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 Softtone - Polaroid Spectra - Ashley 02

Second set of images from my shoot with Ashley. Top by Lenni. First set here. Enjoy.

Expired Polaroid ID Ultraviolet Film - Polaroid 250 - Suzy 2

So, three days ago when I said check  back tomorrow for more images with Suzy... what I really meant was check back in three days. It's better to round out your Friday with some polaroids anyways. Here's two more shots on expired Polaroid ID UV film. Taken with the Polaroid 250. 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.

Impossible Gen 2.0 Color 600 Film Test Batch - SX70 Sonar - Polaroid Week 2

Two more images to share for Polaroid Week. These are, again, Impossible's Gen 2.0 Color 600 test film, shot in and SX70 Sonar with an ND pack filter. Unshielded out of camera and left to develop upside down. Enjoy.

Impossible Gen 2.0 Color 600 Film Test Batch - SX70 Sonar - Polaroid Week

Since it's Polaroid week 2014, I decided to try and take a few photos last night so that I would have something to share. Here's a few images that I took using my second pack of Impossible's Gen 2.0 Color 600 test film in a Polaroid SX70 Sonar with ND pack filter. My lovely wife was kind enough to stand in for a few minutes and model for these couple shots. More images (hopefully) coming later this week. Stay tuned. 

Impossible Gen 2.0 Color 600 Film Test Batch - SX70 Sonar - Isola 2

As a quick follow up to Tuesday's post on the new Impossible Gen 2.0 Color 600 test film - here are two more images that I shot that same day with Isola. Shot with an SX-70 Sonar and ND pack filter, available light, unshielded out of camera and processed upside down. Enjoy. 

Impossible Project PX600 Black Frame - Photography Still Life

Yesterday afternoon I decided to get out my SX70 Sonar and an older pack of Impossible's PX600 Black Frame that I had sitting in the fridge so that I could play around a little more with the Close-up Lens from the  Mint Lens Set for SX70. I shot an entire pack, but for today I will just be sharing these three photos that are kind of related in content. I have to say, the close-up lens really does open up some new shoot opportunities and I'm really enjoying that particular lens attachment for still life. More images coming soon... 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. 

Impossible Color Film For SX70 - Hillary

For the first time in a long while, I finally got to shoot some film from Impossible. Now that my year long, roll a week project has come to a close, I've been hoping to get back to shooting a little more instant film. This past weekend, during a shoot with Hillary, I pulled out a new pack of Impossible's Color Film for SX-70. This is definitely my first time shooting with the newest formula, and while I didn't get an over abundance of color from the film, I did get very nice exposures. It's nice that this film has come such a long way and I no longer have to worry about shielding images out of camera, keeping them within a very small temperature rage, etc.

The final image of this set, at the bottom of the page, was also shot with the Mint Lens Set (found here)  - using the close up attachment. Mint was kind enough to send me a sample set months ago, and amidst my other project I never really got the chance to test it much. I look forward to working with these lenses more soon, and possibly providing some small review about them. For now, 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 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

Just a quick post today to share this instant photo from my shoot this past weekend with a newer model in town named Leanne. This was from our first look of the day and I shot this image using my Polaroid 250 and some expired Polaroid ID UV film. If you like this image be sure to keep an eye on the Coalesce52 Blog in the upcoming couple of weeks for the roll of Ilford HP5 Plus that I shot as well. 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. 

Polaroid Week 2013 - Expired Polaroid Softtone - Cassie

I feel like I haven't posted to this blog in ages. A lot of that has to do with the fact that I haven't been shooting quite as much instant film lately due to my year long Roll-A-Week project (which you can find here). However, this is Polaroid week and I felt it was necessary to make some kind of post this week while I still have the time. 

These images, all shot this past Saturday, are with local Cleveland model Cassie who's with Taxi Model Management. We shot a bunch of digital and some film throughout the day but I also brought along one of my last couple packs of expired Polaroid Softtone film to shoot with my Spectra. This film is most definitely past it's prime, but, as you can see I got some pretty good results from a couple of the photos that I took (the close ups working out much better than the wider shots.) 

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.

