
But we were talking about 'Roid Week 2009. You'll find photos shot with 680s and Spectras and Swingers and Land cameras, and films like TIme Zero and Image and Fuji 100c. It's another one of the fine qualites of Flickr in general: If you want to learn about shooting instant film, there is an amazing amount of knowledge available, for free, from dedicated, generous photographers. Want to find out how to manipulate an SX-70 print? No problem. Want to see what happens if you pour a bleaching agent on some integral film? Here's a ton of examples. Ok, so I am a bit of a proselytizer when it comes to Flickr. So shoot me. But how many books do you think you'd have to buy, and how much searching would you have to do, to come even close to what's available to you with just a few clicks on Flickr?
Alright, end of speechifying. I really did want to talk about one thing in particular about shooting instant film, and especially expired instant film: The results are always unpredictable. You never know exactly how the next roll is going to behave, and you only get to play with its particular characteristics for 10 shots, because then the roll is over and it's on to the next one. But that's the beauty of it: The photographs are completely unique, and cannot be duplicated, and they won't ever happen in the same way again. You can't reproduce the results, and that's going to drive some people crazy. But I think of it as photographic jazz: Sometimes it just happens, and it's perfect.
That's not to say that the shot I posted above is perfect. Hell no. But it does have the qualities I look for with expired film, ones that suit the subject particularly well in this case. I was walking in the forest above the Fitzgerald Marine Reserve along the San Mateo Coast in Northern California. The reserve is a particularly wonderful place, both for the tidepools and harbor seals at the shoreline, but also for the forest of evergreens up above the coast on the bluff overlooking the beach. I go there more than I want to admit. And every time I go there, I find something new.

So the photo I took this week looks like it could have been shoved in a box back then, and maybe now I came across it as I was going through some old stuff in the attic, along with some patchouli oil and tie-dyed shirts and some stems and sticks from the Woodstock trip. (And I say this all very lovingly, without a trace of sarcasm. I wasn't a real hippie, I didn't grow up on a commune or anything, but I always thought the hippies were the folks with the biggest hearts. I'm naive that way.)
So that's what Polaroid Week and expired film can do for me. And it can do it for you, too, if you like.

what a fabulous post! and thanks to you i am now enjoying my polaroids (yes i purchased multiple.. and probably will get more.. i am obsessive like that) & polaroid week! big hug to you!
ReplyDeleteat first I thought it WAS an old polaroid of yours. great post, man.
ReplyDeleteThe magic of images. One day, someone sifting through a box of polaroids will find one misfiled by several decades. The story will be rewritten, completed. And time will pass over itself.
ReplyDelete