Category Archives: Shop Talk

Forgotten But Not Gone [Photos from the Past]

February 8, 2010 9:25 pm ⋅ 4 Comments ⋅

When I worked at a photo lab, I used to find it funny that some people took photos so infrequently that they’d have both Easter and Christmas photos on the same roll of film when they brought it in for development.

Guess what? I found one of my cameras, loaded with film, that contained photos from *cough* THREE years ago.

During my trip to England in 2006, I went to a camera fair. Essentially, I picked my traveling dates based on the dates of the camera fair in a town called Wolverhampton. I don’t reeeeeeally know why I did that – I definitely didn’t have extra money to spend on cameras! I loved it though, because I got to see a lot of cameras in person which I’d only seen online. I finally did buy a camera, the Agfa Isola I. The dealer knocked of a few quid because it was near the end of the day and he was looking to unload some of his goods.

Before purchasing this Agfa, I had another camera that was quite similar (a knock-off?) called a Dacora Digna (see some photos I took years ago with it here.) Maybe I didn’t need the Agfa, but I’m just a sucker for inexpensive little medium format cameras!

Real quick, here are some cool features of the Agfa Isola I:

•”Telescoping lens”
• The lens folds somewhat flat when not in use, and with a simple twist, pops out so you can take photos.


(I made a cheesy animated GIF to illustrate this action)

• Two exposure settings: Instant exposure (about 1/35 second, according to the manual – wow!), or bulb for long exposures.
• Two aperture settings: info I find says f/11 (“cloudy”) and f/16 (“sunny”)
• Built-in yellow filter (for black and white photography)

And the photos? Drumroll please…

 Any time I happened to remember about this camera and the photos I’d taken on it, I had a definite memory of photographing my friend Kelsey at Food Not Bombs, wearing a striped sweater. Beyond that, I had no idea what might be on that film. So, three years after the fact, I guess I was right about the details of the photo I’d taken of Kelsey! And I apparently also photographed the Cannon Center.

I think it’ll be a decent little camera medium format camera to tote around with me some times, as well of a reminder of a really lovely day I had when I visited England that one time.

 

Posted in: camera equipment, film photography, forgotten frames, informational, shop talk ⋅ Tagged: , , ,

Helllllllllo Lomo!

December 30, 2009 4:07 pm ⋅ 4 Comments ⋅

Ahhhhhh. The much beloved, and the much maligned, Lomo LC-A.

Oh you, Lomo Kompakt Automat.

A Little History About Me and Lomo

Let me give you a little Shoot With Personality history. Before there WAS a Shoot With Personality (well, that is to say, I am Shoot with Personality – but before I had a site called that…) I, as a developing photographer, owned a Lomo LC-A. Or two? Yeah, I guess I broke my first one, and it had some issues anywayz…I got the first one in early 2002? Judging from the photos of my now 8 year old niece sitting in her high chair that were on the first roll, 2002 seems about right. It was awhiiiile ago, but I believe I got mine from a seller in the Ukraine, from ebay. I wouldn’t have paid more than $75 for it, which is about what I paid for the second model I got the next year, also from a Ukrainian ebay listing. The best part of buying packages from the former USSR, btw, is the packaging. You wait a month for it to arrive, then when it does, it’s wrapped in brown paper and tied up with what I assume is string made from yak fur. SO old-world! SO charming!

I don’t even show pictures from those early days around too much, because they were very much a time of “development.” But I recently showed them to a photographer friend, and he saw some merit in my development period… If you care to see some of those older photos – really, some as old as 2001 and 2002- you can see them in my good ole Lomohome on the good ole Lomographic Society site (that “society”, as many things I mention in this blog, is another discussion for another day.)

What’s a Lomo?

I used to have a little description of the LC-A on the Lomo section of the OLD version of the Shoot With Personality site. It said:

What’s a lomo?

