LomoChrome Purple

Last year, I bought 5 rolls of 35mm LomoChrome Purple. I finally shot the first roll with my Nikon N55. Unfortunately, I can't adjust the ISO with that camera and the Purple ranges from 100-400 ISO. So, from what I can tell with my camera, if the film isn't DX coded, it defaults to 100 ISO. The colors seems to really come out the best in bright sunlight. Some side by side shots...

Favorites 2013

My heart has not been into blogging lately (as you can probably tell from the 4 total posts in 2013)... but I finally got faster internet (our country has a serious problem with the internet) so maybe I'll give it another go.

I feel swamped with all the photos I've been taking and I tend not to edit them down much. I use my camera phone like crazy. I use Flickr like one giant photo album, which may not be a good thing. I should be more cautious of what's public/private or just the volume of photos I post. It's kind of out of hand, but I love it. I wish Flickr's platform was a little easier to view. Their new page is supposed to feature the photographs more, but I feel like it's a little harder to look at. It's just one long continuous scroll. I hate continuous scroll by the way... and I tend to organize all my photos into Collections - which they don't even have a tab for at the top of your feed - you have to find it in the sub menu that is shown by three dots - people are not going to look there. I can't choose the size of my photos to view on my page. It just seemed easier before when there were a certain number of photos per page. Anyway... I could bitch about that forever.

A collection of my favorite photographs I took in 2013. Flickr has a bug where I can't embed the slideshow video (they keep fucking with everything - even the slideshow has pans across your photos now, blah. And you can only view it in full screen - their slideshow before was lovely.)...

Some highlights of the year though... I was a bridesmaid in Athena & Brad's wedding; I went to some awesome concerts; I got a nice new computer; I developed color film for the first time ever in my kitchen; I took a trip to Oxnard & my car took the opportunity to blow out a part. Always fixing the car it seems (not now - knocks on wood). I have been doing these stair hikes/walks almost every week as my friend Ky goes through her Secret Stairs of LA book. It provides lots of interesting views and is a great way to explore neighborhoods - although I am familiar with many neighborhoods we've been to. I worked a bunch. I went to San Francisco. I went to CT & NYC. It was a nice calm year.

Favorites 2012

Blogging has not been a real interest lately. I'm going to attempt to write more often. I think if nothing else, it's a good way to exercise my thoughts. So here I present my favorite photos I took last year. I think I'm really loosening up on what qualifies as a favorite shot as some of these aren't the best. I am still actively taking film shots as well, but they are fewer & farther between. I still have a roll to develop from last year. I did manage to buy a film scanner last fall, so I'm hoping it pays off.

Pictures

I haven't been much in a blogging mood lately. I have 4 rolls of film waiting to be developed. I'm excited to see what they'll turn out like, but I have been putting it off until I buy a new scanner & printer - which I'm on the search for. I don't want to get them developed until I have a scanner. I'm done with paying double to have them scanned. Trying to find a new printer or scanner is like the least fun thing ever. I've gotten it pretty narrowed down, so hopefully I'll actually buy them soon. I've taken a few pictures lately... a cute dog at the mall, a quick photo while working at the E3 convention, a man hole cover (which I'm increasingly paying attention to lately), a stolen shot of my friends posing for another friend's photo, and some fun 4th of July pictures.

Diana F+ - 55mm Close Up Lens

I haven't been intentionally putting off my lens testing project, but I sure have been slacking since the debacle that was the last 2 rolls of failed film. It's making me very very nervous!

Today I went out & shot a roll of Fuji Velvia slide film with the close up lens. I attached a marked ribbon to my camera to insure the accurate 6" focal distance was met. It was pretty cloudy out today & that film is only 100 speed so I am hoping that it comes out alright. I want to develop one of those rolls of Velvia normal, but I'm not sure if I should cross process this one or not. Decisions, decisions.

