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.

Cleveland Magazine & Some other Housekeeping

I am very proud (and flattered) to say that I have a little article about me in this months issue of Cleveland Magazine regarding my addiction to instant and analog photography. The article appears in the Lake Effect section, which according to Cleveland Magazine is "the forecast on the people, places and things we love." I've been rather fortunate this year with how much attention my hobby has gotten me, and I'd like to thank Cleveland Magazine for deciding to do this little write-up about me. I'd also like to thank Kristen Hampshire who is the very talented freelance writer that interviewed me and put this article together... I couldn't be happier with how it turned out. If you aren't a subscriber and you'd like to check it out  you can find a copy of this months issue in most Cleveland stores, or, read the article online.


Moving along... point number two of this post is to remind everyone that this Friday will be my first solo show over at Aperture in Cleveland Ohio. The show will feature mostly work from the past year and all of the work will be either instant or medium format photography. For those interested, there will also be a few beers to go around as well as a possible "punch," and some delicious finger foods... all of these things made possible only because of all the wonderful people I know. Here once again is the poster for the show:

Thirdly, I would like to once again throw out there that you still have time to enter my little drawing for a free print. The details for how to enter are at the linked post, and, you still have until midday Wednesday to enter. I know, because of my site metrics mostly, that there are many of you out there that read this blog regularly that have yet to enter this giveaway. Let me say this... even if you don't want it, I would appreciate you pretending you did and entering anyways :) 





Finally, last but not least, I wanted to make you all aware that if you miss me at my show this Friday (or you just love me so much you want to see me again) I will have a few photos at a wonderful little event "Art in the Petit Parc," at Chartreuse on Madison Ave. in Lakewood the evening of the 19th. The lovely ladies of Chartreuse have been kind enough to invite me and my work to take part in a lovely patio party and art sale. So, even if you are sick of my work, you should come out anyways and support all of the other talented artists that will have work on display, and, enjoy one of the cutest little patios in all of Cleveland!

Impossible Project Newsletter - PX70 Push

If you get the chance, pop on over to the Impossible Project's site to check out their most recent newsletter and a great offer on the last batch of PX70 PUSH! for your SX70. You might just notice while you're there that the top image in the newsletter is my very own PX70 PUSH! image from Sara's Diner at the Gateway to Presque Isle in Erie, PA.


PX70 is definitely one of my favorite films from Impossible, and, a big part of what got me started in the world of instant photography. I'm very excited to have one of my images featured on their Newsletter. Thank you Impossible! Keep the great products coming.


View the full newsletter here.

Fuji FP-3000B - Some suitcases, a bike, and you should come my show...

The more I shoot with Fuji's FP-3000B the more I like it. The tonal range and contrast to the film is really nice, and, the fact that I can leave it sit or carry it around with me without peeling it until I am home is even nicer. Of course, if I'm not on the move, the ability to peel the film after a quick 60 seconds is also great, because lets face it, I'm impatient when it comes to seeing how a photo turned out. There's really just a great flexibility to this film, I need very little light to get a good shot, and there's always something fun about shooting with my Polaroid 250 (mostly the looks and questions that I get from people while I'm using it)

These two photos are from polaroid week. After the polaroid walk, while everyone was sitting in Aperture getting their shots scanned for the Aperture blog post, I pulled out my 250 and shot these photos with the last two sheets of film left in my camera. I really like the way the suitcases came out and the fact I was able to get such a good exposure with the little daylight that was left streaming through the window.


I guess this would also be a good time to mention... If you like these photos, or any of my photos, I will be having a small show Aug. 12th at Aperture in Cleveland, Ohio and these prints (along with many more that you've seen on this blog) will be available for purchase. More info in the show poster below... Of course, in the off chance you would like a print but live no where near Cleveland, you can always Email Me as well and we can try to work something out.

Impossible Project PX 70 Color Shade - Polaroid Walk Follow Up

During a post from last week, I talked about Aperture's first ever Polaroid Walk in honor of Polaroid Week as well as my first experiences with the Impossible Project's PX70 Color Shade. I thought I would do a little follow up to share a few more of the photos from that days walk. 


