Roid Week: Day 5 (Belated)

If you follow me on flickr, you'll know that I only managed to upload one picture on the final day of Polaroid Week. I was shooting the Last Summer on Earth Tour of Guster, Ben Folds Five and Barenaked Ladies up at Mohegan Sun. I knew I wouldn't be able to make it back home to scan the shots before midnight. In my continual struggle to photograph concerts with my SX-70, which is both a ridiculous goal and exciting, my results were so-so. The top picture is Ben Folds, which there wasn't enough light. To shoot these, I use the PX680 Color Protection film. You're not allowed to use flash, so I've been attempting to fool my camera into thinking there is enough light. The faster speed film is getting better results with the wheel set to full dark. The bottom picture is of Guster, same settings. They had a lot more light during their set, actually, too much light. That's the hard part about concert photography and Polaroids: you have no control over the amount of light and little control over what the camera wants to do. In the past, I've played with ND filters to block out more of the light, but those have been coming out too dark. Granted, if I were able to pop a flash, these pictures would come out perfectly.

I had a few more Polaroids that didn't make the cut for Roid Week and I thought I'd share them in this post.

Bench from the Botanical Gardens in New York

Carousel Horse at Walnut Beach, Milford, CT

James, the fastest boy in the world! Shot with the blur filter on my Spectra camera.

Roid Week: Day 4

There's no real theme today, just a couple of cool experiments. The top is my first emulsion lift of the always cool Brett. When I asked if anyone was willing to head down to the docks to take a picture, he happily agreed. The picture wasn't turning out the way I wanted, so I decided to cut it open and see what happened. It slightly bubbled up on the art paper I stuck it to and when I scanned it, there was a little blow out. Still, the end result is 100 times more fun than the original picture. Where else can you destroy something and make it better? I love instant film!

The second picture was another from the carnival. This was the Swinger machine and in the background the one that spins really fast and the floors drop out. It was an 8 second exposure, wheel set to full dark and the sensor blocked. I really like the silhouettes of the people standing at the gates.

Tomorrow, I'm only going to post one picture in the morning. If all goes well, I'll have a second at the end of the night. Stay tuned!

Roid Week: Day 2

I decided to feature a couple of my Spectra shots for the second day of Roid Week. The Spectra camera takes much wider photos and also has a built in flash. Both were shot on Impossible Project PZ 680 Color Protection film. The first is an old abandoned hangar at Sikorsky Airport in Stratford, CT. The second is a carousel horse that is mounted in front of a diner, also in Stratford. The owner came out while I was taking the picture and asked if he could have one as well. That's the price you pay for finding a cool object to photograph!