Next up is the 55mm lens. I have a lot of film to use up so I'm also adding to my testing list the 2 separate flashes I have as well. Plus, I can not deal with the price it costs to develop & scan at the lab, so I'm on the hunt for an all in one wireless printer that hopefully can scan negatives as well. Researching is one of my least favorite things to do, so I'm not looking forward to it, but since my printer has died, it's something I need to do soon.

I really want to do some fun photography projects. I need to get some friends over to goof off in front of the camera.

IR Update

Well, the worst thing happened as I walked into the photo shop. I looked at my negatives sticking out of the envelope and say to the man behind the counter, oh no, were they all overexposed? He says, no, underexposed. Dreadful. It is a strip of see through failure. Apparently with the filter I was using and the film I was using, they needed a much longer exposure time. All that stressing & looking things up didn't amount to much when the amount of infrared light picked up by the film is too low for the filter I used. Terrible. I may try another go around in a few months, but for now I'm going to stick with the rolls I have stocked up.

Diana F+ - Adventures in Lens Testing

I am officially 2 rolls into my lens testing project. I shot a roll of 120 Fuji Velvia with the 110mm lens and a roll of 120 Efke IR with the 38mm lens. I dropped the IR off for developing today and now I am completely freaking out. I can not tell you how worried I am. I spent hours and hours looking up tid bits about IR shooting, and the most consistent answer I found was to shoot it at 1-2 seconds in full sun at f 16 with an IR filter and tripod. That translates into "partial clouds" on the Diana F+. I was able to borrow a proper IR filter (87C) from a friend and have my brother's old tripod. I took along my notebook to jot down notes. I was feeling prepared and excited!

Having just shot my last 3 frames this afternoon, I am completely convinced I totally fucked this roll up. First off, I forgot to advance the film 3 times on this roll! Twice today. I can't believe I did that. I don't think I've had that problem yet. Then the first few frames of the roll my shutter release cable kept sticking open. I forgot to check it first before I put it on, so it was in the lock position, and therefore stayed open after I released it. Doh! I think I was letting my careful preparation & nerves get the best of me. These are horrible, simple mistakes.

I am completely worried that I have overexposed most of the shots. I was keeping the 1-2 second rule in my mind, but the first few frames are at least 3 seconds due to the shutter release issue, and some of the last couple frames are double exposed on top of having a longer shutter time - 5 seconds. What am I thinking?

I really wanted to test this roll out at varying shutter times to get a better idea of what these shots would look like. I don't know why I thought 5 seconds or even 9 seconds was a good idea. The first day I shot was a bit hazy, but the sun was out & today was sunny. I am afraid these are all going to come back blank. That leaves me with 6 shots out of 12 I am holding out hope to come back nice. This is not a cheap hobby so I am really freaked out about it. Now I'm looking forward and at the same time dreading Friday when I pick the roll up.

Butterflies, a Falcon, an Owl & James Dean

Today I took a trip up to Santa Barbara & Goleta with a couple friends to check out the Butterfly Preserve & Santa Barbara in general. The Preserve is pretty awesome. A nice little trail wraps around a winter nesting place for thousands of butterflies. You can see them floating around and gathered in clumps hanging off the trees. The trails also lead out to the cliffs overlooking the ocean. Not a bad place at all to spend a Sunday... and also nice to be in a forested area. Plus, I have started my lens testing project on my film camera - 110mm Telephoto lens is first up. You'll have to wait a while for those pictures. Hopefully they come out!

Afterwards, we headed down to Santa Barbara. We visited the Natural History Museum where we saw a planetary show (slight nap time for me) - I missed something about insects growing to huge sizes in the "possibilities" of different planets section, but was quite awake in time to see their gas filled planet visions of floating jellyfish that looked more like, well, testicles. This was a very bizarre show. This place has a disturbing amount of taxidermy, but I suspect that is the best way to display animal species. Much to my joy though, we did get to see real live birds up close - a falcon & an owl that the employees brought out to show people. I want to take that owl home. So cute!

