26 Instax Packs - #17 - Rainbow Instax Mini Frame in Diana F+ with Lomography Instant Back. Just felt like loading up the Diana F+ and going for a walk around Hanover, PA on a sunny, hot Saturday morning while Brenda was working. Thankfully I had turned the air conditioning on before I left the house. I had also intended to use my Holga 120IB instant back, but I have not been able to get it to work properly pretty much from the time I've gotten it. The first five frames of Instax Monochrome I shot with the Holga 120IB came out fine, but I haven't been able to get it to work since then. Hopefully they will come out with a new version. Maybe I could try using the Diana F+ Lomography Instant back with the Holga.
World Toy Camera Day 2016 Results
My "World Toy Camera Day" camera choice for this year was my green HolgaGlo 120N loaded with expired Kodak Portra 160NC. I took the camera along for a visit to my mother-in-law's house just outside of Elizabethtown, PA. Most of the photos were shot on the drive from Harrisburg through Steelton, PA. My favorite shots are of the turnpike underpass and the abandoned Getty gas station.
The roll was developed with Film Photography Project C-41 Kit and scanned with Epson V500 Photo.
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.
HolgaGlo 120N with Expired Kodak Portra 160NC - 52 Cameras
For week 3 of 52 Cameras, 52 Weeks, we have the HolgaGlo 120N with expired Kodak Portra 160NC. I had recently been given the expired Kodak Portra 160NC by a close friend after he found it an old darkroom, he thought I might want to try it out to see what I would get with it. I have used the HolgaGlo 120N in my collection before, but only once to shoot a roll of Shanghai GP3 100 black and white film to try it out after I first bought it. I wanted to use color film in the camera, which I developed with a new Unicolor C-41 home developing kit that I bought from the Film Photography Project Store. This is my third kit, I've had good results from the previous kits, but my last one was greatly expired, time for a new kit.
For this week's roll of film, we took a trip down to the Conowingo Dam on the Susquehanna River on the border of Cecil and Harford Counties, Maryland. The Conowingo Dam is known for it's winter Bald Eagle population, as the birds come here to feed off the abundance of fish that are released through the turbines of the dam at times, which according to the visitor center hostess, the eagles anticipate when the warning lights start to flash. I wasn't really thinking that I would capture a Bald Eagle photo on my Holga camera, I just thought it would be fun to take a few shots of the dam and maybe a few things along the drive there and back. The weather was perfect, sunny and not too cold. We packed a picnic lunch, our cameras and binoculars, and had an enjoyable couple of hours watching the birds and talking to fellow photographers while we were there. A nice couple told us about the visitor center, so we stopped in and had a very informative conversation with the visitor center hostess about the construction and history of the dam and surrounding areas, as well as information about the Bald Eagle population.
Back to the Holga - In addition to the Conowingo photos, I also tried a few photos with a flash. I enjoy shooting with it, I just need to remember to set the focus before I take a shot. The film came out pretty nice, some color shifting and blue vignetting, but overall I like the color in these. I had shot another roll of this film with the HolgaGlo at Gettysburg, but that's not in this week's post, you'll have to check out my Flickr page to see those shots.