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: , , ,

Winner Winner Chicken Dinner

July 25, 2012 7:53 am ⋅ 1 Comment ⋅

I won, ya’ll, I won! 

I have entered many photo-related blog giveaways. Never have I ever won a darn thing. That is, until last month.

A lovely Memphis photographer/designer/blogger/all around awesome lady named Sophorn was given a Lomography La Sardina to try for herself and one to give away to one of her readers. A chance to win a camera? I’m all about that! I crossed my fingers and hoped and prayed that I’d win. As I stated in the comment I left in order to enter the contest, I’d been drooling over this camera for awhile and:

I may or may not have spent a lot of hours this spring looking at a billion photos on Flickr and the Lomography site that were taken with La Sardina cameras…In the name of research, of course.

So imagine my delight when I woke up one Tuesday morning to an email from Sophorn, saying I’d actually been randomly selected as winner of the La Sardina! It seriously made my week! Or month, for that matter. I had my choice of the Mobius or Domino design. While I think the purple and yellow on the Mobius is so pretty, who could resist that striking black and white design on the Domino?? Certainly not I! The camera arrived a week and a half later, just in time to be with me when I was on a mini staycation, a mere half an hour from home. This little getaway yielded some cinematic moments (literally, we went to see a movie at the Orpheum that day!) and what better way to capture those moments than with a pretty little wide angle toy camera??

I think Sophorn did a bang up job of giving the tech specs and history on the camera, so I will point you over to her blog to read about it. That means I can just jump straight into sharing the images from the first few rolls I took with my new La Sardina!

Roll, Numero Uno (the best of the bunch) – Holga brand (actually Foma) black and white film, 400 ASA 

Roll, Numero Dos – expired Fujicolor 200

Roll,  Numero Tres  (oh so cloudy day)- Holga Brand 640 ASA film

 

Posted in: camera equipment, film photography ⋅ 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: , ,