To wrap up the day, we walked around town, had dinner & stopped for coffee before heading out. The dinner was, disappointing. After going up & down the street we found an Italian place that was reasonably priced, vegetarian friendly, and had a cute atmosphere. I ordered ravioli with pesto... and it was gross. After eating it, my friend tries a bit of the pesto & asks, why didn't you send that back? That is awful. I've never sent food back for not liking it before, so I guess it didn't dawn on me that I could do that. We figured out the pesto was a spinach pesto - who the hell does that? I hate cooked spinach. I love basil pesto. Damn them. But I did get to look at a picture of James Dean while we ate. There were little celebrity pictures under each table glass top (first pic below). I saw some pictures of him a while back on the Lomography website. First pic of those is from the Torn Sweater Series shot by Roy Schatt. I think it's a good moment to share them. What a looker.

 

 

http://www.yelp.com/biz/coronado-butterfly-preserve-goleta

A Box Full of Film

As I have spent the remainder of the day sitting on the couch, on the computer, eating more than anyone's fair share of Reese's Miniatures ($2.09 post Holiday sale), I have actually been semi productive. I'll say that with a small yeah right, but really... I totally did my laundry today; I mailed some bills out; I have researched several film festivals to enter my short film in - hopefully to submit tomorrow & not break the bank in the process; I updated my resume last night. That counts, right?

The real fun part of the day was getting a box of film in the mail. Yay! It's funny, as the world gets more advanced, I decide to take up a hobby that is expensive & outdated. Eleven rolls of 120 film to add to the rolls I have waiting to be shot. It's pretty exciting, if I actually take more photos! I traveled all over the place last year & didn't take as many film shots as I should have. Why? Part of me keeps thinking that I need to only shoot what I think is a worthy shot, and the other part of me gets so wrapped up in where I am or taking photos on my point & shoot, that I just plain forget to take the camera out of my bag! Plus, I don't want 1,000 landscape shots.

So this year I have decided I am going to do what I had planned on doing last year but never did. I'm going to test out every single one of those lenses my Diana F+ came with, and I'm going to shoot a roll w/ each lens. I really want to see the difference to get a feel of what I like more, and since I'm horrible at actually writing down the info for each shot, I've never really been able to guess what lens I used at the time, unless of course it was a Fisheye lens. First opportunity comes on Sunday when I head up to Santa Barbara with friends to go look at the Butterfly Sanctuary.

In all my down time (unemployment) I have been pretty lazy about doing any of these little projects, so I'm really setting my goal here. More photography adventures! Maybe that will motivate me to do my other projects, like continue learning Italian, which I started last summer & have promptly put to the side since returning from Italy, or practice the guitar that I've had for 9 years & shamefully only know 4 chords, or doing that genealogy project on my family.

Favorites 2011

I still have a roll of film to develop but here are my favorite shots from 2011. I certainly got to travel a lot of places last year - The Grand Canyon, Seattle WA, Portland OR, Upstate NY, NYC, CT, San Francisco CA & all over Italy. Here's to hopefully another good year.

Polly's Photos

I've been listening to the new PJ Harvey album a lot. It has so grown on me. I love the songs & they're going over again in my head throughout the day (currently 'On Battleship Hill' and 'In The Dark Places'). I guess something has to be said for that. She'll be at Coachella this year & I'm so so so annoyed I can't go b/c they don't sell single day passes.

I was just going through my Diana F+ pictures, and with the songs stuck in my head & thinking about photography, I thought of some pictures I saw of her that I really liked. Like this one of her that I found on Maria Mochnacz's website. It was the original cover idea for 'Stories'.

Photo: Maria Mochnacz


A current one taken for the new album/promos, I believe by Seamus Murphy since he's been so involved with the new album:

Photo: Seamus Murphy

There is this whole feather thing going on. I'm guessing the symbolism as the head dress representing culture & war, but I reckon it's just my opinion. Seamus Murphy has also shot 12 videos for each song off her new album. There are many of them out now & can be seen on YouTube. Links for both photographers below.

http://www.mariamochnacz.co.uk/pjharvey/17pjharvey.asp
http://seamusmurphy.com/
http://www.youtube.com/user/letenglandshake