Author Archives: Amanda Raney

Out with the Gold, in with the New

October 19, 2012 9:30 am ⋅ Leave a Comment ⋅

Subtitled: The Good, the Bad, and the Divoted

I have been saving up a stash of the Impossible Project’s gold frame PX 680 film. I bought it in June, hoping that I’d buy a plane ticket to London in July, for a November travel date. I also hoped that I would find a Polaroid 680 SLR that’d be perfect for me, before November rolled around. All of the above goals were met. However, I was so anxious to use my Polaroid 680 that I couldn’t let the gold frame PX 680 sit unused for another month! I decided I should burn through my last two packs of gold frame film right now, so I’d have a good excuse to buy the newest Impossible Project film. From all accounts, their new film kicks major booty!

First photo taken with my new camera – I then accidentally dropped and broke the lid to my sister’s  glass pumpkin jar. Womp womp.

Goldenrod 

Balloon dart game at my niece’s school carnival

“All I Want for Christmas is My Two Front Teeth” Club, guests at my niece’s birthday party

Red leaf on a rainy day

I tweeted about my plan to “accidentally” use up all my gold frame film in order to make room for their new color protection film; The Impossible Project tweeted back saying I should, since the gold frame film is turning into “old generation film” now that it’s been about a year since its production date. Boy, were they RIGHT! I had little of the tell-tale maturation issues when I put the first pack of gold film through my 680, but pack #2 was very much touch and go. Some of the shots had divots and uneven developer distribution/undeveloped patches. We’ll just say that it gives the photos a more “artsy” look!

My divot-y French press coffee and homemade baked donut

Baked pumpkin donut on one of my favorite saucers

For a new photo series I’m starting – more on that later

 

I’ll write up a proper review of the Polaroid 680 when I’ve put more film through it. I can already tell you that I’m in the early stages of love with that camera though!

Posted in: film photography, Polaroid, The Impossible Project ⋅ Tagged: , , , , ,

{Ricoh FF-1} Camera Review

September 29, 2012 9:30 am ⋅ 3 Comments ⋅

I admit it: I’m a sucker for pocketable 35mm cameras.Exhibit A – I’ve owned multiples of some of these cameras. And yes, my cameras formed a cheeleader-style pyramid for this photo session

A few weeks ago, I found myself browsing the camera section of an auction website – which is not the wisest thing to do when you’re trying to pare down your camera collection like I (supposedly) am! I spotted a little camera that I’d never encountered before: a Ricoh FF-1. Visually, I knew it was eerily similar in design to the Minox 35 line. One website I read said that this camera looks as if a Minox 35 and a Lomo LC-A had a baby together. I agree! I did a fair amount of research on the FF-1 during the days leading up to the end of the auction. I found relatively little info online about this camera. But I was intrigued! I had to make the Ricoh mine!

I probably squealed with delight when the postal carrier brought the parcel containing this camera. The FF-1 looked to be in good shape cosmetically (it looked purdy to me!) and it already had working batteries installed. That’s always a nice surprise! As you can see, the auction I won also included a little Rollei flash and a cute retro-style camera bag.

So. Here’s what I can tell you about the Ricoh FF-1: It’s a zone focus (or scale focus, if you prefer – same diff) camera. That means you estimate the focus distance and set it manually. On the Ricoh, you set the distance on a little focusing ring that is marked in meters. There is a folding, drawbridge-style lens cover that protects the lens and acts as an on-off switch, if you will. When the drawbridge is in its upright position, the camera cannot take a photo nor can the camera’s electronics be accidentally activated – meaning a photo can’t be inadvertently snapped nor your batteries drained if the shutter button were to somehow get pressed (in your camera bag, for instance.)

Drawbridge action

Film speed selector 

Metal lens barrel with distance scale ring (marked in meters) – and it is QUALITY! 

Handy dandy meter/feet conversion chart. Phew! 

The Ricoh actually arrived on a very good week: Kayla happened to be Stateside, visiting her family, and I’d been invited over for a bake date. What a good opportunity to bring along my latest photographic acquisition! I was right that our bake date would be a photo-rich environment- except my rusty scale focusing skills caused a few shots to not turn out the way I wanted. Boo! But we still got a few keepers that day!