Kodak Ektar 100 - Canon FTb - A Little On Process

This past week I shot a roll of Kodak Ektar 100 color negative film using my Canon FTb with a 55mm f/1.2 lens for my year long Roll-A-Week project - Coalesce52. After getting the film developed I started to go through the slow process of scanning and organizing my negatives and was reminded of a video that I had watched a few months back over on FStoppers. Photographer Scott Kelby, during the Google + conference in San Fransico, spoke to a live audience about how to work your scene to find the best composition. He even went as far as to take you through his RAW images to show you his own personal process and how even a professional photographer can shoot many images before arriving at the final image. It's an interesting video and if you have time to watch it I definitely think it's worth checking out (I personally love listening to photographers of all genres and backgrounds as I think you can learn something from everyone).



Of course, this concept of high volume shooting to perfect your composition is much easier when you are shooting digital. Now a days, you can essentially take an infinite number of shots (that's only a little exaggerated) and have the ability to immediately see on the back of your camera what your results are. So, what if you're not shooting digital? Well, I was surprised to find that I actually do this a bit when I'm shooting film - more with 35mm, less with medium format, and, almost not at all with large format and instant films (unless the shot is very important to me for one reason or another... then I might give the subject two exposures). 

With that in mind, here's a look at my miniaturized process for two of the setups that I shot with this roll of film. My first final image is one that I featured over on the Coalesce52 blog and you can also see that image at top. Here, seen below, are the three images that I took right before I ended up with this shot (click for full view):

You'll notice, not a lot of change. These images, though, are very different in my opinion. My position moved, my distance from the subject changed and my rotation relative to the subject changed. Now, keep in mind that I wasn't thinking of the aforementioned video or process when I was shooting these images. I was simply going about my standard shoot process knowing that I wanted to get the best shot possible and that I only wanted to shoot 4-5 images on this setup. Had I stopped after the first exposure, I would have ended up with a decent image, but just three images later (I feel) I ended up with a much stronger composition.

Below you can see another example of my process, this time a bit more dramatic, as I worked my way through another setup. The first two images were pretty awful:

And I kind of felt that after I made these exposures, so, I rotated my position a bit to end up with my next two exposures - which were better, but not quite there yet.

And that's when my composition completely changed - I rotated even more to square myself to the subject, I raised the perspective and switched to a vertical orientation. Of course, as with most things, it's all a matter of opinion which of your images you like best, but I believe that my final image (below) is a much cleaner, stronger composition than the above four images that led me to it.

Now, I do undertand that what Scott Kelby is discussing and what I am showing here are essentially two different things. Shooting film though, is a very different thing than shooting digital. One of the key differences with my process (besides the limited number of exposures I'm shooting per subject) is that I can't see my images after shooting them to check for exposure and composition. I can't compare one image to the next. And that, is where pre-visualiztion and expected outcome becomes so important. 

Knowing that I was shooting a 36-exposure roll of film I was comfortable leading myself through this process of experimentation and making extra exposures throughout the course of this shoot. Of course, I didn't know that I was doing it and didn't realize it until I saw my negatives lined up - okay shot, adjust, okay shot, adjust, okay shot, adjust... Good image. Then, when I started to think about it, I realized that I actually go through a similar process when I'm shooting medium format, large format and instant film with one key difference - I don't actually fire the shutter. I set up my image and view it through the camera, I move and do it again, and again, and then back, and again... but eventually I end up with the final Image I'm looking for.

I'm not saying that my process is the correct one, but Scott's video and my most recent negatives made me consider my process and how it changes with the format I'm shooting. Personally, I think that's all that improving your process takes sometimes... something that catches your attention and makes you examine the way you go about things. I might not change significantly moving forward, but, with my next roll of film I will pre-visualize and think a second longer before I fire the shutter each time. That's what I love about shooting film though... it makes me stop, it makes me think and it helps me improve my approach to nearly everything, not just photography.

If you stuck with me this far, thank you, and if you'd like to see more from this roll of film please visit my Week 5 post on the Coalese52 blog. If you have any thoughts on process or want to share your own I'm alway happy to get a few comments.

Enjoy.