Posts under ‘Film Cameras’

Last night I attended another free KPRI FM Private Listener Concert.  This time Indie Rock group “The Airborne Toxic Event” played on the rooftop of the Hard Rock Hotel.  Our friends Deanna and Anna joined us.  I was pretty wowed by the design of the Hard Rock Hotel.  This is definitely a posh place.  $10 a drink is a pretty steep price for a glass of OJ, grapefruit juice and vodka, especially when the bartender stiffs you on the alcohol.  I just don’t believe in paying $10 or more for a drink, unless it is something special that they handcrafted for you–maybe a mojito or something yummy and blended.  Like everyone else these days, we’re on a tight budget but we still want to enjoy life and go out.  This is why we’re starting to go to more free concerts and shows in San Diego (we made a pact that we would do this.)  And, this is why next time we’re eating dinner beforehand and bringing a flask!  It is still possible to enjoy a good time out for virtually free or very cheap if you’re in the know, you do some pre-planning, and you’re up for new experiences.

I had never been to The Hard Rock Hotel and the rooftop has an awesome open air feel complete with cabanas, a pool, loungey sectionals surrounding long fire pits, and trees with twinkling lanterns hanging in them.  It was quite a lovely night.  However, after the show was over and we had hung out there some more, we could see it slowly transforming into that snooty club type of place that I can’t stand.  You know, the kind of stuffy, overpriced place that mainly exists only in the Gaslamp Quarter.  I knew what kind of place it was juding from the attire their staff was wearing.  Their men were fully clothed in all black but the women we’re wearing turquoise bikini tops and tight white pants.  Why don’t they make their men walk around in Speedos, sucking in their guts too?  Anyway, this is not my kind of place, although it was cool to check it out for a free concert.  I think I’ll stick to cheap, low key dive bars and my friend’s houses.

Now, about the concert.  I am not very familiar with their music as I had listened to their album twice before the show.  Seeing them live helped to win me over for sure. They had a stand up bass player and a female violin player.  I really dug that!  I also really liked their shoes.  All the guys in the group were wearing scuffed up pointy elf looking shoes that probably only rock stars could pull off.  

They opened with the song, “Wishing Well,” which is the first song on their album and so I recognized it.  This is a great song, the kind that slowly builds up until the vocalist starts singing.  I quickly shot the entire roll of 3200 Ilford Delta film in my Holga–easy to do when you’ve only got 12 shots.  The other standout song was “Sometime Around Midnight,” which is a tragic breakup song.  This is probably the best song on their album.  When they came back to play a few encores I adored hearing them cover The Smiths’ song, “Ask Me.”  It made me realize I hadn’t listened to The Smiths in a long time and I want to put them on my ipod soon.

I wasn’t in love with too many of my Cybershot photos, there were only a few I liked enough to post.  I did, however, manage to visit Gaslamp Photo to have the film from my Holga developed.  This is pretty unheard of to be able to shoot true black and white 120 film in your Holga and have it posted on the web the next day.  I’m pretty excited about that!  As always, the Holga photos have such a different vibe to them and I ended up with some unexpected images.

Here’s the hubby helping to promote his place of work by wearing his nifty www.slacker.com T-shirt.  If you haven’t already checked them out, please do!  It’s the best that internet radio has to offer.  It’s free to set up an account, you can customize your own stations, and you can even skip through the songs you don’t like.  My personal favorite to listen to is their alternative chill station.  They play a lot of the same kind of music you’d hear on FM 94.9’s Big Sonic Chill (every night at 9pm).

Here’s Deanna and Anna rocking out!

I met this nice couple while I was shooting photos of the band member’s shoes and I promised her I would post their photo on my blog.  They were laughing because the lady next to them was asking if I had a shoe fetish.  Don’t most women have a bit of a shoe fetish?

I got the Golden Half camera a few months ago and it’s taken me that long to go through the first roll.  This is the camera that shoots in half frames so you get twice the amount of shots per roll.  This was definitely the case of the neverending roll, and I only had a 24 shot roll in there!  I can’t imagine having a 36 shot roll in there (72 shots).   Today I shot the last 12 shots of my pets trying to use up the film so that I could get it developed. 

The above shot was my absolute fav from the roll, which was shot when we went to the Andrew Bird Concert on the Hornblower cruise.  My dear friend Deanna is like a ray of sunshine–people are always drawn to the warmth of her spirit that emanates from her because she’s always giggling and having fun.  I love the rays of sunlight that are shooting through the image and backlighting her.  This definitely called for that 70’s polaroid look!

I have to say this is one of the coolest toy cameras out there.  It was well worth the money spent.  I got @ 50 shots back, maybe 20 or so didn’t turn out (too dark because I shot indoors without a flash and now I know I need to get a small, cheap flash to put on the hot shoe), but so what, right?  That means I got 30 properly exposed ones.  That is the sweetest thing ever!  You don’t know how many times I’ve been disappointed to find I only liked 8 shots on a 24 shot roll back in the day when digital didn’t exist yet.  Now I can take this camera everywhere I want without too much worry of it getting damaged or stolen.  I certainly wouldn’t want to tote my DSLR to the beach for fear of getting sand on the lens.  But, with this camera it’s not a huge issue.  I could just replace it if it was badly damaged.