When most people talk about a “Lomo”, they are referring to the Lomo LC-A. The Lomo Compact Automat is a relatively small, Russian-made camera. Most people who use an LC-A do so because of the camera’s light-gathering abilities, which make it particularly suited to low-light situation”

I guess that’s a pretty good way to put it. It’s a smallish camera. It’s got zone focusing – meaning you don’t foc us the lens by looking through it or anything, you focus it by estimating the distance from the camera to what you’re photographing, and adjusting the little focusing lever on the side. Yeah, it’s in meters. We imperial system folks have to get used to making the conversions in our mind – thankfully, there are only those few distance settings to choose from, one of which involves ∞ symbol. You don’t need to know how meters and feet translate when the setting is “infinity.” You just slide it to that setting when you could describe what you’re photographing as “FAR AWAY!”

The actual “big deal” about this “little camera” (aren’t I funny?) is the lens – It has some specific characteristics that drew a lot of photographers (and non-photographers alike. Heh.) Vignetting. Distortion at the edges. Vivid colors. Add those to the aforementioned “blurry on purpose” – many of us pridefully argued with photo lab technicians, or looked down our noses at the lab workers for not being evolved as we  were, because they would either not print some of the negatives on our film because they thought the photos were mistakes, or they’d print them and very gravely tell us that something was wrong with our cameras. Ha!

I actually have made a lot of friends across the world, due to owning the LC-A. At the time when I first acquired the LC-A, I frequented a couple of Lomo users sites. And, honestly, I’m sure some of those friends were there as Lomographic Society detractors. I know at least one was…But I did photographic print swaps with Lomo users, and a couple of “double exposure” projects with a guy in Serbia – where he put a roll through his camera, sent it to me, and I put the same roll through my Lomo. And vice versa. It was a spicy little photo community with which to be involved, before the days of Flickr.

The Exit of Lomo from My Life. And the Re-entry…

But, I picked up more photographic skills as time went by. I found other types of camera better suited to my photographic needs. I picked up better pocket-sized, partially automated cameras (Dear Olympus XA: You will have your time in the blogsphere spotlight soon enough. I promise! Love, Amanda) The LC-A was something I felt as if I’d outgrown.

So I grew tired of my LC-A and, more specifically, the “Lomographic movement” a few years back and decided to put it out to pasture. Literally. My friend Kent was going back to Illinois and on tour with a band, so I thought he should have it. Never looked back. Not really. Not until maybe this summer. I wrote Kent and asked if I could borrow the camera back.  I was halfway expecting the camera to not exist any more – after all, it was a ’91 model, I had dropped it so much that part of the plastic of the top plate was long gone, and three years is an awfully long time.

Hi Kent! Taken in 2006, about a month or so before Kent bid Memphis adieu, with the very Lomo LC-A in question.

But, low and behold, the camera still exists! Kent is a gem of a fellow and a real champ, so he of course said I could borrow the camera back. What is more, I have now put a roll of film through it, and the camera WORKS! OH HAPPY DAY! I was reunited with this old friend on a week and a half before Christmas. PERFECT timing for taking photos with a camera that yields such characteristically rich colors and Christmas IS quite a colorful time of year. So guesssss what I did?

You guessed it! You know me too well! I took a lot of pictures of shopwindows decorated for Christmas! And I picked things that I thought looked nice and stereotypically Lomo: a vintage store near my home. Funky, ain’t it?

And more results from this first roll through the LC-A:

So What’s The Conclusion on Lomo?

Ya know what? I’m liking having this camera back in my life. Sure, I have plenty of other cameras, even other pocketable ones. Ones that have nicer lenses and ones that you can actually focus rather than just guessing. But, goshdarnit, I like this LC-A. And, ya know what else? I’m a better photographer than I was when I was initially using the LC-A.  My first couple of years doing photography, I was just going through a process of trial and error, just learning how to be a photographer and developing my photographic style in general. I want my photos to stand on their own, not on the merit of things like vignetting and flashy colors. But, when I look into my purse and see that LC-A, that I used to carry with me everywhere, it’s comforting to look upon. It feels familiar in my hands. And those images it produces make me want to say “Ah, hello, my Russian comrade. I remember you well.”

