A day in Southern MD!

So back in November I spent the day visiting some good friends and doing some family portraits for them.  They were great sports and their two little boys were so fun to shoot.  We didn't spend too much time shooting, but hey when there are little ones involved if you don't get it in the first hour it's best to take a break and start again another day.  This is why I enjoy shooting for friends, they know that I will gladly come back again and again to visit and shoot if their little ones just aren't feeling it that day.  For those photographers that make a living at this I can't imagine how stressful it can be when you have a set amount of time to make the magic happen.  Me shooting friends is just as much about spending a day visiting with them as it is taking pictures.  I am still working through the images but here is a sample.

 

Now as I was editing this image I stumbled across something.  Might as well add a bit about my post processing here.  So the image you see above was shot digitally and converted to B&W (I know shocker that I would do that).  Anyway as is often typical, the sky doesn't always cooperate on the days when you have a shoot.  So when I converted this to B&W I created a duplicate layer and worked with the contrast on the sky using a curves adjustment layer.  Essentially I darkened the sky and increased the contrast to make it more dramatic and also give the image the impression it was shot near sunset.  In fact it was shot mid afternoon.  So then I used a layer mask to allow the adjusted sky to show through.  So then I accidentally turned off the layer containing the family in B&W and let the original color image show through and ended up with this:

So now I have the original color image (adjusted a bit with a slight sepia tone) and the background is in B&W.  I know I know!  I am not the first person to have color in a B&W image.  And yes in the scope of my typical photography this is just a nice family portrait.  But since that is exactly what I was attempting to create I am happy with the results.  The all B&W image is exactly what I envisioned while shooting.  All that said for some reason I have been stuck looking at the image directly above and I can't quite figure out why.

For some reason having the color foreground and B&W background give the image an enhanced feeling a two dimensionality (is that even a word) that I find interesting.  The color also enhances the "All American" family vibe if you will (I can't quite figure out how to really explain what I mean by that).  The background fades as a strong part of the image, unlike in the all B&W image above where the viewer is drawn to the image as a whole. 

Anyway I am just shocked that I am drawn to any color at all and I should probably go see a Dr. ASAP.  That said does anyone have any thoughts on the color, love it, hate it, why?

Delores Park Pano

Since all my friends are lame and don't want to go out tonight I decided to work on some of the images I haven't gotten to.  Here is another one from Delores Park in San Fransisco.  I found myself spending a lot of time there just people watching and enjoying the weather during my visit.  I wish there was something similar where I live,  While there are tons of parks and during the summer they can be packed with people, they are always full of people with a purpose.  They are there to picnic, or for family gathering, or to participate in organized rec sports.  Whatever, they are there for a reason and focus on that.  Delores Park is different, people just go to be, to hang out.  They come from all walks of life and just co-exsist.  I enjoyed just observing, maybe that's the photographer in me, or maybe that is why I picked up the camera in the first place.  I just love people watching.

"Park Beers!"

Holga

Lion Love

Here is a peek at some of the images I took of my good friends Gary and Diana at Penn State where they first met.  They are recently engaged, congrats!!! So these are kind of engagement pics if you will.  We plan on doing some more images in the DC area, but I couldn't refuse and exchange of pics for tickets to a home game in Happy Valley.  As my previous post shows, game day was cold and snowy but that didn't stop us from getting out for some proper Big 10 tailgating!

After a cold day and a football game that came down to the last second (with my feet frozen solid I had hoped the Nittnay Lions could have run up the score so we might have left early...) we woke up early and made our way to join a Penn State tradition, taking your picture at the Nittnay Lion Statue!

Next we made out way around campus to take a few images at the stadium.

Obviously since these pictures were taken, Penn State has found it's self embroiled in a devastating scandal that has rocked the college football community and the nation.  I think it is important to remember that the vast majority of people associated with Penn State are great people and in no way involved.  They are devastated by the breach of trust and failing of those who represented the university that they love.  I hope everyone can see these images and see the love of a young couple that meet at this beautiful university.  They have many happy memories from their time here.  I feel lucky to have experienced a weekend at this place they love so much before all of this sadness befell them.  They are Penn State and I have complete faith that they will be strong and do what is right and necessary to make sure those responsible are punished and in time find a way to become even stronger.

