Expect to see more steam punk images over the next little while! Today’s image is of Ren Brockhouse, who I know through a Toronto theatre group. One of the things that appeals to me about steam punk is how it celebrates technologies that were accessible: things you could build, repair, change or hack with the right tools or know-how. So much of technology today is hermetically sealed away and abstracted; we seem to know so little about how things work, and that is a dangerous state of affairs!
Today’s image is the final one from my recent photo shoot with Shreeti. The first post featured a colour digital image. The second was a negative scan from an instant print. Today, traditional black and white film. I feel each different technology captured something different from the shoot. For me, black and white does the best job of capturing the detail of the lovely clothing worn by Shreeti.
(Mamiya 645 Pro TL, Ilford Delta 400, negative scanned and post processed with Nik Efex pro)
It has been a productive weekend for hand-tinted portraits. Today’ image features Jinxy, an alternative model with a unique and vibrant esthetic.
Today is the final post on the photo shoot with remarkable model and Cystic Fibrosis survivor Sarah D. In this image I made no attempt at glamour; Sarah’s surgical scars from her double lung transplant are plainly visible; nothing is hidden.
The clock to me symbolizes many things; from what I have read, various treatments have improved life expectancies, from a median of 6 months (U.S., 1959) to over 47 years (Canada, 2007). The clock can also symbolize the patient waiting for suitable donor lungs to be available, as the race against her condition continues.
The final symbolism was quite by accident — after seeing the image, Sarah remarked that the clock was showing a time of about 8 o’clock, and that this was the time of her surgery which saved her life. A striking coincidence, and a testament to the operation that gave her the physical strength (buttressed by her obvious mental strength) to extend the timeline of her remarkable life.
(Mamiya 645 Pro TL, 80mm f2.8 lens, Tri-X)
Today’s image is another hand-tint, but unlike all my others, there are no people in the image, and I am making no attempt to be realistic. Ive been thinking of trying more surrealistic hand-tinted prints, and this is my first attempt. I shot the original black and white image of Pompeii last year during our trip to Italy.
Today’s image is from what was likely the last Kensington Market project involving models and the use of bleached/reclaimed negatives from Fuji FP100C instant film. I love the large swath of purple in the image, and model Caroline’s expression, hair, and choice of wardrobe were great for the setting.
Today’s image in a sense has a complicated genesis: the original image was an instant photo, shot on Fuji FP3000B instant film. The negative portion (originally meant to be simply thrown away) was preserved in a delicate and wet state, and carefully dried, resulting in a low contrast negative image. This image was scanned, and brightness/contrast adjustments were made to the scan. The scan was then printed (inverted as a negative) on transparent stock for contact printing using the Van Dyke Brown process. The look is vintage, with the texture of the paper subduing detail.
Another post with a Polaroid bent today: When the very first Polaroid was introduced in the late 1940’s, the original prints had a sepia-like tone. This was considered a limitation at the time, and later Polaroid black and white films had a more neutral tone balance. Years later, they did introduce films that brought the tones back, but alas those films are long gone. I decided to try using traditional print toner to see what would happen. (Tech details for those so inclined at the ned of this post). The results while not perfect are intriguing, and worth experimenting with a bit more. The next test will be to leave this print out for a few days to see if I get any further tonal change or discolouration.
(Fuji FP3000B instant film, toned using Kodak Professional Selenium toner, diluted 10:1. Applied with lint free soft cloth,
allowed to sit for about 60 seconds, then wiped off with lint free soft cloth and rinsed under cool running water.)
I’m focusing a lot on Polaroids right now, as August 13th-17th is Polaroid Week, 2012. This event is run by a group on Flickr; members are allowed to upload two previously unseen instant images per day. I am amazed at the quality of the work I am seeing, and how the particular characteristics of the various instant film and camera combinations work so well for selected subject matter. I recommend visiting the page to see some great imagery!!
I’ve uploaded a couple more images today; the second one is another image of Rebecca, taken using Fuji FP3000B black and white instant film:
Today it’s back to Kensington Market, for another image created by taking the negative from a Fuji FP100C print and bleaching off the black back coating and then scanning it. I’m really hooked on the vivid colours (especially reds and blues) that result from this process!
My Third Eye 