(I SO wish I could do a Russian accent just about now…)

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

The Epic Blog About Instant Photography

November 5, 2009 8:30 pm ⋅ 4 Comments ⋅

I love instant photography. As it happens, this is ‘Roid Week 2009. I haven’t figured out yet which powers of be so dubbed it, but it doesn’t matter to me if it was just some person on the internet somewhere. I love instant photography (which I have already so plainly stated.) It’s hard to say it’s ‘Roid Week when, truthfully, there’s not really a Polaroid anymore. Thank GOD though, instant photography lives on. Fuji makes a film that fits a lot of Polaroid pack film cameras (as well as cameras manufactured by other companies, such as Keystone, which will be discussed later. ) It’s a thing of beauty! And there is a movement to begin production of film for Polaroid cameras called The Impossible Project. Pretty cool, huh?

So, here’s the rub: ‘Roid Week is juuuuuuust about over, and I have yet to have the opportunity to take any of my instant film cameras out for a spin. The good folks at Memphis Photo Supply happened to be out of the Fuji instant film I generally use, but may have some for me just in time for the very last day of  ‘Roid week. They’re sweethearts, I tell ya. However, since ‘Roid Week is nearly up, and I haven’t been able to participate the way I would have liked, I decided to prepare for you folks The Epic Blog About Instant Photography. Wee! I know you’re excited.

I have been fortunate to have a number of Polaroid and other instant cameras at my disposal. If I weren’t such a poor photographer girl, I’d have been VERY fortunate and consequently have way more Polaroid pictures to show you. But I’ll give you a little  taste  of what I have to show from all the instant cameras I’ve had my paws on.

Instant cameras I have used throughout the years:

Cameras that use “integral” Polaroid film”
(the kind that you would be tempted to shake “like a Polaroid picture”, if Polaroid weren’t so concerned about the implications of such things. This film has all the processing chemicals contained within, unlike earlier Polaroid films.)

Polaroid One Step 600

I don’t know if this one really counts or not. My dad was working as a mechanic for a fleet of courier vans. He got this camera to take photos of the vans when they got into fender benders, for insurance purposes. I guess I didn’t get to use it much (please reference the aforementioned poorness of this photographer girl.) But I DO have this potentially embarrassing photo of my two younger brothers and a puppy that I took when we were teenagers. Are ya lovin it? Are my brothers going to hunt me down and make me pay for posting this on the internet? Possibly. Am I glad they don’t possess an equally embarrassing Polaroid of me circa 1996 to use for exacting their revenge? You bet!

Polaroid Joycam

I wish I remembered more about how I came into possession of this camera. It must’ve been about 2003 or so, as that’s when most of the photos I have from that were taken. Including the PRECIOUS one of my niece you see below this paragraph. It took a type of integral film called Polaroid 500. This wasn’t the best camera or most full-featured in the world, but I mean, it’s called Joycam and just look at it. It’s cool. Film wasn’t widely availble for the Joycam by the time I’d owned it a couple of years. Back in 2005 or so, I found a stockpile of expired 500 film at a flea market for about a buck a pack. I was pumped. Then apparently my brother and his wife mistakenly threw  out all the 500 film I’d stocked up, and I never got to use any of it ever again. Sad, but true, story.

Polaroid I-zone

What fun little cameras the I-zones were! I had about 3 different styles of I-zone cameras. One of them changed colors when you touched it. One of them had interchangeable face plates (purple and blue.) And one of them was the Barbie edition I-zone (my friend Annie gave it to me.) I liked to use the I-zone for pictures of my friends. They were wild over the I-zone pictures. Especially the ones that were on “fortune film.” The way fortune film worked was: when the photo first came out of the camera, while the photo was developing, a little message was displayed where the picture eventually showed up. The message disappeared once the picture developed, so I used to write down the fortune before it was gone. They said things like “Dance. Always dance.” and “He’s not out of your league.” And basically, fortune film never lied. Whatever it said usually fit the subject of the photo.

Look how teeny the pictures were!