Next we made our way on campus.

Finally we went to the Engineering building where they first met.

Thanks for a great weekend Gary and Diana!  I hope we can do it again next year!

Penn State Tailgaiting - grab your lion coats this is serious buisness!

So my recent posts have been all over the place, a little bit from my recent west coast trip, some from the Rebel Riders rides, some from some potential projects, and now some from a recent trip to Happy Valley to take some photographs of my good friends at the place they first met.  Little did I know that the football weekend was going to turn into a blizzard.  Here is a first taste from Saturday Morning's tailgating.  Please note at Penn state they take their tailgating seriously you still must have your magnetic beer coozy even in white out conditions.

Anyway at least with the many varying posts I can say I have a decent body of work still to sort through and it is looking like I am finding my groove again.

"Nittnay Snow Lion"

Canon 50D

Not a project!

Ok so as with most photographers I like to give myself projects to shoot, themes to explore, yada yada yada.  But most of the time the minute I label something a project I stop shooting for it or find myself unable to figure out how to proceed.  Or just as often I decide to shoot a project with someone who them moves away or something.  Sometimes the idea are great but just don't reflect my "vision" so I decide to let them go.  This image is representative of an idea I have been thinking about for some time, but I am hoping to just keep shooting it and see if it evolves into something.  Maybe if I don't define it publicly something will actually come from it.  Feel free to tell me what this image says to you, it may help me refine my idea.

Untitled

Holga, Kodak Porta 400

I fear color...

As the title suggests I do not generally shoot in color, even when I pick up a digital camera I usually end up converting the images to black&white at some point during post.  I've always just figured some photographers shoot color and some shoot B&W, no big deal.  After having been in a creative slump, one that I'm still not really out of, I decided to pack mostly color film on my recent vaccay to mix things up a bit.

I have managed to get all of the color film developed and scanned (I still have 3 rolls of B&W to develop).  So here is the first image I started working on.  The focus is softer than I usually like (even for a Holga).  I should note that I took a relatively new Holga and obviously had done a piss poor job of making it light leak proof...but hey embrace the blur and light leaks right?  That's what toy camera photography is all about right? Anyway, while this is not the best image I've ever made it's one of those that I like in spite of all it's flaws and I decided to work on it first.

So for shits and giggles I decided to convert it to B&W and see if I'd like it better and wouldn't you know it, I do....sigh.  The whole point of shooting with color film was to try and convince myself that I liked it.  I can't say I don't like the color version, it's actually makes for a much different image if you ask me.  Anyway if you have any opinions other than "that image sucks!" feel free to weigh in with which one you like better and why.

"Skater Chic, Delores Park, San Francisco 2011"

Holga, Kodak 160NC

Liberty and Fixie's for all!

Here is another image from Lindsay and my Rebel Riders weekend jaunt through DC.  For those of you reading this blog but who don't really know me, Rebel Riders is a bike club Lindsay and I started up for the hell of it.  Basically I floated the idea and she made it happen.  We are a small group of non-competitive cyclists who combine our love for bikes, beers, and service all into one fun group.

Back to the weekend ride, for some reason the fixie's wanted to demonstrate outside of the Supreme Court.  I have no idea either...

"Liberty and Fixie's for all!"

Polaroid 180, Polaroid Chocolate

I'll never let go, Jack. I promise.

So I have finally finished scanning a ton of images from my recent trips to San Fransisco and Boulder, as well as some images from the Rebel Riders weekly happy hour rides.  I still have 3 rolls of B&W to develop and scan, but at least I should have enough material to work on that I should be able to start showing new images more often around here.  At least that is the plan as long as I can find the time these days to work on the images.

