Gonna Take You Down To Chinatown

Spent the afternoon with my friend Julia wandering around Chinatown here in Los Angeles. For one reason or another I'd never gotten around to really checking it out. I definitely found myself inspired. Obviously all that red had something to do with it, the architecture, street musicians, food and overall it was just pretty cool. Its not a huge area, but had a lot of activity going on with lots of people walking around, shops and musicians playing traditional Chinese guitar type instruments, made it feel a little less L.A. like. After we were done shooting, we had a great late lunch at Via Cafe. You can check out my food blog for that. Gave me a chance to test out some Polaroid ATZ edge cut film and another new film, Fuji RXF400 chrome which I cross processed and pushed and some expired Fuji NPS160 color neg film that was processed +1/2 and C-41. Its interesting with the cross processing of Fuji chrome films how they all seem to go to a different color dominant shift. Astia went green, RDPIII went more yellow, Sensia went yellow/green and the RXF had a blue/cyan shift. The older the film the greater the shift. 

 

 

Holga 120CFN. Fuji NPS160 color negative and Fuji RXF400 Chrome film 

cross processed C-41.

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I really like the quality of the ATZ edge cut film, instant vintage. Suddenly it felt like a different time. This film really performed well for something that used to get tossed out by Polaroid. Unfortunately there were very few packs made available for sale and its all gone. I still have 2 packs remaining.

Polaroid SX-70 Sonar, expired Artistic TZ edge cut film.

Funky ATZ

New Polaroid Artistic TZ shots. This pack gave me very different results compared to the previous two ATZ packs I shot. Colors tended to go green/yellow and a little muddy. I definitely liked the color quality, but the other unexpected thing that happened were these bubbling splotchy areas. That part I wasn't so crazy about, but I got over it. It did lend a different vintage quality to the images though. I have one more pack and I'm hoping I get just the color shift this time though.

Polaroid SX-70 Sonar, expired Artistic TZ film.

Roid Week Spring 2010

Just a quick post and slide show of my Roid Week shots. Had fun with it, this was the first time I participated. Managed to use 5 different Polaroid cameras, 2 SX-70 Sonars, 340 & 450 cameras and a Spectra SE. Films shot: ATZ, Chocolate, PX100 FF, Spectra Platinum, Silk 125i and Fuji 3000B. Next time I may stick with one format instead. It was great to see so much other great Polaroid imagery in the flickr roidweek2010 pool, really inspiring stuff. Should definitely check it out.

Signs

Coffe Cup Sign, originally uploaded by LeandroF.

Mels Diner Sign, originally uploaded by LeandroF.

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

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.