I went to Gaslamp Photo to have it developed and scanned and he charged me the same amount for a regular roll of 35mm film regardless of the number of scans (sweet!).  He was really curious about my camera when I picked up my film.  He said it had been years since he’d seen any film shot with a half frame camera.  He charged me $10 total ($2 to develop and $8 to scan to disk).  I didn’t want to scan that many images myself so I gladly paid the $8.  I also had a roll of B/W Holga film developed (but not scanned) so I’ll be working on the scanning tomorrow.  For 120 B/W film to be developed only came out to $5.50.  That is so cheap considering it is also one hour service and this is the only place in the county that still develops true black and white film.  Everyone else sends it out to labs in Orange County and LA.  I asked him to please never stop developing true black and white film, otherwise I’d have to go back to Walmart and I would probably just stop shooting on 120 film then.  I highly recommend Gaslamp Photo.  I can’t believe how awesome this find was for me–cheap one hour service for 35mm and 120 film developing and they are only 5 miles away (no need to even get on the freeway).

Here are a few more of my favorites from that neverending roll of film.

The 4 of us waiting to get on the boat for the Andrew Bird Concert

The Juxtaposition of Analog and Digital

Scene in Mission Hills above the airport

Let me just say first that I absolutely adore this film. It is super high quality film that’s great for low light photos and it gives you that desirable film grain (not the ugly digital kind).  I really love the tones I got from this film as well.  It is quite interesting how different these are from the digital ones I took with my Sony Cybershot.  I like how someone described what Holga photos look like:  “what life is like through a drunken sailor’s eyes.”  I really wish I could quote that person but I read it online somewhere and I can’t remember where (mommy brain). 

Every photo on this roll that I took with my camo Holga is different.  Seeing as how I only had 12 shots and I have never used this film I tried something different for every shot.  Here are the most interesting ones:

Andrew Bird playing the violin

This was a straight shot with the normal Holga shutter speed.  I had plenty of light still and now I know this for future reference using this film again.

Taken on the bulb setting and holding the shutter down for @ 30 seconds. 

This was another straight shot with the regular shutter speed.  The light was fading so the picture came out a bit dark.  I lightened it up so you could see their faces better using shadows/highlights in Photoshop.

This is a classic for me: I forgot to wind the film or didn’t wind it correctly in between shots so these two ended up blending together.  I’m not sure what I’ll do with it but I do love happy accidents like these.  This is what makes toy camera photography so much fun!

Shime

This is  a Holga photo from my recent visit to the Quail Botanical Gardens.  I just picked up the film today and scanned it in using my brand new Canoscan 8800F.  Boy is it fast!  I would love to go back to these gardens and take more time to photograph. 

In the Asian gardens I found this art piece interesting and I just knew it would make a great Holga photo.  Here’s a photo of the plaque for further information on the artist and the meaning of the word Shime’.

Here’s another one I really liked .  This bamboo pathway was such a serene place to be.

Bamboo Path

Warning/Disclaimer: This is rated highly addictive. Read on at your own risk. That means you Deanna! Yes you, Miss Ebay Camera Girl. I do apologize that my GAS (Gear Acquisition Syndrome) has spread to you.

True story: My Holga K-200N just up and broke a few weeks back. The film wouldn’t wind as I tried to load my 3rd roll of film. What a piece of junk! Certainly not worth the $40 sale price if it didn’t last but a few weeks. Thankfully I still had the receipt and Urban Outfitters took it back with no problems. While I was there I gazed longingly at the Blackbird, Fly and pondered the possibility of bringing her home. Hmmm, with a $40 credit towards the purchase price of $125.00 it would only be $85.00. I felt inclined to call my husband and graciously ask his permission. I could have just bought it and been done with it, but since I’ve been buying a lot of toy cameras lately I felt guilty. My husband is a saint and I really should give him a spa day complete with peeled grapes. Of course he said, “if it makes you happy honey, just buy it….I really don’t care about the money.” So that is the story of how the stylish orange Blackbird Fly came home with me. They only had one orange one left mind you, and I’m partial to that color…well, all bright colors, especially for things like cameras, iphone cases and strollers.

When I brought her home it was love at first sight for my husband C and since she’s only a camera I didn’t let the jealousy thing get in the way. He read her operating instructions and figured out how to load her with film. Then he said she should be his camera since I have so many of them! LOL

My oh my she is a a quirky little thing, but oh so tiny and cuuuute! From the pictures you see of her online you think she’s larger than she really is. She’s only a little taller than my Holga 120N and about half the width. The camera body is about twice as deep as my Holga. Loading her with film is kinda tricky and I admit my husband has advised me he will load her up with film until I get the hang of it and can watch him do it a few times: it goes over and then under and does some crazy loopty loop thing.