Loved the soft light in Kayla’s mum’s kitchen – and her Cath Kidston tea towels

Mixing up the bourbon pecan pie she was making for her family reunion

Just Kayla is in focus, but I kinda like how it looks as if she’s dancing in her seat as she eats her Ajax Diner leftovers

Kayla prepping for the “food porn” shoot of her completed pecan pie – almost  in focus!

I had loads more success with Roll #2 in the FF-1!

Slight vignetting?? I sure hope so!

Lomo-ish?

See – it’s quite sharp when you focus correctly

Hiya! I have to be able to take mirror self-portraits with the compact cameras in my life

Weird frame overlap thingy – this is the only time this happened and mos def due to what I like to call “operator error”

Bokeh, bo-kay?

 Ricoh FF-1 • Kodak Ultramax 400

Closing thoughts: The main question in my mind about this camera was (and remains): Does it work as an aperture priority camera? There is conflicting information about this online, and I still am not 100% convinced that you can’t use aperture priority. However, I view this camera as a replacement for my Olympus XA2 and my no longer working Lomo LC-A, and neither of those cameras offer anything other than auto exposure. So no biggie if the Ricoh doesn’t work that way either. In fact, any limitations in the Ricoh can also be found in one or both of the two cameras I just mentioned. So I can’t fault the FF-1 for any limitations it shares with the cameras it’s replacing, now can I??

What I like about this camera:

  • maximum aperture of f/2.8
  • “drawbridge” lens cover
  • quality metal lens barrel
  • film advance lever (♥ this a lot!)
  • hot shoe
  • threaded cable release plug

What I don’t so much like:

  • Maximum ISO setting of only 400
  • Minimum focusing distance of 3 feet
  • Setting the distance is a bit fiddly on the itty bitty lens barrel
  • The viewfinder on my particular FF-1 is a little foggy – could be cleared up probably, but I won’t take it apart myself to do it!

That’s about it on the “cons”!  As I said, apparently I’m a little rusty on zone focusing, but I have mastered it in the past and shall do again! I think the Rioch FF-1 has earned its spot on my “Going to England” camera list. And directly caused my XA2 to earn a spot in the “excess camera sell-off on eBay.”

Posted in: camera equipment, informational, shop talk ⋅ Tagged: , , ,

{Just Married} Hope + Richard

July 18, 2012 12:34 pm ⋅ Leave a Comment ⋅

I’m super happy to finally have the chance to write about Hope and Richard’s wedding and to share some of their photos with you!

Hope and Richard’s nuptials took place at Heritage Park Equestrian Center. Heritage Park was also the setting for Hope’s bridal portraits, so I was already excited about having the opportunity to photograph their wedding there. The grounds are just BEAUTIFUL!

I spent the entire day of the wedding documenting the process, start to finish. That meant from the time Hope’s bridal party began helping her get ready, to the moment the happy couple drove off to start their life together! And I did it all on four different photographic formats: digital, 35mm film, medium format film, and instant film. So many pictures!

I can tell you that, for my money, Hope should win the award for “Most Giddy Bride EVER”! You could just see that she was jumping for joy inside AND out the entire day.

As I mentioned when I posted their wedding Polaroids, Hope and Richard spent a little time together before the wedding. Though it was just a short amount of time, it was full of such sweets moment for the two of them on that busy day!

As a result of Richard and Hope seeing one another before the ceremony, we were able to do a ton of bridal party photos before the wedding got underway. Along with being fun to do, it really saved a lot of time post-ceremony so they were able to get to the reception as early as possible. But more on the reception later!

The time for the ceremony quickly approached, and all the elements were SO beautiful! Not the least of which was Hope, who made the sweetest bride.

We were blessed with beautiful weather for the ceremony, and it was perfectly timed to have really lovely light as the sun sank lower into the horizon.

JUST JUST JUST married! The brand new Mrs. Dalton!

Pretty details from our post-ceremony photos with family and the bridal party.

 

Time to ride down to the reception!

Richard and Hope’s first dance. Just look how happy these two are!

The reception theme was vintage travel, which was just perfect for Hope and Richard!

