Category: Random

‘Roid Week 2008 is here!

Nicolai Grossman 2 Comments

Shoot some Polaroids, head on over to the ‘Roid Week 2008 group on Flickr (a free account will do), and jump on in!

This time I’ll be shooting expired 669 and Fuji FP-100C and FP-100B peel-apart/pack films and 600 & 779 with a Super Shooter, an Automatic 100, an SLR 680, a Spectra, and a Hasselblad with an NPC Polaroid back. (Yeah, I should narrow it down, but it’s a fun excuse to shoot everything!)

Here’s my Roid Week picture for today, the de Young museum on Fuji FP-100B film shot in an Automatic 100 (see this previous post about my experience with this camera):

 

 

Grab a camera and get shooting!

Reminder: Polaroid Week 2008 starts this Monday!

Nicolai Grossman Leave a comment

Polaroid Week 2008 is a month away! Shoot 5 Polaroids and upload them to the Polaroid Week 2008 group on Flickr—you can participate with a free account!

Get your cameras out, stock up on film, and get ready to shoot, Polaroid Week 2008 starts this Monday, 21 April, 2008!

About ‘Roid Week 2008

It’s that time again…..POLAROID WEEK! This one is a little bittersweet — as you all know, Polaroid has . It very well could be the last Polaroid Week we have…

But until that happens, it’s time to play! Post a Polaroid a day.

APRIL 21 – APRIL 25, 2008

Five days. Five polaroids. (or more if you’re so inspired, just not more than 3 a day)

Starting on Monday, April 21 2008. Stock up on film (!), dust off your SX70, Spectra, 600 or Polaroid weapon of choice this week and start shooting!

Or dig out old squares you’ve found, stolen, or have had laying around since high school and scan scan scan.

Here are our requests: please post photos you haven’t posted on Flickr before. Meaning, give us something new — don’t contribute a Polaroid to this group that you already posted last September. That’s just plain lazy. Also, please don’t post more than three photos to the pool a day.

C’mon. Play with us. You know you want to.

Love,

Cate n’ Lori

PS: Check out last year’s Polaroid Week 2007 for inspiration!

Art Rental

Nicolai Grossman Leave a comment

Pablo Mayrgundter had an interesting idea about renting art:

…someone said they’d pay to have it on their wall for like 2 weeks, but probably wouldn’t want it much longer than that. So we started to figure out a business of rental art just like people put their art up in galleries or bars, it would be nice to be able to join a group of art fans (but people who aren’t otherwise comfortable with buying art) who basically pooled money to have a sampling of paintings go through them…

Continue reading at freality.org

Thoughts?

Get ready for Polaroid Week 2008!

Nicolai Grossman Leave a comment

Polaroid Week 2008 is a month away! Shoot 5 Polaroids and upload them to the Polaroid Week 2008 group on Flickr—you can participate with a free account!

The quality of the work produced for this event has been extremely high in the past—a mid-week roundup from the last one is here. Don’t miss out on the awesomeness!

About ‘Roid Week 2008

It’s that time again…..POLAROID WEEK! This one is a little bittersweet — as you all know, Polaroid has . It very well could be the last Polaroid Week we have…

But until that happens, it’s time to play! Post a Polaroid a day.

APRIL 21 – APRIL 25, 2008

Five days. Five polaroids. (or more if you’re so inspired, just not more than 3 a day)

Starting on Monday, April 21 2008. Stock up on film (!), dust off your SX70, Spectra, 600 or Polaroid weapon of choice this week and start shooting!

Or dig out old squares you’ve found, stolen, or have had laying around since high school and scan scan scan.

Here are our requests: please post photos you haven’t posted on Flickr before. Meaning, give us something new — don’t contribute a Polaroid to this group that you already posted last September. That’s just plain lazy. Also, please don’t post more than three photos to the pool a day.

C’mon. Play with us. You know you want to.

Love,

Cate n’ Lori

PS: Check out last year’s Polaroid Week 2007 for inspiration!

The magic hands of a camera repair professional

Nicolai Grossman 2 Comments

I have a new-style Hasselblad A12 film back that’s been stuck on my 203FE body for over two weeks now. I could change the film by pulling the insert, but the shell just wouldn’t move, meaning that I couldn’t clean or change the viewfinder or attach a Polaroid back. I messed with it, posted to the Hasselblad group on Flickr about it, tried different darkslides (since the back is locked onto the body when the darkslide is removed), coaxed it, and almost sang and danced for it. Nothing worked.

