Instax gels and portrait lens

Today since I am with my grandchildren, I chose to shoot a Polaroid 300(instax mini rebranded) instant camera with a variety of simple filters and a portrait lens. I also tried peeling an image to smear it, but instax does not behave like old sx-70 or new impossible film. Overall I was pretty pleased with the funky results. Usually I find instax mini shot by this polaroid a bit lifeless.

Abandoned city pool

I have a weird new old stock camera that takes lenticular photos. I processed the negatives in coffee, and then used a vcr still recorder to digitize the negatives. I have been dealing with abandoned homes in Nelsonville for my subject matter, but on the way to the home I was going to shoot I detoured into the old city pool, which is now filled with sand and crumbling. The shape you see in the middle of this image is a fountain.The lenticular camera is for recording 3 dimensions. I made a crude animated gif to show this. Click on the link to see the gif:  http://i.giphy.com/3o7abw50D0pkhVoias.gif

Kodak instant camera revival

  I temporarily revived a Kodak 250 instant camera. They have not made film for this camera for 30 years, so I took an old film pack and removed the dried, unused processor pods from the pictures. In a changing bag i inserted instax mini film inside the original film and reloaded the cartridge. The results were rather unpredictable but interesting. The camera died after the seventh shot. I have been wondering for years if this could be done, and now that Fuji has discontinued my favorite film(FP100c), this kind of swap becomes more relevant!

 This process requires some old unused kodak film, a basic knowledge of instant cameras, an old kodak film pack(carrier), an old kodak instant camera, an exacto knife, clear tape, instax mini film, and a love for the uncontrollable and unpredictable. The film will slip around, miss-align, and generally behave poorly! The big take-away for me with this experiment is that it could be applied to other films and other cameras the same way.
 FYI: Kodak and instax are both around the same speed of film and process in the same way. They are both around 800 speed and both take in light from the front and process the image on the back of the film. this is important to know so you get the orientation of the film right.

 

Coffee processing -or- An actual use for instant coffee

I have always wanted to develop film using homemade developer. This is my first attempt. This photo is developed using cafenol, a recipe that uses coffee, vitamin c, and washing soda! The camera used is a Golden Half, a cool little Chinese camera by Superheadz. It takes half frame pictures. The film used was expired Fuji Superia 400 color film. The coffee processing works with both color and black and white, but the result is black and white. I scanned and doctored the negative and printed it black and white. This process, using expired color film with coffee processing, yields mixed results but is very fun.

First words

So it begins. This site is intended to be a sketchbook of sorts. The collection of ideas, musings, and experiments are not all meant to be taken as fine art, but the intent is that most entries dabble in the realm of arts. If you are looking for spec data and tech sheets, you had best keep looking. My investigations can often be messy and a bit abstract, as my mind processes things that way.

I am an artist who works in painting, photography, printmaking, sculpture, installation, and anything else I can get my hands on. I hope to use this sketchbook to collect and work on ideas, as well as posit solutions to challenges I encounter. I hope others can get something out of these notes.

-Aaron Smith