 

The reception was a darn great party! The new Mr. and Mrs. Dalton were having a ball, and I could tell they wanted all their guests to have the times of their lives, too.

The night ended with the guests lining the way from the reception hall to the “getaway car”  with lanterns that floated high into the night sky as they were released. What a spectacular way to end the night!

I truly enjoyed photographing this lovey dovey, super giddy bride and groom. Best wishes and all my love, Hope and Richard!

Posted in: wedding photography ⋅ Tagged: , ,

Tourist for a Day

June 24, 2012 11:56 am ⋅ 4 Comments ⋅

I’m going to introduce you to Kayla today.  Kayla has lived here, there, and yon, being the child of a military family and all. She and I know one another because she lived here in the Mid-South for some years, and we ran in the same circles (hardcore circles.)


Flashback: Kayla, circa 2001/2002

Kayla and I hadn’t seen each other in years. MANY years. That might have something to do with the fact that she lives in England now with her British hubby. Though it’s been somewhere between 7 and 9 years since she and I have been in the same room, aren’t we lucky that social networking has worked wonders for our ability to keep in touch? I love her Tweets about her life “over yonder” and her cute baking ventures (many of which are up on her blog!) There may be 4000+ miles between us, but I’ve still got an open invitation to come over to her house for a baking date!

During Kayla’s most recent trip to ‘merica, she and I reunited over brekkie at Brother Juniper’s – my first time to hit that Memphis breakfast/brunch hot spot. It was awesome! Though I’m pretty sure our lengthy breakfast tête-à-tête nearly got us booted from our table! Are two and a half hour breakfast dates unusual??

Because Kayla’s parents have relocated to the Midwest, she isn’t sure how often she’ll be able to visit Memphis when she is able to make an appearance stateside.  She wanted to do some “touristy” things before she left town this time. I was happy to tag along for this! We took a jaunt downtown to see the Peabody ducks, to stop in at some of the souvenir shops on Beale, and to peek into the windows of the pretty shops on South Main. Kayla’s quest for just the right souvenir to take back to England for her husband led us to the Stax Museum – as well as to a new friend for Kayla and  my next opportunity to stare at Otis Redding’s jacket.

I am utterly shocked that these were essentially the only photos committed to film during the day Kayla and I spent together – considering how she’s photogenic and how our activities that day including many things that would fall into the category of being “photographically interesting.” I just didn’t feel like removing myself from “the moment” long enough to go into “documentary photographer” mode! Though there were too few frames of film spent on this glorious day, I think we really made ’em count! Playing the part of Memphis tourist was perfect fodder for some Polaroids taken with Impossible Project film! The perfect materials for tourist photos, in my humble opinion.

Oooooh, Memphis. A 1970 Caddy sitting in front of an establishment, advertising their brunch. There are normally a pair of longhorns attached to the front of the car, but someone took them off. No worries though, we were assured that the horns were back in the proper hands and WOULD be reattached. 

“What’s your sign?” Pshaw! Kayla asks, “What’s your punctuation mark?” Kayla actually felt like a semi-colon that day, but the camera turned her into more of an apostrophe. 

Luvbots

An unforgettable visit to the Stax Museum. Kayla’s tattoos and my hair were dubbed “swagnificent.”

I have to say that this was the ideal hang out session with a friend you haven’t seen in years. We brought each other up to speed on our respective lives, we reminisced about the past, and we forged new memories together. Success! England really is “home” for Kayla now, but I think it’s safe to say (in the words of Andrew Bryant) she “left her heart on the Tennessee border.”

Now. I think it’s MY turn to show up in Kayla’s town and play tourist…

Anyone interested in raising funds through a “Send Amanda to England Bake Sale and Crafts Bazaar”??

🙂

(Polaroids were taken with the Polaroid Sun 660 AF and Impossible Project PX 680 Color Shade Gold Frame film)

Edited to add:

I had a roll of film in my Yashica Electro 35 GT the day Kayla and I spent together in Memphis. I didn’t get it developed until September, three months after the photos were taken. Turns out I had committed just a few more frames of film to the day than just the Polaroids I originally posted here! Woo-hoo!

Posted in: friends, personal, The Impossible Project, Uncategorized ⋅ Tagged: , , , , , , ,