Bronica SQ-A with Zenzanon PS 40mm f/4 lens, late afternoon light (failing) hand held 1/30 sec exposure on f 8
Film: Fuji Neopan 400
Developer: Rodinal 1:25
Temperature: 20º C
Time: 6 minutes
Exhibited at Melbourne Silver Mine’s ‘Unsensored 2011′ Collingwood Gallery, this was to be the first dark room print I exhibited for Unsensored, an all analogue photography exhibition. Thus the exhibited photograph was truly produced by an all analogue workflow, no scanners, computers or digital printing involved at all.
So… I sort of “lost” all my old Plastic Lens Photos. I have a love-hate relationship with the WordPress platform, on one hand it is brilliant, accessible and very easy to use, but on the other hand it is frequently updated, often with cool new features, but mainly to address security issues (and it is good that these issues are addressed at least) – and every once in a few years, for some stupid reason, everything gets lost in an upgrade. Yes, I do back up my data base, but as happened this time, my SQL restore didn’t work. That might be to do with my host/server – another service I have a love-hate thing going with. So, I will re-post some of favourite older images, updating details about them when and if I can. I apologise to my visitors who have seen it all be for and special apologies to those of you who kindly left comments, which were also lost… ho-hum, thats the way it goes. Perhaps these things happen to remind us of the transient nature of all things… that is surely a big reason why we take photos and record life’s moments anyway, don’t you think?
These metal ring sculptures can be found at Docklands Park. They are just two of many of different sizes and sit around and near the base of the kinetic sculpture The Blowhole.
You can see from the state of the grass how little rain we have had in the city at the time I took this (around January 2007), even the normally verdant hills where I live had been suffering from the drought.
Coming back to the sculptures themselves, I dont know the artist or what they are titled, but really like these works of public art, I was wandering around them for quite a while before finding a point of view I liked to capture this shot with my Diana and Fuji NPC 160.
Do you have obsolescent or semi-obsolescent stuff around? I bet you do.
Here I was just having a bit of fun visually recording some audio recording of some obsolescent or semi-obsolescent technology for monome.org’s latest community recording project ‘Exploring Obsolescence’
No micro-cassettes were harmed in the making of this video, but I’m afraid some circuitry on my ancient reel-to-reel may have fried…
The Australian Broadcasting Corporation has been running an almost Reality TV-type program called “Photo Finish” where 3 amateur photographers are given cameras that they are unfamiliar with to fulfil a random brief in a limited period of time. As much as I have a few issues with the technical aspects of the show, it does make for an interesting watch and importantly is a show in prime time about photography, as opposed to people in kitchens, people singing, dancing or building houses (grand or otherwise). Last night Photo Finish gave their contestants 3 plastic cameras to play with.
You can see it at the link below: Plastic Cameras on Photo Finish
Well I hope you all had fun on pinhole day. I’ve been so distracted with other ‘stuff’ & busy with work & family, I haven’t actually managed to scan or upload the Polaroid pinholes I took, so will update them later. I did, however, indulge in my other passion one dark and stormy night last week…
Yesterday I received this in my inbox, many of my readers may have as well, but for those that haven’t:
Dear Pinhole Photography Fan,
The global celebration of Worldwide Pinhole Photography Day is Sunday, April 29, 2012.Join thousands of photography enthusiasts from around the world to experience the creative joy of photography without a lens. Make a pinhole photograph on Worldwide Pinhole Photography Day and upload it to the premier online gallery of lensless photography http://www.pinholeday.org/ This year, in addition to uploading a pinhole photo to the gallery, you can upload a photo of the camera that created your gallery submission. Here’s the details:http://tinyurl.com/7fz4j3g Local events take place the globe. If you’d like to join other folks in making pinhole photos, look for an event in your part of the world:http://www.pinholeday.org/events/ Worldwide Pinhole Photography Day is completely run by volunteers. Here is a list of the folks who make it happen:http://www.pinholeday.org/org/?pid=team We look forward to seeing your photographic creation in the 2012 gallery.Tom Miller, on behalf of the Coordinating Team Tom Miller (USA) – Team Leader Gregg Kemp (USA) – Team Leader, WebmasterPaolo Aldi (Italy) – Publicity Nick Dvoracek (USA) – Resources Chuck Flagg (USA) – Education Marie-Noëlle Leroy (France) – Events Patrizia Di Siro (Italy) – Publicity Assistant
The Worldwide Pinhole Photography Day team has added a new feature: your submission to the Pinhole Day gallery can include a photo of the your camera. Visitors to the WPPD gallery will see your photo accompanied by a thumbnail image of your camera.
The photo of your camera is optional. If you’d like to include a picture of your pinhole camera with your Pinhole Day photo, be sure to have both files prepared before submitting. While your Pinhole Day photo must be made with a pinhole camera, the picture of the camera can be created through a lens. You can describe your camera in the same way that you write a statement about your photo. Note that any image more than 500 pixels on a side will be scaled down for the gallery.
Here is link to Facebook showing examples the camera portion of the WPPD submission form, as well as how photos will appear in the WPPD 2012 gallery.
There are already over eighty Pinhole Day events listed!
Tom Miller (USA)…………… Team Leader,
on behalf of the WPPD coordinating team:
Gregg Kemp (USA) ………….. Team Leader, Web Site
Paolo Aldi (Italy) ………… Publicity
Nick Dvoracek (USA) ……….. Support
Chuck Flagg (USA) …………. Education
Marie-Noëlle Leroy (France) … Events
If you want to cut to the chase and see the project that prompted the piece of journalism in Wired however, go here!
edit: Since posting this I have found a video featuring Richard Nicholson (the chap who started this project) and one of his darkroom subject’s operators Roy Snell…
It is completely inexcusable of course, but I haven’t had a chance to do anything much except fulfil work & family responsibilities lately, so my apologies for any lack of content here. I hope everyone has had a very safe & happy festive season and wish you all a incredible New Year!
Here is a small edited snippet of some 8mm film I shot for Powershovel/Superheadz featuring my favourite plastic Twin Lens Reflex Camera, the blackbird,fly – http://www.superheadz.com/bbf
Thanks to my nephew who filmed most of this clip (on a Fujica ‘Single-8′ P2) whilst I wandered around with my bbf. Many, many thanks to Nick and all at Powershovel/Superheadz.
I have edited the footage in iMovie ’09 the backing music is ‘comfortable mystery’ by Kevin MacLeod – http://incompetech.com