The first, seen above, is a photo of an arcade bowling game at Prosperity Social Club. Being indoors without a tripod, this image was shot perched atop a bar stool and had an exposure of around 2-3 seconds. I always find that I get really nice colors with long exposures (or, if nothing else, warmer, contrasty colors). Another long exposure from that night (below) was shot in near darkness with just about a 14 second exposure. I shot this little piano with my SX70 propped up on a wallet and tabletop while inside the Literary Cafe.

I did take a couple outdoor shots along the way as well. The first, being a very good example of the color that can be pulled out of the new PX70, was someone's bright yellow front door. And then there's a set of two images taken along one of Tremont's sidewalks... a simple paper lantern and a tree wrapped in lights.

Of course I wasn't the only person walking the neighborhood and shooting Impossible's film that day... As luck would have it, I convinced my girlfriend (we'll call her Tiffany) to come along as well despite having never picked up a polaroid camera before. Aperture was nice enough to be loaning out cameras for the walk, and Tiffany got to shoot the Impossible PX70 as well using a non-folding SX70 Button. Even though I have never posted anyone else's work on my blog before, I thought these two images were a great example of the new PX70 and how wonderfully saturated the colors can be... not to mention, these photos are pretty nice for her first outing with instant film.

Photograph Info:

Location: Cleveland Ohio

Camera: Polaroid SX70 Sonar/ SX70 Button

Film: Impossible Project PX 70 Color Shade

Impossible Project PX 70 Color Shade - Big Grill

As I mentioned earlier, this week is Polaroid week. In honor of the event, Aperture had a little Polaroid walk last night with about 10-15 people. We pretty much walked around town, with a few planned stops, and took some really great photos along the way. 


Almost all the film used throughout this first walk was from the Impossible Project. This triptych was made with an SX70 and the new PX 70 Color shade from Impossible. The film is definitely a nice step forward from the earlier PUSH!, with much more color, very little artifacts or spotting, and a touch less sensitivity to light. I would like to mention though, as with the PUSH! before, that this film does still seem to have a bit of a reaction to heat which can still be used to your advantage to pull extra saturation and contrast from your photos (which makes sense considering heat usually plays a roll in any chemical process)


Overall, I think this film is great. Grab a pack, turn your lighten/darken wheel all the way to darken, shade the film and enjoy the final product.


More coming soon!

Photograph Info:

Location: Cleveland Ohio

Camera: Polaroid SX70 Sonar

Film: Impossible Project PX 70 Color Shade

Impossible Project PX600 BlackFrame PP - St. Theodosius

This is a pair of shots that I took yesterday afternoon after work. I've been meaning to shoot this church on instant film for a while, I even stopped there once to do so, only to find out that I had already shot the last frame from the only pack of film I was carrying with me at the time. I guess it's for the best, because I'm quite happy with how these turned out and pair together.


For those who don't know, this is St Theodosius Russian Orthodox Cathedral. It's located on the westside of Cleveland in a little neighborhood called Tremont. It was built in 1912 and is another of Cleveland's historic buildings. If it looks familiar and you've never been to Cleveland, it's probably because this cathedral is best known for it's appearance in the 1978 film The Deer Hunter with Robert De Niro and Meryl Streep.

Photograph Info:

Location: Tremont, Cleveland Ohio

Camera: Polaroid SX70 Sonar

Film: Impossible Project PX600 SS Black Frame PoorPod

1Hundred Impossible Portraits in Films & Grains Magazine

Considering this is the week that my article about the 1Hundred Impossible Portraits comes out in Films and Grains Magazine, I thought it might be appropriate to share a couple photos from that night. If you are new to this blog, or don't remember what the 1Hundred Impossible was all about, you can read more info about it in one of my earlier posts or visit the 1Hundred Impossible Website.

There are so many great portraits from the night, that it's really hard to pick favorites. The magazine article will only feature about 40 of the images, but you can still see them all on the website, and of course... you can still buy the book.

Here's a little sample of what the article in Films and Grains looks like (which you can buy here or at Aperture where the event took place):

And just for fun, here's a few more images as well.

Water Portrait

As usual, I'll start this post with the phrase, "I haven't updated this in a really long time..."

It's true, I just noticed that it was December the last time I posted a photo, which is probably the longest I've gone without posting anything new since starting this blog. Everything has been so busy this winter. I have shot a number of times with different models, but just haven't seemed to have time to put up the photos. Since then, I've also had my work put up for the first time in a small coffee and music shop here in Tremont called Loop. It's nothing much, but it's a start to getting work displayed, and it's actually already brought in some attention and requests from the people who have picked up my business cards.

