan the negative and invert it. I've done it before with good result, so I thought I'd give it a go. Here's what the negative looked like when I scanned it, flipped it and inverted it:

Well, the negative didn't really work out for me either. When I started to adjust the levels of the image it became apparent that while I had more information for my blown out areas, the details in the face were much better in the positive that I had already scanned. I continued to play around with both, but wasn't really happy with the results of either. 

And that's when I decided to experiment a little to see if there's anything I could do to save this image (don't judge me, this film and all other large format instant films are out of production - you do what you can). What I came up with is something of a pseudo HDR using the positive and negative together. A couple different layers of each, some different levels adjustment layers and some creative masking later I ended up with the image you see at the top of the page (or again below):

Is it everyone's cup of tea? I'd expect not. Is it perfect? I wouldn't want it to be. Either way, from nearly nothing I was able to salvage an image that is very close to a standard paper negative scan that's been inverted with a few tweaks to the levels and contrast. I thought it was interesting, and I like the feel of the final image.

Maybe this will be helpful to someone else as well. Enjoy, and feel free to leave your own thoughts on this process in the comments below.

Expired Polaroid ID Ultraviolet Film - Simple Fashion & Emily Wallace

This past Friday, going into the long holiday weekend, we were lucky enough to get out of work a little early, which, allowed for me to plan a quick afternoon/evening shoot. This particular shoot was with a wonderful model named Emily that I've not had the chance to work with before. Originally, we planned to shoot a couple of looks outdoors, but, Cleveland weather being Cleveland weather forced us to start in the studio where we took these images. Later in the day we did end up shooting some very quick sets outside (including a roll of Ektar 100) which you'll be able to see in the future over on the Coalesce52 blog. Until then though, I hope you enjoy these studio shots taken with a Polaroid 250 and some expired Polaroid ID UV film (perhaps some of the best images I've gotten from this film to date).

Expired Polaroid ID Ultraviolet Film - Photo Walk Portraits

Monday evening after work I joined some folks over in Tremont to do a quick instant photo walk put together by Aperture Photography & Variety. The walk was a put together a little last minute, but, we were lucky enough to be joined by Washington Post and freelance wonder writer Melanie D.G. Kaplan. Melanie was in town working on a story about Ohio's one and only National Park and decided to also do a little story about our area's growth in what she referred to as "the slow photo movement" - a phrase I may just have to steal for my own future use. 

Aside from all that jazz, the walk was fun if not a little less than ideal in terms of weather (I'm now suffering the effects of a wicked cold that can only be the fault of this little walk). As for my photos, I decided to switch it up a little bit after having taken so many photos in the Tremont area over the years and instead focused on shooting some portraits with some of the other members of the photo walk. 

Each of these were taken with a Polaroid Land 250 using some of my expired Polaroid ID Ultraviolet film. As you can see, four straight shots out of this pack of film gave me pretty close to four different results. I imagine the changing temperatures, the different lighting situations and the fact that I never time my developments of this film all contributed to that though. There is one more photo from this set of portraits (a shot I took of Melanie) but in a rare and uncharacteristic move I let her keep the photo before I had a chance to bring it in and scan it. If I'm lucky though... maybe I'll get to see that photo along side her article.

Expired Polaroid ID Ultraviolet Film - Pointe

Last night I had the opportunity to head over to Arlene Cassara Dance Studio to shoot a couple rolls of film for the Coalesce52 project. Cassie, a model I have shown here before, was nice enough to help me get access to the studio's ballet and pointe classes and is the owner of the dancing feet you see above. While I was there mainly to shoot my roll of film for Week 17 (I actually shot 3), I was able to get this quick instant photo between classes as well. Shot with a Polaroid Land 250 this photo was taken on expired Polaroid ID UV film. If you are a fan of dance photography or dance in general be sure to keep an eye on the Coalesce52 blog in the coming weeks for the rest of the shots from last night. 

Expired Polaroid ID Ultraviolet Film - Country Winery

Today, I have a real quick post for you to share an image that I took along the road on my way home from Toronto this past weekend. While still on the other side of the border, I hopped off the highway for a bit to see the country side and drive along the Niagara wine trail. This photo is from one of the more interesting wineries that I drove past and seemed like the perfect place to stop to snap a few pictures. I shot this with a Polaroid 250 and some expired Polaroid ID UV film. 

Happy Friday and enjoy your weekends.

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.