I posted a Polaroid from this shoot a few days ago, but I think today’s image (shot on a Rolleicord twin lens reflex camera) will be the “official” image for the “Old Friends” series. For me, this image captures the total ease in each other’s company, which is one of the hallmarks of a true friendship.
Today’s image in Kensington Market was taken with my Yashica Mat LM 120 format Twin Lens Reflex camera. On one hand it was quite inexpensive, and has an amazing lens. On the other hand, the shutter/film advance mechanism is balky, so that the film advance often sticks until I jiggle the camera or mutter incantations. This is the one camera I have where keeping a headless chicken in the camera bag (to wave in front of the stuck film advance; when all else fails there is always voodoo).
I swear that in a past life this camera was a cat (Will I work? Yes. No. Yes. No. ….)
Instant Photography is all about people. The experience of sharing the print (as a tangible object) so soon after the image was taken adds a unique flavour to a photographic interaction, and this was quite evident of a photo shoot I had last evening with my good friend Jo-Anne. We shoot a lot of Polaroids, and she enjoyed being able to see them, and I believe she was energized in her posing by seeing how well her poses and looks worked. This image is another negative scan (where the negative peel-away portion of the print is saved, allowed to dry then scanned, and inverted back into a positive). I love the grain and the vintage look I get from these negative scans, and Jo-Anne’s look suited the technique perfectly.
The payphone is an example of a technology that is becoming less and less relevant, as personal cell phones become ubiquitous, and so I believe a picture of a dilapidated payphone was a perfect subject for the camera used to take the picture. I shot this with a Yashica 44LM 127 format twin lens reflex camera. 127 format film (with negatives typically 4 cm x 4 cm) is effectively obsolete and thus rather uncommon these days, and quite expensive, so what I do is roll it from a 100 foot roll of 46mm wide film I bought on eBay. I am still working on scanning; getting this film to lie flat is a real trick. Nevertheless, it is a fun little camera, and I plan to shoot it as long as I can!
Kensington Market in Toronto is one of my favourite places in Toronto: colourful, eclectic, but a bit gritty and rough around the edges. It is certainly not a pretentious or snooty part of town! This past Saturday I went down with three cameras, including a Nikon SLR with a 17mm super wide-angle lens, loaded with slide film (Fuji Velvia 100). The slide film was cross processed (developed as a color negative), resulting in interesting colour shifts and high contrast. I was quite happy with how the set turned out.
This scene caught my eye during one of the photo walks in Cleveland: I was struck by the contrast of the idyllic tropical island scene against the drab interior of the moving truck.
I took this picture of a fellow film enthusiast named Joe at the recent Analog’s Pulse event in Cleveland. When I saw this ridiculous ad I knew I had to comment somehow.
Film shooters are often derided as self-important hipsters, more concerned with projecting an image, rather than creating images, and ads like this just add to the misconception. For me, film shooters are more like the guy in front of the ad, who quietly does what he loves.
The ad is artificial. The shooter is real!
I believe I’ve mentioned before that I love reflection shots (mirrors, glass walls on buildings etc.) I saw this mirror ball in Cleveland a couple of weeks ago and couldn’t resist. If you look closely you’ll see me in the reflection, so it does qualify as a self-portrait 🙂
(Shot on Fuji slide film, cross-processed as a C-41 colour negative)
My day job is located in North Etobicoke in Toronto, and frankly it is not the most picturesque part of town. However, in the morning light there are things of interest I pass by every day, as I walk from the bus station to the office.
Today’s image is of actor Caitlynne Medrek. We did a shoot at High park in Toronto, and Caitlynne was a joy to work with. Every now and then I am lucky enough to capture in one image these essence of a person’s personality, and I think I did so here; it’s hard not to smile back at this kind of smile! 🙂
My Third Eye 