SX-70 Fade to Black

Finally tried out the Fade to Black film from ImpossibleUSA Shop. 1st shot is below. This is some pretty interestingly cool film. Love the tone shift and gradual loss of detail as it darkens, like it's melting almost, but with this beautiful warm chocolately coffee bleed thru. It definitely shifted quickest in the first 6 hours or so, then it seemed to just get more gradually dark. Planning ahead, I just setup my scanner and left it on the glass and just kept scanning it every hour or so for the first 10+ hours, then it sat overnight and I scanned a few more, but with 2 hour gaps. Definitely a greater commitment of my time in order to get all the scans vs waiting and trying one of the wet/dry techniques. I really do like all the versions though and I'm glad I have the option to choose. Either way, doing these in the field might prove to be tricky, unless you're prepared.


SX70 Fade to Black Mosaic, originally uploaded by LeandroF.

Polaroid SX-70 classic camera, Polaroid Fade to Black film. Approximately 24 hours development.



Polaroid SX-70 classic camera, Polaroid/Polapremium Fade to Black film. Approximately 5-1/2 hours development.

Winter Sunsets

365 2.0/363, originally uploaded by LeandroF.

Winter sunsets in the desert.

Polaroid 340 camera, Fuji Instant C100 film.

New Old Roads

365 2.0/362, originally uploaded by LeandroF.

An actual small town moment. I pulled over to take this picture, the climbing road perspective and crossing power lines caught my eye. Its a side road that doesn't usually get much traffic. I put my hazards on, stepped out and waited a couple of minutes for a utility truck to pass, took the shot (could have sworn that I had framed it better), got back in and just then a car pulled along side. Was expecting a hey watch out or something like that. It was an older man asking if I needed help. Smiled and told him no thanks, was just taking a picture and he proceeded to tell me that I could go over the hill and make a left to get to some great viewpoints. Thought, wow, how nice. I hardly recall any moments like that, and I grew up here.

Polaroid 340 camera, Fuji Instant C100 film.

stairs and hallway

365 2.0/354, originally uploaded by LeandroF.

Finally got some of the Fuji Instant film (color and high speed b&w). Picked it up at Freestyle Photo, no crowds or lines and friendly/helpful staff. It had been a while since I been in there.

This shot came out a bit darker then I had envisioned, but very happy with it just the same. Not sure if the meter is a little off or if I need to over compensate a lot more for the film speed/camera speed difference then what I did here (or maybe a little bit of both).

Polaroid 340 Land camera, Fuji FB-100C instant film. Portrait kit attached.

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 (and a few shots with yet to be processed from my black slim devil). 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.