Month: March 2007

RolleiClub re-launch SL66 site

Nicolai Grossman 1 Comment

RolleiClub.com have just re-launched sl66.com, a resource site for the Rollei SL66 6×6 medium format SLR camera system.

The site says:

The SL66 was and still is the only medium format camera combining five unique features:

  • Built in bellows (5cm or 2″)
  • Reverse mounting of the lens (retro)
  • Tilting the lens up and down 8 degrees
  • Completely mechanical design
  • TTL metering with special hood SL66 (SL66 E and SL66SE have built in TTL metering)

I hadn’t heard of the system before today, but it looks interesting! A bit like the Fuji GX680, but a bit more flexible and a lot more friendly to handle (I haven’t shot one, but the Fujis are massive).

Tod Brilliant’s Pola-Fiction: Polaroids and short stories

Nicolai Grossman Leave a comment

Tod Brilliant [photos on Flickr, personal site] recently launched Pola-Fiction:

There isn’t much to this, really. I’ve selected fifty of my favorite Polaroid pictures that I’ve taken in the past few years. Using each for inspiration, I will pen a small story and post it here. Most likely, this will be at the rate of one story every two or three days until I’m done.

The first two photo-story combos are up and are well worth a look!

DIY Diana flash trigger

Nicolai Grossman Leave a comment

Check out photographer Don Brice‘s excellent modification that allows you to use normal flash/strobe units on Diana toy cameras:

I enjoy using the Diana in the studio and shooting portraits and still life lit with flash. I discovered long ago that by ripping off the usual connector on the end of the syncro cable, you could bare the two wires and jam them down the two flash sockets on the Diana-F model. Ta-da. Plug the other in to your strobes and away you go…

Continue reading instructions at Brice’s blog, Blurry Thinking.

Homemade multiple-aperture pinhole "blender" camera

Nicolai Grossman Leave a comment

DIY pinhole blender camera by bricolage108

Another killer from bricolage.108, the man who brought us the outstanding double-sided lens and pinhole bi-cam and DIY half-frame camera mods! This one’s a three-aperture, curved film plane pinhole camera, which is a homemade version of the Pinhole Blender.

Step-by-step instructions with plenty of illustrative photos here at bricolage.108’s blog. Nice work, again!

 

Cristal Blend, by bricolage108

Cristal Blend by bricolage.108. More photos he made with this camera here on Flickr.

Reminder: “Cheap Shots: The Silver Dreams of Plastic Cameras” show opens TONIGHT, MI, US

Nicolai Grossman 1 Comment

Cheap Shots show flyer

"Cheap Shots is an exhibition of photographic art created with cheap, plastic cameras, old cameras, pinhole cameras, and Polaroids. In an age of expensive, hi-tech equipment, these simple cameras offer a refreshing, lo-tech view of the world in our time. The work in this show was created by seventeen artists from the Michigan area who call themselves the Krappy Kamera Club. This will be their first public showing in Ann Arbor."

When: Cheap Shots will run from Friday, March 23rd to Friday, April 6th, 2007. The opening is March 23rd from 7:00pm to 10:00pm.

Where: Gallery 4, 212 Nickels Arcade, Ann Arbor, MI [US]. On the second floor above Arcade Barbers.

The gallery will be open during the show Thursday and Friday from 3pm to 7pm, Saturday and Sunday from noon to 5pm, and by appointment. The show is free and open to the public.

More info on the show from Matt Callow.

Here’s a larger version of the flyer.

Seeing with long lenses: results

Nicolai Grossman 2 Comments

About a week ago, I took a walk in a local park with a Hasselblad 501C/M and a 350mm lens to see if I could get down with long lenses, which I generally don’t like very much (see previous post).

I didn’t feel like I’d done very well at the time, and the film I got back from it yesterday confirms that I was right. As I’m not used to shooting with long lenses, I’m not surprised that I didn’t really feel like I was shooting as myself. At times I felt like I was trying to look through Vicky Slater‘s eyes, but doing a crap job of it.

I should also note that I have a really hard time connecting with landscapes through "normal" (sharp, even coverage) lenses in general.

As promised, here are some of the results, shot on the new Kodak Portra 400NC-2.

 
 

Peach Hill photo: split tree

Close to something, maybe, but no cigar.

 
 

Peah Hill photo: orchard tree line on hilltop

These are the lab’s proof scans. I think this shot has the most potential, if I can pull more detail out of the trees when I re-scan it. I’ll reserve judgment until I see it.

It feels kind of pretty, in a really classically conservative way. Which I think may be my problem with long lenses and "clean" landscapes in general: when I like them, they usually feel very reserved and forced into a box. I may find something aesthetically pretty in what I’ve shot after the fact, but it’s not how I generally see, especially not landscapes.

 
 

Peach Hill photo: branches and high tension tower

This isn’t great, but I suppose it’s passable as geometric masturbation, which is a type of photo I love to make but don’t think necessarily makes for compelling viewing unless it’s done extremely well. Kind of like playing a 20 minute jam with a band: really fun for the people playing, but not something you’d inflict on anybody else.

 
 

Peach Hill photo: valley and power lines

Depth of field test with a long view/burn frame at the end of the roll. Safe crap.