Echo Park Wander

Some images from a recent photo outing with my friend Julia around Echo Park, CA. 

Overcast morning and things were quiet.

           

   

Polaroid Spectra SE, expired Softtone Edge Cut film & SX-70 Sonar OneStep, Impossible PX-70FF film.

   

   

Holga 120CFN, expired Konica Pro 120 160 color negative film.

Olympus XA

Some sample shots from my recent $10 dollar yard sale find Olympus XA. So far I've run a roll of color neg and a roll of slide film that I had cross processed. Currently have a roll of b &w loaded.

  

 

  

Great little camera with a sharp lens. Still getting used to the rangefinder. Can be tricky to see in low light, the overlapping focus area. Also, the shutter button itself is very sensitive, good for grabbing that quick shot in low light. I'll post a more in depth review of the XA itself later on.

Lomo Does The Getty

Polaroid Mio, Fuji Instax Mini film.

The Lomography Store here in West Hollywood have started to do what they call "Lomo Adventures" instead of a workshop at the store, they head out with some sort of theme in mind, this one was to The Getty Center Museum. It costs a little bit more then the workshops, but for $25 not to bad. Pretty sure this was their first one (they've done a couple of others since, a double decker bus touring L.A. and also an outing to Día de los Muertos festival at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery). Just had to be at the store at noon (return by 4pm). Got a choice of a Lomo loaner camera and a roll of film (I went with the Lubitel 166+ with 35mm mod), plus chartered bus to and from The Getty. Also, there would be a special surprise waiting for us and another loaner camera, which turned out to be a scavenger hunt! Off everyone went with Diana cams with Instax film backs to capture the items on the list. Had to track down various sculptures and garden items that were printed on the list. Had fun running walking quickly around the beautiful grounds at The Getty. The regular visitors seemed to not notice us much and the hunt itself was harder then I thought it would be i.e. didn't win...it was fun though.

My only real complaint was that I didn't get a chance to check out any of the exhibits. We left late from the store since a few people were running behind, the scavenger hunt itself lasted longer then I think they had planned for and then in the process having a roll of film that I needed to get thru at the end meant no casual time to wander in the nice comfortable galleries (it was warm out). Then again, I guess if I had won something then I'd have nothing to gripe about. ; ) All I'm saying is that it would have been nice to still have the time to appreciate the art and wander around in addition to the surprise scavenger hunt, it just didn't work out that way for me (I think a few people opted to just wander). Did get to meet some cool people that day and got to spend a nice afternoon in a beautiful location with great views and most importantly, took some photos. There are some iPhone Hipstamatic shots on my flickr page that I took as well.

As for the loaner camera, I found the Lubitel 166+ to be a really great camera. Offers a lot of precision control for what's supposed to be a plastic camera. A full range of F-stops and shutter speeds. You can double expose as well since you have to cock the shutter on the lens, which is quite sharp by the way. The 35mm mod was cool to use. Has a screen in place with the 35mm marks in the viewfinder so you can properly frame it. Since you get the normal width of what would be medium format 6x6 film and sprockets you get less shots per roll. For a 24 exp roll of 35mm film it worked out to 12 shots. One nice thing about it being plastic was that it didn't feel like you were lugging a heavy metal camera like a Mamiya C330 even though it looks like one and performed great. Adding another camera to the want list.

   

  

Lubitel 166+ with 35mm mod, Klick color negative film, processed normal C-41.

Check out their site for a schedule of upcoming events. I know there are a couple of Diana F+ workshops coming up plus they're doing a closing night party on Nov 14th. The parties are pretty fun. They have a band play, plus snacks and a open beer bar. Good times.

Diana F+ Pinhole Fun

An afternoon with friends, taking a stroll around West Hollywood during a recent Lomography pinhole workshop (really inexpensive by the way). Made for a fun afternoon. Next time I use a Diana pinhole, I'll attempt some better hand holding techniques!

Diana F+ pinhole, expired Fuji Pro 400H, developed normal C-41, scanned from negative.

An Afternoon at Venice Beach & Abbot Kinney

I've lived in LA for about 10 years now and there are still so many areas that I have barely explored. This time around, my friend Julia and I went down to Abbot Kinney and Venice Beach (which is very close). Its a cool and funky area with lots of shops and places to grab good food and drink. Plenty of people watching as well as interesting things to photograph. Originally I had intended to try to get some people pictures and ended up not getting much in the way of people at all, more atmospheric. Venice Beach is always an interesting scene with many many different kinds of characters, performers and musicians. It was a bit overwhelming though, to much activity and people. I've decided that next time I'll need to really hang out for the day and people watch and just take my time. A revisit sometime over the Winter could be interesting.

I usually carry more then one plastic camera and in this case had both of my Holgas, Black Slim Devil and a Polaroid SX-70 Sonar.

  

Polaroid SX-70 Sonar, ATZ Edgecut film.

Holga 120CFN Fuji NPS160

Holga 120CFN Fuji NPS160

Holga 120CFN Fuji NPS160

Holga 120S Ilford HP5+

Holga 120CFN Fuji NPS160

Holga 120CFN Fuji NPS160


Black Slim Devil Kodak Gold 200

Holga 120CFN Fuji NPS160

Black Slim Devil Kodak Gold 200

Holga 120CFN Fuji NPS160

A Summer afternoon around Abbot Kinney and Venice Beach during Labor day weekend. Its strange, I shot these images a little over a month ago and yet it feels like its been longer then that. Time, always messing with me...

PX70 FF

A mini review with some of the shots I've done with my first two packs of Impossible's new PX70 Color Shade First Flush edition. They did something different this time around when they announced the film. You could buy it in 3 packs, but at the price of two since its new and still some what of a beta flavor as far as color/exposure and all that goes. I think that was a really smart thing for them to do. Especially since its so new and unpredictable in some ways. Plus, its almost like a thank you to the customers for helping to test this out early on. The temp issue seems to be fine, light exposure is still an issue though. Had to accept that for the time being and make regular use of a light shield. I have to admit, I feel like I got a better handle on this film, much quicker, then I did with the PX100 FF. My first pack of PX70 was mostly about what to expect (and not a lot of great shots either), so by the time I got to the second pack I felt like I was finally getting shots that I really liked and was able to replicate somewhat. I found that with my SX-70 Sonar OneStep, I needed to either over or underexpose by half a wheel turn on the exposure dial. It seemed to be the only way to get more color to come thru or something with some darks to it. Like the PX100, it is on the lower contrast side and in general has a blue-green hue. You can coax it out though in other ways. Some are using warming filters on the camera to boost color and contrast. However, Impossible states that this film can take several days to finish developing. Most of mine I've waited 2-5 days before scanning. I do notice a gradual change in the overall color and density. It does tend to improve over time. Plus some of the darker areas take awhile and can look a little splotchy, some refer to it as lizard skin. Impossible has already announced the new version of PX70 at Photokina and should be on the market sometime in October. The samples looked nice, more color and contrast, but still with that nice old vintage quality to it. I'm looking forward to trying the new batch when its out. I do like the quality though of this edition. I think thats one of things I enjoy about the Impossible films in general is the variety of quality/experience with each edition.

Light shield flipped up, but I still like how it turned it out.

Check out the ever growing and complete set of my PX70 shots on Flickr.

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.