Still alive

One of the advantages of cleaning up my room other than the obvious improvement in organization and neatness is finding things I forgot I even had.
(just shows you how much stuff we keep even though we don’t really need it)
anyway, one of the things I came across was a folder with lots of cool slides I took around 1998-1999.
It was quite nice to go down memory lane and before you know it I had an itch to modify and alter some of these slides just like I’ve altered negatives in the past.
So this is how it’s done:
First I chose a slide that didn’t come out all that great (and I have plenty of these kind!)
I placed the slide on a light box and I used an artist knife to carve directly into the slide, basically going over the existing lines in the image.
That’s it.

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When People see this picture they often ask me to describe how I photoshoped it.
They think I used some layer texture process or something.
But actually this picture was not processed in Photoshop or any other photo editor.
It is originally a picture taken in Ashbury-Haight (San Francisco) with a cross-processed Fujichrome Provia-F 100 (RHP-III) Color Slide Film.
It was then professionally printed (by dotphoto.com) on a matte finish paper. It is necessary to have the photo professionally printed as the following steps would not work with an inkjet print.
The print was then directly (lightly)sanded and finally coffee stained.
Quite simple.

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- - - - - -

Last
picture
before
the rain
came down
over
San Antonio
Texas
Texas
San Antonio
An identical
city
Reflected
in
The sidewalk

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At last I found time to experiment long exposures with my digital camera (Nikon D60).
I took most of my long exposures in average lit streets of Hollywood.
Very quickly I became aware that since I don’t have a tripod I will have to adjust a larger aperture (about F/1.0) and quit breathing for a few seconds.
It worked out quite nicely, in fact, I thought it was pretty easy to do and I didn’t faint even once.

I guess I’ll have to find a new challenge now.

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These are two of the very earliest rolls of color film I shot. It was year 2000 and before it, for about a year, I shot only black & white, mostly using these Ilford rolls that came free with the pack of photographic paper. So basically shooting color film was a whole new territory for me and even kind of exciting. As I did all the darkroom printing myself (and I think its quite obvious I’m the one who printed out these contact sheets) I soon learned that color printing is awfully challenging, not to say frustrating and is clearly noting like black & white printing which is magically pleasant. And though you don’t have the direct contact with the chemicals, color printing which is done in complete darkness can simply drive you crazy before you can figure out

the exact exposure and filters needed to print out one nicely exposed and color corrected photo print.

The top contact sheet here was taken with a Fuji s-200 in downtown Manhattan in spring 2000 and you can see the twin towers in the 4th picture in the 3rd row. Also the 5th and 6th rows are pictures taken from the top of the World Trade Center.
The bottom contact was taken in Los Angeles using Agfa Ultra 50 which is a film that does not exist anymore. If I remember correctly I used this fast film to specifically shoot neon lights and neon signs.
Both rolls were taken with my good old trusted Minolta SRT 101 which I stopped trusting after the camera proved to break down just when I needed it most.

It’s incredible looking at these images now and feel like I’m gazing into my past life when really they were taken only 8 years ago.

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We had a great sunrise this morning, and so when leaving the house I decided to grab one of my cameras to capture this rare treat.
But yes, then came the age old question: which camera?
I quickly conducted a search among my cameras for the ones that already had film inserted in them. And so I came across one of my Polaroid cameras which had 3 pictures left. “Perfect!” I thought and left home with my chosen camera. One thing I wasn’t sure about was what type of Polaroid film I had in the camera but anyway what can go wrong? A Polaroid is a Polaroid and I quickly used up the 3 pictures left, thinking I’m going to get some pretty gorgeous late sunrise images. Well, obviously I was wrong. It turned out the 3 images were the precious manipulative Time-Zero film which expired in November of 2005.
The images turned out pretty bad… dark, gloomy, no distinctive colors…
in fact, so bad that I just love them!
Obviously as I love these pictures just the way they are, I decided not to try manipulating them in any way. Besides, it is best to manipulate Time-Zero Polaroid when the image is made of bright vivid colors.
You can see a few examples here:
www.nonphotography.com/blog1/index.php?showimage=388
www.nonphotography.com/blog1/index.php?showimage=76
www.nonphotography.com/blog1/index.php?showimage=66
(links point to my old blog).

Meanwhile, talking about Polaroid, I’m stocking some Polaroid 600 film, and don’t worry I’m not going to go overboard, but I’m not sure yet what to shoot… I mean I want to do something special with them… but I don’t know what.

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Venice Pier / Holga / Ilford Delta 3200 Pro/ 2007

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Making a color photo transfer into a tile is a little more challenging than the black and white transfer described in this previous post. The main reason for this is that the paper used for a color Xerox photocopy is thicker and holds the image better, which means it won’t “let go” the image onto the tile so easily.
Therefore the first thing to do is to leave the transfer do it’s thing for a longer time; at least 24 hours.
When peeling off the access paper it will be necessary to soak the tile in water, but really important to rub off the paper very gently or else the image will come off as well.
I finish the process with 2 layers of protective finish; Krylon Preserve It! And Krylon Crystal Clear (you can use any other protective finish.) I especially like the Crystal Clear finish because it gives the transfer a glazed glossy look and a kind of a 3D feel.
I know, looking at the scan of this tile it’s hard to tell, so you’ll just have to take my word for it; this tile transfer has a really nice glossy appearance to it.
And so the final result is pretty cool and definitely worth the effort.

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Hollywood blvd. / Holga / Fuji Pro 400H / 2007

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Venice, CA / Holga / Kodak EPD 200 / 2006

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