So this latest image was from a Rebel Rider weekend ride.  Lindsay and I just got on our Fixie's one weekend and decided to pedal our way through DC with no specific destination in mind.  We found ourselves riding along the south Waterfront just past the Maine avenue fish market (which by the way is a great place to grab a bite to eat!).  We are on a pretty bumpy part of the path and I am concentrating on the surface when Lindsay rides up to me and says "I'll never let you go, Jack!"  Being oblivious I just assume she's gone mental.  She then points out this odd statue up ahead and tells me it reminded her of the movie Titanic.  I continue to look at her, now fully convinced she is mental.  She pedals off ahead and starts bawling, when I reach the statue I discover why....it happens to be a memorial for...wait for it...yup you guessed it, the Titanic.  What the hell a Titanic memorial is doing along the Potomac river in DC is beyond me, but it was obvious photo documentation would be required.

"I'll never let go, Jack!"

Polaroid 180, Polaroid Chocolate film

Impossible Altitude

OK so while I am still no expert on these impossible films I have become over time pretty good about obtaining useable exposures and figuring out what setting the camera needs to be at.  For the PX600 UV film you pretty much need to set the exposure wheel to maximum dark and the image needs to be protected from from light and for the most B&W tones you need to develop the film at or below about 68 deg F.  So while on vacation I was in Boulder, CO which you may or may not know is about 1 mile up in altitude.  I took a few images in Boulder (none shown here, I promise to post them in the near future) and encountered nothing unexpected.  Basically the film behaved just how I figured it would.  The problems came when I traveled up the mountains.  Once I got above about 8,000 ft all of my images started to look like they were either over exposed or had been subjected to light during developing.  Since I knew I was shielding the images after exposure I figured that for the first few images I had just neglected to set the exposure wheel to all dark.  Turns out that wasn't the issue.  So the best I can guess is that the extra UV light that is present the higher up you go was responsible.  The Impossible films either don't have a UV filter built in or the filter isn't strong enough at the altitudes I was at.

Anyway here is an example.  One that I actually like.  I did use Photoshop to increase the contrast a bit to bring out the details.  The actual image is even lighter overall than you see here.

 

"Fear the trees..."

Polaroid SX-70 Sonar, Impossible PX600 UV+ 

Delores Park

Ok so I think the slump is officially over!  I have 17 rolls of film to process (most from my recent trip to San Fransisco and Boulder).  I also have scanned a bunch of recent instant images using the Impossible films.  I will start to roll them out here and on my Flickr stream.  Here is the first image of my favorite park in San Francisco.

 "Biker on hill"

Polaroid SX-70 Sonar, Impossible 600 UV+ BB

Rebel Riders

So this year has turned out to be a bit of a break from photography for me.  Actually this year has been a pretty rough one thus far.  The loss of a great friend to a series of misunderstandings that we just could find our way past set the tone.  Watching many of my friends struggle through this difficult economy.  The loss of a dream I didn't even know I was holding onto.  And other crap not even worth mentioning.  I seem to be the opposite of many of my artist friends, they often find solace in their art and turn to it when they are depressed.  Me I turn away from my cameras, I get to a point where the mere thought of taking pictures and developing the film and edit the images becomes and insurmountable task.  On the plus side I often turn to exercise, which means that I tend to me the most in shape when I'm depressed.

This year I managed to work through all this crap on my bike and was determined to find a new group of friends to ride with so that I'd have a reason to continue even after I worked my way through my funk.  Thus the Rebel Riders were born via my discussions with my good friend Lindsay.  We wanted a bike club that wasn't focused solely on riding fast and expensive equipment.  Lindsay decided that we should combine riding with her focus on supporting cancer research, thus the Rebel Riders are also about service and raising awareness and support for cancer research.  We weren't done yet, as any good college student knows one of the best cures for what ales you is a pint with friends.  So the Rebel riders are also focused on fun happy rides with a focus on exploring the many great bars in and around the DC area.

Since Lindsay and I are both photogs we now have the idea idea that we need to start documenting our HH outings.  Here are the first two images.  These were taken on a recent visit to Start & Shamrock, a Jewish/Irish bar on H St. in NE DC.

 

Star & Shamrock

H St. NE DC

Polaroid 680, Impossible 680 Beta 

The Red Razzle was finally let out!

