26 Instax Packs - #14

26 Instax Packs - #14 - Alice in Wonderland Instax frame in Lomo'Instant Automat. Brenda and I drove out to Gathland State Park near Burkittsville, Maryland to visit on a Sunday afternoon. It was pretty hot that day, and the bugs were relentless, even after spraying ourselves with Off! I wanted to see the ruins and former estate of war correspondent George Alfred Townsend. We visited the museum there - what remains of the main house from the estate. The War Correspondents Memorial is a pretty impressive entrance to the park. The Appalachian Trail passes through the park, though is was much too hot for us to venture out onto it.

After visiting the park, we drove through the small village of Burkittsville, seeing many of the homes adorned with Rainbow Pride flags. It was a nice Sunday drive with a stop on the way home for lunch at Ledo's Pizza in Frederick.

26 Instax Packs - #13

26 Instax Packs - #13 - Pikachu / Pokemon Instax Mini Frame in Lomo'Instant Automat camera. It was Father's Day, so Brenda and I picked up my stepfather to take him to breakfast and go for a ride in search of unexplored areas of the Gettysburg Battlefield. I've lived in Hanover since 1990 and visited Gettysburg numerous times over the years with my family and more recently photographing different parts of the landscape. I've always been drawn to the boulders strewn about the battlefield and surrounding areas, and there is a special tree at Devil's Den that I like to photograph and sketch. Every now and then, Brenda and I will discover a new part of Gettysburg on one of our drives. I recently saw photos from another photographer of the Rose Farm barn ruins, but I was not familiar with that area of the battlefield, so it was this that we sought out to discover on our Father's Day drive. 

It was a much sunnier day than the last time I shot with this camera, so the outdoor photos turned out much brighter. 

26 Instax Packs - #6

26 Instax Packs - #6 - Hanover, PA - Worldwide Pinhole Photography Day. I used the pinhole on the Diana F+ camera from Lomography with the Instax back and Fuji Instax Monochrome film. It was difficult to keep the camera steady on the tripod when activating the shutter to open the pinhole. More experimentation will be necessary.

26 Instax Packs - #1

26 Instax Packs - #1 - Lomo'Instant Automat with Winnie the Pooh Instax Mini Frame at the Nixon Nature Center.

Lomo'Instant Automat

Week 49 - White Bora Bora model of the Lomo'Instant Automat I received as a Kickstarter reward. This is an instant camera using Fuji's Instax mini film format which features a 60mm f8 (35mm equivalent) lens. The Automat has a fully automatic shutter with a +1/-1 exposure compensation button, bulb setting (up to 30 seconds), and the ability to shoot unlimited multiple exposures. It also has a tripod mount and there's a remote in the lens cap to trigger the shutter for selfies or to shoot long exposures with the bulb setting. It has zone focusing with three focusing distances on the lens - portrait, group and mountain (infinity). The flash can also be turned off, and there are flash gels to add color to your flash photos. My camera also came with Fisheye, Wide Angle, and Close Up lenses as well as a Splitzer accessory.

I have the previous model of the Lomo'Instant from the first Kickstarter, which I used in week 45, a camera that I've had for two years and enjoy shooting, but I wanted to get this new model hoping it would have better exposures. I found the Automat to be a little lighter and smaller than the original Lomo'Instant, and so far my impressions are that it has better exposure quality. The two have different lenses, which means that I'll be keeping both of them (I really just love all instant film cameras!) The Automat also has the nice added feature of the shutter remote in the lens cap. 

I had ordered a boatload of Fuji Instax Mini film from ebay in anticipation of receiving the Automat - the new Monochrome, Black Frame and Sky Blue Frame. There is a treasure trove of unique film borders to be found on ebay for Fuji Instax Mini film if you're into that sort of thing. I found the outdoor shots with the Monochrome to be very contrasty in bright sun, but I really liked it with the close up lens on a slightly less sunny day. The Black Frame is nice with outdoor color shots and I think it looks great with brightly colored subject matter. The Sky Blue frame looks nice as well, looking pretty sweet on a close up photo I shot of silvery Dusty Miller still standing in my front garden. The focusing on the Automat seems pretty accurate if you use the guidelines in the enclosed brochure for the focusing distances for zones and for each of the lenses. There is less vignetting on the photos than in the original Lomo'Instant.

I have not had a chance to fully test all the features, but my first impression of this camera is that I love it already - light and compact to carry around, nice features to give you some control over your photos, and better exposures than the original Lomo'Instant. I think I'll be diving into the world of Fuji Instax Mini frames available on ebay, they all look so tempting!

Lomo'Instant

Week 45 - Lomo'Instant Camera received as a Kickstarter reward two years ago. I decided to use the Lomo'instant this week in anticipation of receiving another Lomography Kickstarter camera in a few weeks, the Lomo'Instant Automat. I thought I could compare the new camera with this older model.