Polaroid SX-70 Sonar

I should do a whole blog just on this camera. Ahhhhhh! My favorite Polaroid integral film camera! I have had, oh, THREE of these, all of which have been the auto focus version of the camera. “How does this camera focus automatically?”, you may ask. BY USING SONAR. That’s right. JUST LIKE RUSSIAN SUBMARINES! Things that make this camera amazing: not only is it an auto focus camera, but it’s an SLR.  That’s right. A POLAROID SLR. Not only is it an SLR, but it focuses WAY close. I think they say it focuses down to 10″ but I always feel like it goes closer than that (most Polaroid cameras don’t get closer than 3 feet, 2 feet at most.) AND DID I MENTION IT FOLDS [basically] FLAT WHEN YOU’RE NOT USING IT?! [see it in action]

The SX-70 was intended to take a film called Polaroid Time Zero. Some people dug this film because you could manipulate the picture if you messed with it during a certain timeframe after having taken the picture. I loved the photos it took just the way they were and didn’t do much manipulating (I’m not much of a manipulative person in general.) That film was still available widely back when I got one of these cameras. You could get it even at drug stores and the like. By 2006, Time Zero wasn’t around anymore. There were ways of using Polaroid’s (then) more readily avaible 600 film in the camera. It was no Time Zero film, I have to say, but I enjoyed a lot of shots I got with my SX-70 fitted with a neutral density filter and filled with 600 film. *sigh* If only I could get my hands on some 600 film now for the THIRD SX-70 I’ve just purchased (I couldn’t help it, ya’ll. I have such a soft spot in my heart for this camera. I just wanted another one, even if I never got any film for it and the most I could do with it was look at its pretty face.)

The first SX-70 I had, I found at a junk store/antique mall in 2003. I had seen SX-70s on the internet, but never in person. I saw it in the folded down posittion, and mistook it for a VHS tape momentarily. It was $10.  The second one I bought was from that same antique store and was also $10, but I sent it to a friend in England shortly thereafter. The one I kept looked like this before it was all said and done:

But it still took pictures like this:

Ah-cha-cha. That camera had moxie, I tell ya! (imagine I’m Jimmy Durante for that last line.)

Also, please watch this highly informative and strangely beautiful commercial for the SX-70.

Polaroid Spectra 1200si

Oooooh. I liked this one. I think it was a 2005 ebay purchase. I was not getting to use my SX-70 anymore, and this was as close to that camera as I was going to get at the time.  It, like the SX-70 was a Sonar auto focus camera (big plus!), though not an SLR like the SX-70. But it had a built-in flash, which was nice for snapshots or fill-flash. Unlike a lot of Polaroids though, you could turn the flash off and the camera would do long exposures (HUGE plus.) It took Polaroid Spectra film, which was pretty accessible at the time when I was using the camera. Funds for the film were not, however. I liked using the 1200si a lot, and would fire it up tomorrow if I had some film to put in it.

Polaroid Impulse AF

Ehm. I’m not sure why I bought this one. I bought it off ebay for around $5 in 2005, I suppose. It took the good ole Polaroid 600 film. The Impulse AF also had sonar auto focus, like the SX-70, but it seemed way less cool on this camera. I got some good shots with it, so I guess I got my $5 out of my Impulse AF. Maybe I’ll unearth Impulse one day if the Impossible Project works out.

Polaroid cameras that use “non-integral” film
(aka peel-apart film. The chemicals which process the picture are exposed when you pull it open to reveal the developed picture. It’s kinda messy and requires you to time how long you let the photo develop, depending on what the air temperature is when you are letting the photo develop.)

Polaroid 250

I am in L-O-V-E with the pictures I get out of this camera. The quality is top-notch and SEE HOW AWESOME THE CAMERA LOOKS?! There are a number of cameras of the same ilk as the 250, but the features of the 250 include a rangefinder focusing system, long as h*ll exposures when needed, and a nice glass lens.

Know what’s cool about these kinds of cameras? The pull-apart film comes in color:

AND black and white:

The 250 is one of the cameras which accepts the type of film Fuji currently produces for instant photography. This is killer, considering these Polaroid cameras that use peel-apart film are just about the only Polaroid cameras which are very useful since Polaroid quit producing film themselves.

Polaroid Colorpack

I don’t own a Polaroid Colorpack. I was able to borrow one from my friend Drew earlier this year (and here is a picture of Drew actually holding the camera.) It’s another sweet peel-apart film camera. I think the pictures even look sorta like they were made in the 70s when I used the Colorpack.  It’s got a plastic lens instead of glass, which probably adds to that vintage feel. Tres cool!

