Filed under: experimental, film, photography, polaroid by ramune

Crystal Castles – Magic Spells

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I’ve been editing digital photos like they are going out of style, so I took a break to scan some of my recent Impossible Project Polaroids taken with my (sister’s) SX-70 camera. This little triptych is from my adventures in picking figs off my mother’s fig tree, which is exploding with deliciously beautiful fruit this year (and every year). The cardinals and the wasps love them too, so they need to be picked pretty much every day this time of year to ensure they don’t get overripe on the tree. Plans for this year’s crop include fig ice cream (made by me) and fig chutney (made by my mother). Mmm . . . I can’t wait! In the meantime I will eat them fresh.

Note: As with the rest of the photos on my blog, you can click it to see it larger.

Filed under: experimental, film, polaroid by ramune

Beach Fossils – Youth

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Here are two more photos from my experiments with the Fade to Black film from The Impossible Project. Unlike the last two Fade to Black polaroids I posted, I stopped the development on these two photos of peonies around 3-5 minutes after I shot them (a week apart). The first photo was shot inside and the second was shot outside. After I finish this set of Fade to Black film, I am going to see if there is anything I can do about the rollers that are leaving the stripes across the photos.

Filed under: experimental, film, photography, polaroid by ramune

Broken Bells – Mongrel Heart

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A few weeks back my sister brought down her (beautifully designed) Polaroid SX-70 camera for us to play with. She bought it at a thrift store for $5 years ago and now if you try to find one on ebay it will cost over $100 (and over $300 new). I imagine this is partly due to The Impossible Project, an interesting group that saved the last Polaroid production plant (in the Netherlands) and has been recreating Polaroid film from scratch. Some of their first batches are a bit quirky but they seem to be refining their process.

When my sister first brought the camera down, we tried out their PX 100 Silver Shade film. I haven’t scanned those photos yet, but they were a mixed bunch. Since we had one of the first batches of this film, the backing was a bit leaky. Supposedly they have figured that out and are fixing it for the next batch.

This last time she came down, we played with the Fade to Black film, which I was really excited experiment with. So far I have only taken a few photos with it, but the basic idea is that the film turns completely black within 24 hours after you take the photo, unless you remove the backing and stop the process. I imagined it would be a gradual process, however after taking these two photos, we noticed the film went almost black within an hour or so. Both of these photos of the polaroids were taken around 5-10 minutes into the development. Supposedly if you let them go completely black and then leave them in a sunny place for a few weeks, part of the image will come back. Depending on how they tun out, I might post those results.

P.S. Please excuse (what we think are) the roller marks on the photos. They seem to show up more in some photos and less in others. Maybe that’s why the camera only cost $5.