Expecting a long and expensive service trip, I gritted my teeth this morning and called the local Hasselblad rep to ask about repair. Oddly, the number seemed to be out of service (fast busy signal), so I hit Google and found several recommendations for Advance Camera in San Francisco. I talked to him on the phone and he told me to bring it in, which I did. He tried the release catch and noted that it was indeed stuck. Then he fiddled with the darkslide. I thought about how I’d already done everything he’s doing, that it’s not going to work and better for him than it did for me, and that I’m going to be without my camera for a while and out a significant chunk of money. I can see the film back in a million pieces on his workbench in my head, growing more expensive by the minute.

And then, after a whole four seconds or so, the back came off and is now working perfectly. He said something about how sometimes your body stops hurting when you go to the doctor, and shrugged. Magic.

Adventures with a Polaroid Automatic 100

Nicolai Grossman 6 Comments

As I posted, I recently converted a friend’s Polaroid Automatic 100 land camera to use normal AAA batteries. I got the chance to take it out for a spin in Golden Gate Park.

Having separate windows for rangefinder focusing and framing is a little weird, and more shows up on film than the framelines tell you, but I really liked shooting with it. You can carry the camera with the bellows collapsed and still use the viewfinder, only extending them to actually take a picture. This makes it nice and compact for walking around, fitting easily in your hand or on a strap under your arm. (I’d leave the cover at home, since it’s a big useless thing you have to carry, kind of like a bigger Holga lens cap).

Overall, I give the Polaroid Automatic 100 a "hell yeah". You can find them for around US $10 on eBay in working order (except the battery conversion, but you can also just use more expensive batteries if you’re not up for that), and despite the demise of Polaroid, Fuji still makes a very nice pack film that’s cheaper (and IMO nicer) than Polaroid was anyway. Fuji’s compatible films are FP-100C (ISO100 color), FP-100B (ISO100 black and white), and FP-3000B (ISO3000 black and white).

Here are some shots from the park… as you can see, the magnolias were in full bloom!

 

Expired Polaroid 669

 

Double exposure on expired Polaroid 669

 

Expired Polaroid 669

 

Fuji FP-100C

f295 Seminar on Contemporary Alternative Photography, NYC, US

Nicolai Grossman Leave a comment

Tom Persinger writes:

The free f295 Seminar on Contemporary Alternative Photography is coming soon! It takes place in less than 3 2 weeks on Sunday January 27, 2008 at the B&H Photo Megastore in Manhattan and is COMPLETELY FREE! Because we’re expecting a large crowd for this event pre-registration is required. To reserve your space please email eventspace@bhphoto.com.

Here’s information from the B&H Website:

f295 Seminar on Contemporary Alternative Photography:

B&H hosts a very special and rare gathering of some of today’s leading alternative process photographers for a one day event of epic proportions. We’ve packed as much as we can into this 6 hour event! You’ll hear presentations from each photographer about their work, engage in discussion around alternative photographic practice, and participate in a dialogue about the state of contemporary alternative photography.

Speakers Include:

This event is not to be missed by anyone interested in; alternative process (from albumen to ziatype), pinhole, zone-plate, toy camera (Holga and Diana), and self-made cameras! B&H Event Space will be hard pressed to contain the amount of creative energy that will be present on this day.

Date: Sunday, January 27th
Time: 10:30am – 4:30pm

Registration is required for this event and seating is limited! Please reserve your seat and be sure to arrive promptly to guarantee your spot. For registration please send an email to: eventspace@bhphoto.com.

***

Please Note: This event is pre-cursor to the F295 Symposium 2008: An Examination of Lensless, Alternative and Adaptive Photographic Processes held in Pittsburgh, PA. 5/29/08 to 6/1/08. The f295 Symposium is a unique and exciting three day event which features exhibitions, lectures and round-table discussions, workshops, and peer networking focused around an in-depth exploration of alternative photographic processes and means. f295 is working with the Center for the Arts in Society at Carnegie Mellon University and Pittsburgh Filmmakers to bring you a host of exciting events! Complete information, including registration information, available on the website: www.f295.org/symposium2008

See you there!