Non-Polaroid Instant Cameras:

Fuji Instax 200

This camera is pretty insane looking. I need to take a picture of it next to something normal sized so you can see how monstrous it is. I became sensitzed to the existence of the Instax camera because I saw a kid on the Canadian teen soap opera, Degrassi, using one. It was an instant camera, but wasn’t like any Polaroid I’d ever seen. My word! I got kinda obsessed with the idea of procuring an Instax, and even ended up getting a friend out of the deal. I posted  photography forums that I needed someone in the UK to help me find one of these cameras and send it to me, and someone volunteered to help with this task. We found one for under £4. Got me some film, too. This is another camera I liked to use but never got to use enough. At the time, the only way to get film for it was to order from the UK (which I did, and it was cost-prohibitive to have it shipped over here.)  Now, it seems like Instax film is available at most online camera supply stores. Maybe I will invest in some and take this baby for a spin. As far as limited-featured, point-and-shoot instant cameras go, I thought the quality was better than the Polaroid equivilant. The Instax’s appearance also had this cool factor that made my friends take notice when I whipped it out (although I couldn’t whip it out very quickly, since as I said, it’s monstrous.)

Keystone 800 Everflash

The Keystone is actually the most recent addition to my instant camera collection. I picked it up at the local camera shop. I saw it up on the shelf, asked one of the veteran photographers there was kind of camera it was, and ended up walking out having purchased the Keystone knowing only what the camera shop fellow told me about it. I can’t find much information about the Keystone online anywhere, nor can I find many photos on Flickr which were taken with the camera. However, I have quite enjoyed my Keystone. Like the Polaroid 250, I am able to use Fuji’s instant film in the Keystone. A cool feature on the Keystone, which other instant cameras produced at the time of the Keystone lacked, is the built-in flash. Most cameras back then used the dreaded flash cubes. Yuck! I don’t have much use for a flash on an instant camera, but it actually has come in handy so far. The camera does do long exposures when needed, something I always love in a camera that doesn’t let you set the exposure controls yourself. The Keystone has a plastic lens, but I’ve found it surprisingly sharp. Mmmm. I’m a fan of my Keystone, for sure.

Bonus: cheesy photo I took of my Keystone 800 at my portait studio job one day when I was bored.
(I know this blog was extremely long. I warned you in the beginning that it was gonna be epic though, so I applaud you if you stuck it out. Yay for instant photography! Check out more here in my galleries.)

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

J’aime les détails? Moi aussi!

September 18, 2009 7:03 pm ⋅ Leave a Comment ⋅

J’aime les détails is  apparently French for “I love details.” Which I do. I don’t actually know French, btw, aside from “répéter s’il vous plaît” and “moi aussi”  – I remember that from the six weeks of French I took in 11th grade before dropping public school and becoming homeschooled. I only know this “I love details” phrase in because I am a member of a Flickr group by the same name. I love posting photos to this group because it made me realize how many photos I take are of details rather than of something in its entirety. I usually go in close to show just the particular part of whatever I am photographing. I could give you lots of examples of this (look at this week’s Bokeh Wednesday, for instance) However, I will show you with a couple of photos I took yesterday whilst on my break from work.

I was at Borders looking for a certain book (which they didn’t have in stock.  Boo.) On my way back to my car, I noticed something odd about a drain grate in the parking lot. There appeared to be something sort of hay-like wrapped around part of the grate. I grabbed my Pentax K20d with 50mm/2 lens and took a couple of shots.

This shot is alright. I liked it because I purposefully included the raised relief of  “Memphis”  at the bottom.

But, I like this version of the photo better. I got in closer with my camera for a tighter shot. I think it puts more attention on the bit of this grate that I thought was interesting – the grass or hay that was wrapped around the center. That’s what caught my eye in the first place and what I thought should be the more obvious subject of the shot.

So, for any of you would-be photographers out there, I highly suggest shifting your perspective from “the big picture” to the more fine details of whatever you’re shooting. It’s my favorite thing to do, and all you Shoot With Personality, Jrs. out there might like it as well!

Posted in: informational, shop talk ⋅ Tagged: ,