So in case you have no idea what the Red Razzle is, it is a Polaroid 110b camera converted to accept 4x5 film.  The really awesome thing of this camera is that it has a functioning range finder and coupled with it's 1/300 shutter speed allows you to hand hold and shoot which is pretty much unheard of for large format cameras.  It is also relatively compact and light making it easy to put in your bag and use while walking around town. Don't get me wrong it's no compact camera, but in comparison to other large format cameras it is down right portable.

I have had the camera for quite some time, but as usual I took a few months to actually load it up and take it out.  So here are a few images from Old Town Alexandria, where I live, to give you an idea of what the camera can do.  I think this camera will see regular rotation in my camera bag!

"Door at 714"

Polaroid 110b Conversion (Red Razzle), HP5

"Alexandria Alley"

Polaroid 110b Conversion (Red Razzle), HP5

Breakfast with my Sis!

So since I am still working, slowly, through images from last year and the few new rolls I have shot so far this year here is a quick Polaroid from today.  One of the nice things about being considered a photographer by all your family and friends is that they at least tolerate you pulling out the crazy vintage contraptions otherwise known as cameras.  One of my goals this year is to try and photograph my everyday life a bit more.  To often I go through the day with a camera in my bag (you know just in case) and end the day with nothing.  I tell myself that I passed nothing or saw nothing of great enough interest to inspire me to pull out the camera.  Now I am thinking I need to work more to just find the images in the ordinary.  Even look for the ordinary and shoot it.

All that said, my awesome sister is anything but ordinary!  So maybe next week I'll post something blah :)

Sis it was a blast seeing you!  I'll try and make it out your way soon.

"Breakfast at Perk Up!"

Polaroid 180, ID-UV

TOYCAMERA.com is back!

Just thought I'd share with all you that TOYCAMERA.com is back and under new management.  Go check it out and join up if you haven't already, it's a great resource for toycamera photography.

I also promise to get back into regularly updating this blog soon.  I still have tons of images from last year to share with everyone and I have quite a few shoots planned over the next month.  Sorry for the long break, but I needed to focus on other projects for a while inorder to get my photography mojo back!

Curious Camera 3 - 2nd Place!

I was informed today that my Holga pano of the Cyclone on Coney Island was awarded 2nd place in the Curious Camera 3 competition!

The show opens this week on April 30th.  Click here for details.  I won't be able to attend so if you happen to be in the area go check out the show and send me pictures.

Below is the version of the Cyclone I submitted.  I also have shown the same image with a sepia tone.  Click here to see the sepia version.

"Cyclone, Coney Island"

Holga, Ilford HP5

More from Baltimore's Graffiti Alley

Often I get on a roll shooting during a period and in the process don't have the time to edit and sift through all of the images I have shot.  This is one of those cases.  Last summer I was have a ton of fun exploring Baltimore with a good friend and ended up with tons of images.  Recently while I was transferring all of my files to a new computer I rediscovered some of the images I took when we ran across a group of graffiti artists preparing B'mores graffiti alley for an upcoming event.

I originally posted a few images up on Flickr, you can check them out here:

Image 1
Image 2
Image 3

And here is one of the ones I recently sat down and edited.  enjoy.

"Graffiti Alley, Baltimore"

Polaroid 180, Polaroid Sepia

Day 28, 29 and 30 a bit late

So here are the last 3 images from Jake's 30 days of recovery from heartworm treatment.  I got a bit lazy and tired of being cooped up in the house so I procrastinated getting these edited and on the blog.

They are cropped a bit different because I fashioned myself a film holder for my Polaroid images so I wouldn't have to keep cloning out the Newton Rings.  Once I clean up the holder and make it all fancy I will be sure to post images. Until then enjoy these last images.  Doing the project was fun and it helped me get through the long month of worrying about Jake.  Of course he was a trooper and did great, enjoyed all the attention and settled right into his new comfortable life.  I don't think he will ever give up the left side of the couch.