For this post, I've chose a photo that I just did about two weeks ago. Sarah was scheduled to shoot with a photographer from LA who as in town, but like it often goes with photographers/models/stylists etc, the plans didn't shake out. Being that we had nothing else planned for the day I decided to do a little impromptu shoot here in my apartment with her. I've wanted to do something with water and the old claw foot tub that I have, so that's what we did. There is a nice mixture of natural light and a large soft box from above, and then it's cross processed to subdue the colors a little bit to fit the style. I'm pretty happy with it considering there was almost no planning behind it and the fact that I've never really shot anything quite like it. I think she likes it too... and two weeks later, I think almost all of the water is out of her ears now as well.

Photograph Info:
Location: Apartment
Camera: Canon 5DMII
Lens: 24-70 mm
PostProcess: Portrait Retouch

Artichoke Diptych

Well, I've had this idea for quite some time... I even scheduled a shoot for it, but because of a cancellation by the make up artist at the time it's just never happened. Since Sarah and I haven't shot together in a while, we decided to shoot something this past weekend, so I figured I'd give this a shot after all.

Sarah did the make up without knowing what my concept was...I just said, I want green and yellow, I'll be back shortly. I went and got equipment and the artichokes as well as some jewelry wire in order to make this neck piece. Between her and I it only took about half an hour to forty five minutes to make. It's basically single leaves wired together and then tiered on a ribbon to tie around the neck.

This really isn't my usual style, but I wanted to give this whole concept a shot. I've considered doing more, with different food types, to make an entire series. I'm just not sure yet, there is quite a bit of work behind this shot and the amount of retouching that goes into it. I've spent about two nights retouching skin and removing imperfections to single leaves of the artichoke...

Thoughts?

Photograph Info:
Location: Cleveland Ohio
Camera: Canon 5DMII
Lens: 24-70 mm
PostProcess: Tons.

The Bride and The Bike

So I haven't updated in quite some time. There really hasn't been a lot of time recently for random photography and updates, because I've been working quite a bit on shooting with a few different models over the past couple weeks and it's taken up a majority of my time... both in shooting them and the time spent retouching all of the images from the shoots.

This image here is one from my most recent shoot with Monika. She let me know ahead of time that she had a vintage wedding dress that she wanted to shoot in, but other photographers weren't really giving her the image she had in mind. So, I concepted a little bit darker of an image for a wedding dress using an alley by my apartment, and at the last minute decided to throw in my motorcycle as well.

Alas, here's the final image.

Photograph Info:
Location: Tremont, Ohio
Camera: Canon 5DMII
Lens: 24-70mm
PostProcess: Portrait Retouch

Cafe Obscura

Another image from my walk in Tremont this past Saturday. Despite being sunny, the weather was actually quite chilly. We stopped at the coffee shop Civilization for a cup of coffee and a muffin. While I was sitting there going through some of the photos I had already taken, I looked up and this is what I saw. I liked it, so I grabbed one shot.

It's nothing fantastic in the way of content, but I like the fact that the words are partially obscured, how you can see the shadows of the letters on the wall, the effect the window has in reversing the letters in a reflection, and the way the electrical cords on the left (and corresponding reflections on right) provide leading lines to draw your eye to the images center.

Plus it looks neat. And coffee shops are some of my favorite places.

Photograph Info:
Location: Civilization, Tremont Ohio
Camera: Canon Digital Rebel XTI
Lens: 18-55mm (@ 180mm/F5.6/1/50s)
PostProcess: Burn & Dodge/Curves Adjustment/Saturation Adjustment/Vignette

A Walk in Tremont

Since this is my first post, and you'll probably see many portraits here, I decided to first post something more scenic. This Saturday I went for a walk in Tremont to take a few photos, and to specifically photograph this church after driving past it so many times. I've always envisioned it in black and white. Hopefully one day I can head back there and do something similar with my Holga to see how it turns out.

Photograph Info:
Location: St. Therdosius Orthodox Cathedral, Starkweather Ave. Tremont Ohio
Camera: Canon Digital Rebel XTI
Lens: 18-55mm (@ 33mm/F4.5/1/1600s)
PostProcess: Burn & Dodge/BW Gradient Mapping/Composite Clouds/Crop