Last Saturday was a beautiful Autumn Saturday and I was eager to get out and shoot some instant film. I loaded my Lomo'Instant with expired Polaroid 300 film and headed over to Lake Marburg at Codorus State Park. The trees were in full fall color and the temperature was just slightly cool.

I want to really love the Lomo'Instant and when the photos come out right, I really love them. The results from the camera are quite unpredictable, but then maybe I need to use this camera a lot more to really get the settings down. Today, the photos were coming out really well. I find the best results with the camera are when shooting in sunny weather using the minus 1 or minus 2 exposure adjustment. There's so many things that can be done with this camera with the different settings that it has. There's two focusing distances - 0.4m to 0.9m and 1.0m to infinity. It has a bulb setting, unlimited multiple exposure capability, selfie mirror, exposure compensation, flash and the ability to turn off the flash, color flash gels, a wide angle 27mm 1:8 lens with attachable portrait, fisheye, and close-up lenses. There is also a tripod mount and threaded socket for a cable release for long exposures. I just haven't been able to fully explore all the different creative possibilities available with this camera. If only I had more hours in the day for film shooting (and of course an endless supply of instant film!)

Today, I was mainly focusing on capturing the fall color in the changing leaves of the trees at the park. I was looking for good framing and the right exposure. I tried a couple of multiple exposures and a selfie as well. Later in the evening, I took a portrait of Brenda with the attachable portrait lens using the automatic flash setting. I also grabbed two flash photos of our cats, but they were both overexposed, possibly because of their very light fur color. Brenda's flash photo came out fine, but the same settings with our cats, not so well. That's what I mean about this camera - I think that I've got it figured out, but then something throws it off. 

Overall though, I am pleased with the way the photos came out, most of which have a little vignetting in the corners, an effect that I like with the Lomo'Instant photos. I'm really looking forward to the new Lomo'Instant Automat, hopeful that it will be much improved over the original Lomo'Instant. I'm also eagerly awaiting my order of Fuji Instax Mini Monochrome film from B&H Photo. I ordered a few packs with the intention of using it with the new Lomo'Instant Automat.

Polaroid One Step Close Up

Week 40 - Polaroid One Step Close Up, a Polaroid 600 instant film camera given to me by a friend who found it in his closet. The camera has a built in flip up flash powered by the internal battery of each Polaroid 600 type film pack. This closeup model features two focusing distances, with a slider between close up of 2-4 feet and distance of 4 feet to infinity. There is also a lighten/darken switch to adjust the exposure of your photos.

I had on hand an expired box of Impossible Project 600 black and white film, leftover from an expired film bag special from Impossible Project. My frugality will not allow me to purchase full price film, I usually only purchase the factory seconds or expired film bag specials. I also like the unpredictable results achieved with these films. If I want to get consistent, predictable results, I shoot with Fuji Instax Wide and Mini.

With no ideas or destinations in mind this week for subject matter, I turned to shooting photos of my friends, and a self portrait. I found I liked the outdoor shots better. One of my photographer friends commented that his portrait had Holga-like qualities with the softly focused edges and another friend liked the unique black and white instant photo, something that you don't usually see. They were all pleased when I gave them their photos after scanning them.

Time to get ready for Fall Polaroid Week coming up week after next, I hope the new Fuji Instax Mini Monochrome will be available by then.

Polaroid Spirit 600 - 52 Cameras, 52 Weeks

Week 7 - Polaroid Spirit 600 Camera with expired Impossible Project Color Block Film. Another Polaroid camera that I've had in my collection but never used, I believe my wife's sister found it in her closet and gave it to me when she saw how much I liked collecting cameras. I wasn't sure that it worked, but I tested it with an empty Impossible Project film cartridge and the camera whirred into action. I had bought the expired Color Block film from ebay sometime in the past year, so I wasn't sure that was going to work at all either.

The Polaroid Spirit 600 camera has a built in flash, which was one of the reasons I chose it for this week, as I was planning to shoot indoors. It has a plastic fixed focus lens with a minimum focusing distance of about 4 feet. There is also an exposure compensation slider on the front. There were many variations on this same basic camera made in the 1980's and 1990's like the Polaroid Sun, Polaroid SuperColor, Polaroid Camel, etc.

It was really cold outside over the weekend and I wasn't about to go out around town and try to get photos with an instant film camera. I shot a few photos around the house of ordinary things, though the unicycle is a bit unique. My son has built and rebuilt that unicycle over the years, he doesn't ride it as much as he used to but it still commands a space in our dining room for when he feels like trying a few tricks in the alley beside our house. We went grocery shopping in the beginning of the week when it warmed up a little and I stashed the camera in my bag with the intention of grabbing a few shots around the grocery store. The cashier asked why I was taking a photo of the flower display near the register and I explained that I was working on a photography project. She asked what class I was taking and I explained further that I collected cameras and I was posting my photos to my website on a weekly basis. I guess it's not everyday a customer comes in the store with a Polaroid camera shooting photos of the canned food display.