So far Jake is doing well in the city (he was a country stray).  He is loving his walks around Old Town Alexandria and his strength and stamina are building each day.  I am hoping to have him ready for a trip to the dog park within the next week or so.  For the most part he is pretty easy to train and I am trying to include him in most of my outings to get him used to being at my side and in public with lots of distractions.  He is still overwhelmed by all the sounds and people and dogs, but hopefully he will calm down over time.  Now all we have is one more surgery on his cherry eye in June and he should be all fixed up!

"Goose is down..."

SX-70 Sonar, Impossible PX70 PUSH

"Getting ready."

SX-70 Sonar, Impossible PX70 PUSH

 

"I get to go out there!"

SX-70 Sonar, Impossible PX100 Silver Shade

Headless Portraits...

So this is one of those images that kind of came to me one day.  I have been sitting on it for quite a while, mainly because I have been thinking that this might be a fun project in the making but I couldn't quite figure out how I wanted to approach it.  I think what I'd like to do is photography various people (headless) and allow them to pick their wardrobe to either reflect themselves or even better allow them to act out a totally different personality.  Then set them in slightly off settings.  That at least is my first thoughts, so anyone want to volunteer to model just let me know.  If you have an idea for the shoot great, if not I am sure I can think of something so just let me know your interested.

"Watering can"

Hasselblad 500c, Ilford HP5

More from the fair

Here is a shot from a county fair I went to last summer.  This is one of those shots that I overlooked the first time, but then kept coming back to.  I'm still not sure how much I like so I figured I go ahead and do some post on it and live with it for a while.  Feel free to let me know what you thunk.

"World Famous Iced Tea!"

Holga, Ilford HP5

Working through the backlog

Like may photographers out there I always have a back log of images that I am working through.  I think I have images from around 20-30 rolls of film from last year that I still need to edit and post at some point.  So while I still need to post the last 3 images from Jake's heartworm series (Still need to scan them) here is another image from my December trip to San Fransisco to visit my sister.

Fijipet Thunderbird

San Fransisco, China Town

Kodak Porta 400

Day 27

So just a few things to point out about PX70 PUSH films.  The image below the bed sheets are a pale greenish blue, maybe sea foam or some other silly color name.  The walls are a dark grey.  So as stated before while this latest color film fro Impossible are much better they are not for capturing true colors.  Not that I really care about that, but I do think there could be some improvements.  At the very least Impossible should address the need for narrow temperature ranges for development.  It would be nice to not have to protect the film from light while it develops as well, but if I had to pick I rather have the film able to be developed in a wider temperature range.

 

"I'm NOT tired!"

Polaroid SX-70, Impossible PX-70 PUSH 

Day 26

"MY TOYS!"

Polaroid SX-70 Sonar, Impossible PX70 PUSH

Day 25

Once again I fell behind with my posts.  So here I'll just post them now.  Jake is now officially fine in my mind, but we are going to follow the doctors orders so Thursday will be his first day of exercise.  Hopefully it doesn't rain, though at this point I think neither of us really care.

"I don't want my picture take!"

Polaroid SX-70 Sonar, Impossible PX100 SS

Day 24 - PX100 Silver Shade

Jake and I continue to count the days until next Thursday when we get out freedom back!!

So far during this photography project I have used the two types of PX600 films and had a first look at a pack of the color PX70 PUSH film.  Now I have shot a pack of the PX100 Silver Shade film.  The image below was created with this film.  It was shot with evening window light and the light/dark wheel was at max dark.  Not too shabby right?  Some lovely chocolate tones.  What you don't see is the hundreds of tiny white specs that I cloned out in Photoshop.  I found that every shot in the pack had these specs that basically looked like a tin dot where developer didn't work.  I spent a half an hour spotting out the specs so if you are going to make prints or show your images on-line it isn't terribly hard to clean up, even if it is a bit of a pain.  I'll post another image from this pack tomorrow showing you an image using morning window light.  I point this out because the cooler morning light created an image a bit more contrast with less of the yellowish tones and much more of a dark chocolate tone.  I also played around with the light dark wheel.  I found set at neutral you get a blown out image. While setting the wheel half way between neutral and max dark looked much the same as max dark.  So my first pack leads me to believe that the PX100 film is not as easy to control with the light/dark wheel like the PX600 films are.  As for developing I kept using the cold clip and the temperature I found to be best was the snowman sticker visible.  I tried using body heat and ended up with an very dark low contrast image that was terrible.  It will take a few more packs before I will be able to tell if these first thoughts bare out or if this film is like the first flush films and just unpredictable from pack to pack.