This is my first TLR camera and I’m very excited about it. First off, you can use 35mm film so it’ll be easy to have it processed at a one hour lab for cheap. It comes with two masks–one for the standard 35mm format and one to make square images. You also have the option of no mask at all which exposes the image onto the entire roll of film, including the sprockets, which is how I’m shooting my virgin roll. Cool!

I suppose my only complaint is the price point for this camera, although I do recognize this is a very special camera, looking much like a Rolleiflex. It’s a little tricky to focus and very trippy using the waist level viewfinder looking down into the shot.  It makes me a little dizzy because it is the opposite view–if you want to move the frame up you actually move it down and left is right and right is left.  Yeah, crazy.  Today I shot Little A and the ducks at our local lake.  It was tough not to fall over.  I am almost ready to have my first roll of film developed so stay tuned!    BBF = BFF once I get the hang of things.  I like her name most of all.  The comma is very thoughtful:  Blackbird, Fly.

For all you Holga enthusiasts, here is a great summer photo contest to enter with awesome prizes:

http://www.holgapalooza.com/

The Andrew Bird concert tonight was simply amazing and to top it off we got our tickets for free!  Date night with my hubby and hanging out with our good friends Deanna and Scott “on a boat” - like, wow!   The weather was so nice and warm and the Hornblower is quite the venue for an intimate show like this.  I loved the ambiance of tonight and I’m blown away by Mr. Bird’s singing, violin playing, and most of all his whistling.  Yes, he sounds like a songbird when he whistles so his name is very appropos.  It really is something!  I felt very lucky and grateful to be there.  In fact, even Andrew Bird exclaimed a few times, “we’re on a boat!”  LOL

As the sun started to set and we had that wondrous “magic” light falling on the bay with the Coronado Bridge in the background, I went crazy and took a bunch of photos with my Sony Cybershot.  I also shot with my Golden Half camera (which BTW I still have not reached the end of my first roll yet) and my Holga toy camera.  I had Ilford Delta 3200 B/W film loaded in the Holga and I’ve never shot with it.  I hope I got a few good ones on that 12 shot roll.   I just could not decide on a favorite and this was a special occasion, so here are eight of my favorite shots from tonight.  Again, the Cybershot continues to perform exceptionally well and hits the exposure right on.  I love this little camera!

I’ve been under the weather lately and really tired.  We had a huge, busy weekend going to family functions and Little A came down with a cold.  I have that scratchy throat feeling so I know I’m fighting one too.  Ugh.  So today I ran around running a bunch of errands since I had no time over the weekend and I must confess I didn’t take any pictures I’d like to post.  I tried to take some shots tonight with my iphone (since I forgot my Cybershot while I was out) but none of the shots are worth posting.  So, I thought I would post one of the photos from my Uncle’s funeral that I just got back. 

Anyway, back to this photo–it was shot on my Diana camera with the fish-eye lens.  I really like this shot because it was very unexpected.  You see, I was trying to photograph just the military officer in the center playing the sad song on the trumpet, but I also ended up getting three men in dark suits on the left side.  Their bodies got morphed by the distortion of the fish-eye lens and the one on the end looks really stretched out.

Military Salute

I am really enjoying my Holga K-200N 35mm for the sole purpose of using it with the fish-eye lens and being able to have the film developed quickly.   This camera lacks the vignetting and the dreamy quality you get with the Holga 120N, but for fun with a fish-eye and seeing the results fast, this is awesome!  These shots were taken on our recent trip to Legoland.  Here’s what the world of Legoland would look like through a fish bowl. 

Our friends Kasey & Jasper

I got quite a bit of lens flare (the orange) but I actually kind of like it that way for this particular photo.  This is a cute one of them.  We were watching the fire engine show together and when it was over, we were happy to realize it was the very first show we had been able to sit through from beginning to end with the boys.  They were really into the show (i.e., fire trucks are COOL!).   We thought it was cheesy but we were just really happy we could sit through a show and have our boys be entertained.  Just another sign that our boys are growing up fast!

San Francisco

Chrysler Building

Flat Iron Building (non fish-eye)

Since I didn’t get the chance to photograph the Flat Iron Building on my only trip to New York several years ago, I’m glad I at least got to photograph the Lego version!

As you may already know, this cute little camera called out to me when I “happened” to step back into Urban Outfitters, and since it was on clearance I simply couldn’t resist.  I’m so glad I bought her.  I’m still shooting with her and she hangs out in my purse 24/7.  The roll seems to be going on forever and ever–instead of 24 shots I now have 48 half shots, of which I hope to make some very cool diptychs.  Whenever I finish that roll and get it developed I’ll be sure to post some.  She’s quite a litle beauty and it’s easy to fall in love with her.  Here’s a cool review that Four Corners Dark recently posted on her:

http://nicnichols.com/FourCornersDark/?page_id=1431

Golden Half Camera