26 Instax Packs - #16 - Fuji Instax Black Frame in Diana F+ with Lomography Instant Back. Shot around Lake Marburg and Downtown Hanover.
Pinhole Photography
Week 22 - Revisiting pinhole photography and film developing at home. Last weekend I picked up my Holga Wide Pinhole Camera, which still had a half used roll of film in it and drove out to Devil's Den in Gettysburg to finish the roll. I wanted to try a new photo composition tip that I heard about on a podcast to get better pinhole photos.
I tried positioning my camera so that there would be close objects and objects further in the distance to create a more exaggerated pinhole effect in the photos. I couldn't remember what kind of film I had put in the camera, I had forgotten to write it on the back on a piece of tape. When I got home I developed it in caffenol (a mixture of instant coffee, super washing soda, and vitamin C powder) and saw that there were photos on the negatives when I pulled them out of the tank. I determined that it was Ilford FP4 from the brick of expired film that I had bought off of ebay last year. Some of the photos came out well considering the age of the film, but there were areas on some of the negatives where the backing paper numbers had burned into the image.
This past weekend I got out my Ondu MKII 6x6 Pinhole camera that I recieved as a Kickstarter reward last year which still had a half a roll of extremely expired Kodak Verichrome Pan film left inside from a couple of months ago. I drove out to Codorus State Park looking for a subject and wound up at the rental marina. I set about trying to make photos that had the type of pinhole composition I was trying to achieve, without worrying too much about the subject matter. I finished up and headed home to develop the roll in Kodak D-76 to find that the resulting photos were closer to the type of pinhole photos that I wanted to create.
In the next couple of weeks I want to try creating pinhole photos in my studio with some of the things in my collections, with and without flash. I plan to revisit pinhole photography on my Diana F+ camera with the instax back from Lomography to see if I can get the same kind of effect I got with the Ondu MKII. A pinhole photography exploration might be my next photography project after finishing 26 instax packs.
Meanwhile, I will be getting back into my studio and continuing my Create-A-Thon year long creative exploration soon, it's just been too nice outside to be cooped up in my studio!
Generic Plastic Camera - 52 Cameras, 52 Weeks
Week 31 - Generic plastic camera purchased at Morningstar Flea Market Antique Mall for $10. The tag said "Argus 35mm Camera" on it and came in a bright yellow box with the words "Say Cheese" and "Storer Cable", whatever that means. It also came with a cheaply made pleather carrying case. I did an internet search but could come up with nothing on a plastic Argus 35mm camera, or anything using the other words on the box. I thought at best, it could be a generic Holga or Diana type of camera. It felt quite heavy, probably had a weight in the bottom of the camera.
On the front, the lens reads "Optical Color Lens, Auto Fix Focus 50mm Lens 1:6." It has a tripod socket on the bottom and a rewind release button. I used a roll of FPP EDU 400 Black and White film from the Film Photography Project, as my color chemicals were recently expired. Photos were shot on a morning walk around Hanover, PA and also around Baltimore, MD on my lunch break. I found that the lens was much wider than the viewfinder indicated, I could have gotten closer on some of my shots.
It was very humid on the day I was trying to wind the film onto a developing reel in the changing bag, which resulted in a first failed attempt where in frustration, I shoved the film into the tank to protect it from light. I cooled off a bit and went back in while in a cool air-conditioned room. As a result the film got a little banged up with a few scratches and creases. I don't think it detracts much from the low quality of the photos that I got from this camera, I was hoping for photos with a dreamy quality and a little vignetting. The film was developed in Caffenol and scanned on Epson V500 Photo.