"I am SO BORED!!!!"

Polaroid SX-70 Sonar, Impossible PX100 Silver Shade (SS)

Day 23

Entering into the last week Jake continues to do great!  So onto some first thoughts on Impossible's PX70 PUSH film.

Starting with yesterdays shot you can see that the colors are much better than the blue cast that was typical of the PX70 First Flush films.  That said the film still has trouble with the red side of the spectrum.  The top right tile (still looking at yesterday's image) is actually a deep red and the bottom right tile is a bright orange yet they look almost the same color on film.  If you look at the bit of white baseboard in the image you will see a magenta hue to it also.  So the colors are nice but not accurate.  That isn't really a complaint, just the way it is.  Some of the old Polaroid films like the Artistic film didn't have accurate color rendition either.  This doesn't bother me that much.  The image was taken with out a filter and developed 2 minutes in the cold clip (see yesterday's post for details) at the sunny temperature range using body heat to keep the clip warm.  The light source was indoor tungsten lights.

Today's image was shot using a green filter mounted like shown here.  The light source was window light.  Again the light/dark wheel was pushed to max light.  Jake's collar and the carpet tile under duck and goose are both bright red and again you can see that they are not rendering correctly.  Body heat and the cold clip were once again used to keep the film warm for the first two minutes of development.

The nice thing about this film as apposed to the PX600 films is that I should easily be able to use it during the hot summer months here!  And it isn't terribly hard to develop it in the cooler months by using the cold clip and body heat.  I also tried a few other heat methods like using hot water and the microwave and the oven.  None produced desirable results.  And none are very portable so I really didn't experiment too much since the combination of the cold clip and body heat does pretty good.

Just to add a bit more data, I did note that many of the images from all of the PX films I have been using for this project have had the occasional developer leak from the film.  Just little bits here and there randomly.  Nothing like the First Flush films delamination problem, and not much different from my experience with old Polaroid stock.  Just keep an eye out and clean your rollers with a bit of water and a q-tip when it happens and you'll be fine.  Tomorrow I'll take a first look at the latest PX100 Silver Shade film, thus completing the a look at the complete offerings of Impossible.

"Don't you want to play with us?"

Polaroid SX-70 Sonar, Impossible PX70 PUSH

Day 22 - In living color!

Nothing new to report on Jake.  I entered into this project expecting to have daily reports of all of the ups and downs of Jake's heartworm treatment.  As it turned out he felt pretty bad and was very low key the first 10 or so days and since then it's been a steady return to a happy healthy dog, one who wants to go out for walks and play and is upset at me because I won't take him.  I am happy that the treatment has gone so well and feel very lucky.

So since I have nothing to say about Jake let me talk a bit about the new Impossible films.  First the Impossible films have come a long way from their first releases.  The films have more contrast and are not as light and temperature sensitive as they were.  The PX600 V06 (batches 6/10 and later) are fairly predictable films with a lovely yellow brown tone (almost Sepia).  Under the right temperatures (below 70 deg F) and protected from light for the first few minutes of development the films are just stunning.  It is a bit of a pain that you have to protect the film from light as it is ejected from the camera, but taping a darkslide on the front and using a cold clip for developing make this pretty easy.  I have been shooting this past moth mainly indoors under temperature controlled conditions, and it is early Sprng so pretty much the perfect temperatures for this film.  The new cold clips from Impossible come with temperature sensitive stickers that tell you the temperature range.  There are 2 stickers and they become visible when the clip reaches certain temps.

