Crows & Trees Diptych

Crows & Trees Diptych, originally uploaded by LeandroF.

I must be a scarecrow. There were about 2 dozen crows hanging out on the street, picking at leaves and bits of things on the street and sidewalk near my home. I drive by, they barely move. I park 2 houses down, take 2 steps towards them and they start cawing like crazy and start to fly up to the trees and surrounding houses roof tops. I swear this has happened to me every time I try get pictures of them. Tried to make the most of the moment and shot these two Polaroids. Was pretty happy with these as a diptych. Seemed to reflect the feeling and atmosphere.

Polaroid Artistic TZ SX-70 film, original folding classic SX-70 camera.

So That's How It Works!

This is a pretty cool video that someone over at Polapremium mentioned. All about how the SX-70 works, both film and mechanics. 1972.

Polaroid SX-70 Promotional Film from Ekim on Vimeo.

SX-70

365 2.0/340, originally uploaded by LeandroF.

1st shot with the Polaroid Artistic TZ SX-70 film. Ordered a couple of packs of ATZ and the Fade to Black film from Polapremium during their black friday sale. I really like this film so far. It has such a nice color palette to it. Plus, I'm thrilled that my SX-70 classic original still works! Many many moons ago when I was still an art student and aspiring photographer, I utilized Polaroids (sx-70 and peel apart) here and there, but not a huge amount simply for budget reasons. It was cheaper to roll and process my own black and white film. So I saved my polaroids for certain things. At the time, if you were on a budget, you had to choose. Now today, in the midst of everything digital and being able to shoot as much as one wants, I've had my own analogue film realization which has also led me back to Polaroids. I've become a very selective shooter over the years, even digitally, I usually (not always, but most of the time) know if I've got something I like within the first few shots. This applies to my holga shots and now to my Polaroid shots as well. Seems to suit my shooting style/method. Oh how I've missed this.

WTO Flashback

I lived in Seattle, WA for about 5 years. Back at the end of 1999 there was a little rumble going on in the streets. WTO - World Trade Organization had come to town. At the time, I didn't really know much about the organization, until I started seeing the masses prepping to protest, realizing this was something pretty big. This was the beginning of my own political awakening. For those of you who remember or have done your own research will find that it was a huge cluster fuck of a protest that became violent. The police handled it poorly to say the least. There were definitely those whose sole intent was to be disruptive/violent. However, police escalated things further and further which brought out more and more people resisting the cracking down on the right to assemble and protest.

The police were charged with maintaining a curfew thereby forcing the protesters out of downtown Seattle...right into the Capitol Hill neighborhoods. I can't remember exactly, but I think it was the 2nd night that the streets were flooded with police and national guard troops. Batons, tear gas and bean bag guns ready to thwart the locals.

After reassuring my wife that I would be ok and not take any unnecessary risks, I went out that night to see what the hell was actually going on, with camera in hand of course. I had never experienced anything like it. It was truly a surreal experience. One of the things I remember clearly was standing on the corner in a crowd of people, most of which were the local residents curious, confused, upset and yelling for the police to leave, then hearing a few voices that seemed to be really trying to antagonize and instigate something, weird vicious circle.

I photographed what I could as fast as I could. There was this thick tension in the air that you could feel increasing by the minute. The more police and guard that showed up, the more people came out. My spidey sense told me it was time to get out of there and fast, I had nothing to protect myself from tear gas or batons. As I started to double back thru the other side of the street I could hear the tear gas canisters being fired off over and over again followed by more yelling and screaming. The air quickly grew heavy with tear gas. When I got back to my apt, one block off Broadway and Denny, behind the Post Office, we could smell and feel the tear gas and we were on the third floor. Looking out the window and watching a line of police/guard marching down our street directly below us with helicopters flying over head pushing protestors further and further was, as I said, really surreal. Clearly there was plenty of blame to go around, people who just didn't give a shit and did what they wanted and took advantage and enabled more chaos whether by breaking store windows or via the cops indiscriminately pepper spraying people for standing and looking. It was like the cops were looking for a fight and there were those who were going to bring it. The Capitol Hill residents were caught in the middle.

The reason I am posting this now is that a Capitol Hill blog was doing some stories and updates since it had been ten years (oh how time flies). They used my images for one of the articles, which apparently some how, there weren't many other photos/videos taken on those nights. Almost like it never happened except for those who were there to see and experience it first hand. Glad that I can share some of my experiences and images about those nights.

Polaroid Fun

Been on the hunt for Polaroid gear lately in anticipation of The-Impossible-Project launch. I already have a SX-70 thats been sitting away in a drawer waiting to be used again. Haven't shot anything with it in about 6 years I think. Hoping it still works, I've had it for about 14 years. I have a few 600 and TimeZero cameras in storage (somewhere). Also have several 100 series pack cameras. Been trying to use my 340 (I have a close up kit that fits it) with some Fuji brand instant film and that has been a pain. First had to get a new battery. Then found film at Amazon for a good price and free shipping if I spend over $25, which means 3 packs, but thought I could get it locally at Samy's Camera, same price as Amazon, but get only one or two packs. Trying to keep the spending down (and didn't feel like waiting for it). : ) Waited in line for 15+ minutes, asked for 2 packs and they tell me its almost $30. Apparently their online price differs from their in store price. Didn't offer a price match (which is strange considering it's the same business), so I said no thanks. Polapremium had a Black Friday sale of their own in the morning and had discounts on their Artistic TZ and Fade to Black SX-70 film. So I ordered 2 packs of each. Great price and easy ordering. Via twitter, they even ensured that it shipped out same day and sent me the tracking number. Didn't even get a blink from the guy at Samy's, looks like I'll be ordering some from Amazon after all. Need to start checking out Freestyle Photo again. I do want to try some of the chocolate peel apart film that Polapremium is offering.

