Category: Color

Beauty and the Beast, Part II

· Leave a comment ·

Today’s image in an instant print (of Model Justine from the recent High Park shoot) shot with a recent acquisition — a Mamiya Universal Press Camera. This is another big beast of a camera, and I got it mainly because it came with a Polaroid instant film back, which will give more flexibility for shooting instant images. I also have 6×9 and 6×7 (soon) roll film backs, so it will be quite flexible. It is not the easiest, or most ergonomic camera to use, but once I get used to it, I will be using it frequently!

 

Justine In Colour 1

Details

· 1 Comment ·

Last night I had a great photo shoot with Shreeti, a Toronto model of Nepalese background. She brought a number of beautiful Nepalese outfits. I shot film (colour and black and white), some instant black and white with my Polaroid, and some digitals, one of which is today’s image.

I was truck by the intricacies of the outfits, and the eye for detail that Shreeti had for posing and arranging the outfits; she definitely made them sing!

DSC_0503

Twin Lens Reflex

· 1 Comment ·

Today’s image was created on Kodak Portra 400 colour negative film using my Rolleicord IIIa camera, which is a Twin Lens Reflex camera. Normally the term twin lens reflex refers to the fact that the camera has two lens — a viewing lens, and a “taking” lens directly below the viewing lens. With this camera though, twin lens for me could refer to the large difference in image sharpness when shot with the taking lens wide open (at f3.5) compared to stopped down to a smaller aperture, say f8 or f11. Stopped down, the lens (a Schneider Kreuznach Xenar) is reasonably sharp. Wide open though, I get a softness that I just love. It is great for portraits, such as this one of Emily.

Emily 1-9-12

A New Approach

· Leave a comment ·

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.

neg scanScan-120825-0001

The Colour Purple

· Leave a comment ·

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.

Caroline Elizabeth in Kensington

Something in the Air

· 2 Comments ·

Yesterday I had the pleasure of working with Rebecca Zur, in a park near Yonge St. / St. Clair Ave. in Central Toronto. Twenty minutes before the shoot was to begin, the heavens opened and there was a brief but intense sun-shower. Afterwards, the sun stayed out, and the air remained quite damp and steamy, but the light took on a soft, diffuse and magical quality, which made it perfect for the shoot/ (I was melting in the humidity, but that doesn’t matter :-)) . I shot Polaroid, digital and conventional film for this shoot, and I have chosen one digital and one Polaroid for today’s post, as the looks are quite different, but equally valid.

Rebecca

Rebecca (Polaroid)

Train of Thought

· Leave a comment ·

Today’s image is from another bleached/reclaimed Fuij FC-100C instant print, taken at the Broadview subway station in Toronto. I posted it on flickr as I was going out the door this morning, and didn’t have time to add any description. It quickly got a couple of nice comments, but I think one person made the assumption the look was all done in post. Given the plethora of apps and plug-ins available today to make digital images look like grungy lo-fi analog images, it was not an unreasonable assumption; most viewers would have done the same. I just can’t help but notice the irony of the situation.

Train of Thought

Anything is Possible

· Leave a comment ·

My stable of instant cameras has grown by one, as I have acquired a first generation Polaroid SX-70 instant camera, dating from about 1972. This camera is a beautiful piece of design and engineering, and it is hard to realize today what an impact it made when it was first announced.  For film, as the original Polaroid film is no longer made the only choice is to use Impossible Project film. It is not the most straightforward film (i.e. the prints must be hidden from light for the first few minutes, and the results can be unpredictable), but it is great that an old classic like the SX-70 can still do what it was meant to do.

First successful image from my SX-70

(My first successful SX-70 image, using Impossible Project color shade film)