Darkslide taped over ejection point

iPhone 

Impossible cold clip

iPhone

The first sticker has a snowman image the becomes visible between 59-63 deg F
The second sticker has a heart image that becomes visible between 74-77 deg F
The third has a sun symbol that becomes visible between 86-90 deg F

For the PX600 and PX600 UV+ films I have actually found that having only the snowman visible is the best temperature range.  I should note that each sticker remains visible once it's lowest temp has been exceeded.  So if the it is hot enough for the sun symbol you will see all 3 symbols.  That means with only the snowman visible you could actually be as warm as about 73 deg F.  I have tried having the clip colder than 59 deg F and found that there was a blueish tint to the final image and it didn't develop as much as I expected.  For the PX 600 films I started seeing an orange tint when the heart symbol was visible (74 deg F or above).  The PX 600 UV+ was as close to B&W white as it could be when developed with the snowman visible and started moving quickly to orange tones above 74 deg F.

The big issue with the Impossible films has always been the very narrow temp range that is needed to obtain acceptable results.  Using a cold clip with the handy temperature sensitive stickers should make working with these films during the Fall, Spring and Winter months easier.  During the colder days one can easily heat up the clips with your body heat.  The problem will still be the Summer months (at least for me) we typically get temps above 85 deg F with high humidity so we shall see.  I guess I'd have to carry a cooler or have some way to cool the film as it develops.  This sounds like a pain to me and will likely restrict my shooting with this film to the indoors.

While I really love the tones in both the PX600 and PX600 UV+, I have to note that the UV+ films have more flaws than I would like.  They often have water mark like patterns as well as little pock marks where no developer seemed to get to.  And my least favorite tendency is to have a third of the image clearly darker than the rest.  There are 3 chemical packs on the film and the dark line looks like it always comes from one of the chem. packs like there was a slight variation in the chemicals and how they respond to the exposure.  You can see it in yesterdays post. That needs to be fixed before I will be able to say that I love this film.  The B&W tones are lovely though with the creamy whites and dark blacks.  It could use a bit more richness to the blacks, but I wouldn't change the creamy white personally I just love it.  I also love the yellow/brown tones of the PX600 films and hope that it stays as an option as Impossible improves their films.  It would be awesome to have a Sepia film, B&W and color film.

Since I have spent so much time talking about the PX600 films I am going to wait until tomorrow to talk about my first pack of the color film PX70 PUSH, but here is my first image from that pack. I shot this with the light/dark wheel at max light.  Developed it in the cold clip with the sunny symbol visible using body heat the keep it warm.

"Duck and Goose"

SX-70 Sonar, Impossible PX70 PUSH

Day 21

Jake spent the day with my pop while I went to work.  Apparently he is much more calm when I'm not around, sheesh!  Since I am catching up with my posts I am going keep this one short.

Jake pretty much acts like a normal dog now, one who really really really wants to go outside and play, but a normal dog none the less.  As far as the heartworms are concerned there is still a chance that some are still being dissolved which is why he needs to continue to have little to no exercise.  I'd much rather have him going nuts because he feels great and doesn't like being couped up inside all day than having difficulties with the treatment.  So I continue to count us lucky and count down the days until we can return to our normal routine.

Check the next post for my first look at the new PX70 PUSH film from the Impossible Project (their color film).

"Goose wants to go outside"

Polaroid SX-70 Sonar, Impossible PX600 UV+

Day 20

I forgot to post this yesterday, so here is the day 20 image.  Jake continues to do well and is feeling better each day.  He is also continuing to whine about wanting to go outside and play.

He was reunited with Duck yesterday thanks to duck surgeon Spring and he is very happy about that!  He still loves Goose (pictured below) but it's just not the same.  All yesterday he carried duck around everywhere he went.

I think it's safe to say that Jake will make it through the rest period with no real set backs.  Other than the burden I put on myself to make sure there has been someone with him at all times just in case he needed to be rushed to the vet (mostly me, but also my Sister and Father when needed) this whole process has been pretty painless.  Most of the anxiety came from the unknown leading up to the final treatment and those first few weeks when he was clearly not feeling too well.  I can't really complain because I know that not everyone is lucky.  Knock on wood the 24th will come with no set backs and both Jake and I can start working on our fitness!

s

"Ghost Jake"

 SX-70 Sonar, Impossible PX600 UV+