Yesterday, I found a One Step Closeup camera at the local Out of the Closet (kinda like Goodwill or Salvation Army) for $5 and it had what I thought was 3 shots left in it, turns out it had 8 shots (I think)! It counts backwards. Double score! Have no idea how old or how long its been sitting.

This was the first shot, of myself, and got some nice chemical streaking and undeveloped areas in it.

This was the second shot that I took today.

sin@julias

sin@julias, originally uploaded by LeandroF.

Yashica Electro 35 GSN, Expired Kodak Gold 200 35mm color negative film. Processed normal C-41. Scanned from neg.

Black Slim Devil

A couple of shots from the first roll of my Black Slim Devil.

Black Slim Devil, expired Kodak Gold 200 color negative film, processed normal, scanned from neg.

pigeons on wires

pigeons on wires, originally uploaded by LeandroF.

Not sure why, but birds on power lines in big groups always seem to fascinate me.

Holga 120CFN, expired Fuji NPS 160 color negative film, processed normal c-41, scanned from neg.

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365 2.0/276, originally uploaded by LeandroF.

I had the fortune of winning a Black Slim Devil from Nic over at Four Corners Dark blog. Nic had a contest going to help promote his special limited edition, secret camera to be sold for 100 percent of it to go to his local animal rescue shelter charity. The contest was simple, closest guess wins. I guessed holga mod and that's what he had. Limited edition of 10, custom holgas from www.holgamods.com, with closer focusing, custom masks, plus some cool film from Nic's own rare stash and other accessories. I wish I could have purchased one, great kit, but the timing was not good for me unfortunately. A portion of all his sales goes to the animal shelter. Pretty cool. So I ordered a bunch of 35mm film to go with my new Black Slim Devil. Thanks again Nic!

fourcornersdark.com

fourcornerstore.com

Cheap, yes. Plastic, no. Goodness, lots.

365 2.0/273, originally uploaded by LeandroF.

Expired Kodak Elite Chrome 400 35mm color slide film. Processed normal E-6. Scanned from film.

I had intended for this blog to focus on plastic cameras instead of traditional slrs or even medium format cameras, and even polaroid. However, I've found that with my new re-appreciation for film, comes lots of other options for cameras in general. Some are cameras from my own collection, and others are new finds. Needless to say, not everything on here will be pure plastic.

Introducing my new old Yashica Electro 35 GSN rangefinder built circa 1973. Found for $6 at shopgoodwill.com, $15 total with shipping. Add in $15 for a battery adapter from the yashicaguy.com and now I have this great little rangefinder of a camera. I've only run one roll thru it so far and am very happy with it. I haven't shot with a rangefinder in quite awhile. The camera has a few options, bulb mode, flash mode and Automatic. F-stops 1.7-16, with a minimum focus of about 2 1/2 feet. The lens itself is 45mm, barely wide. When in auto mode, you set the f-stop and it meters and calculates the shutter speed. If its over exposed, you'll get a red arrow in the viewfinder, if its a slow exposure (anything below a 1/30th) you'll get a orange arrow. The meter seemed pretty accurate so far. Its got more weight to it since it is metal, and the size was a little bigger then I was expecting. Looking forward to shooting more with it.

fairfax ave xpro

fairfax ave xpro, originally uploaded by LeandroF.

Another from my continuing series on the Fairfax District. One of things I've been enjoying with cross processing film again has been the color shifts. With digital, its so easy to get fairly balanced white balance that its easy to forget how color temperatures can be manipulated and used to ones advantage (or disadvantage), granted, with x-pro its more extreme. This street scene feels more painterly then my other night shot/long exposures.


Holga 120CFN, very expired Fuji Astia 120 chrome film cross processed C-41. Scanned from neg.

Shoes on a Wire

Shoes on a Wire, originally uploaded by LeandroF.

Holga 120CFN, very expired Fuji Astia 120 chrome film cross processed C-41. Scanned from neg.

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/, originally uploaded by LeandroF.

Holga 120CFN, very expired Fuji Astia 120 chrome film cross processed C-41. Scanned from neg.

All Saints

All Saints, originally uploaded by LeandroF.

Holga 120CFN, very expired Fuji Astia 120 chrome film cross processed C-41. Scanned from neg.

Sunset Echo Park

Sunset Echo Park, originally uploaded by LeandroF.

Hill top view in Echo Park. Haven't cross processed chrome to c-41 in quite awhile.

Holga 120CFN, very expired Fuji Astia 120 chrome film cross processed C-41. Scanned from neg.

crows flying

crows flying, originally uploaded by LeandroF.

I found that whenever I try to get a shot of crows, as soon as I get within 10 feet with my Holga, they take off. Almost mocking me as they're flying off. Every freakin time.

Holga 120CFN, expired Fuji NPS 160 color negative film, processed normal C-41. Scanned from negative.