Jake Messenger
Congratulations to Azuree for winning the PX70 giveaway! I enjoyed it hugely, loved reading the comments. I wish I could send film to everybody who responded...
I plan to do another giveaway soon...
Thanks to all who entered!
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photos and words by me!
Here you may find burblings and pictures from me, a gentleman of photography and technology. Enjoy.
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PX70 Color Shade Impressions - and Giveaway!
In July The Impossible Project launched their first colour film: PX70 Color Shade First Flush. I bought six packs, and have been happily shooting away with it.
Like the First Flush edition of the PX100 monochrome material, it's very subtle and delicate. The tones (as I've used it) have tended towards the blues and greens, but with some reds coming through. When the shots first develop, they often appear to be a bit washed out, but with time (a day or so) the contrast improves and the colours grow. It still needs shading from the light when ejecting (although a quick flash of light on ejection can seem to fight the blues... but also fights the exposure)
Here are some of the pictures I've taken with this first step into Impossible colour (all link through to the Flickr page) :
These first steps are fascinating - it's like being at the beginning of the invention of a photographic process, because that's exactly what it is. The original chemicals Polaroid used were often custom made, needed years to mature, and some were later banned for toxicity. When instant film production was wound up, the last of the chemicals went too, so the potion-makers at Impossible Project had to start again from scratch. Bearing in mind the astonishing complexity of Edwin Land's original operation (this document by one of the original engineers on the SX70 gives an idea as to how dedicated the organisation was to getting things perfect, and also what enormous resources they had at hand to custom-build what they needed), it is astonishing that such a small group has succeeded well. My admiration for their achievements know no bounds: clearly Florian Kaps and Andre Bosman inspire innovation in the same way as Doctor Land.
And they keep on striving forwards.
In Photokina in Cologne this September, The Impossible Project showed off the next generation of PX70 chemistry using the wonderful, huge, 20x24 Polaroid camera. More contrast, more colour. Exciting!
But also exciting (for me, definitely!) is the image at the top of this post: I submitted it to the Best Shot competition run by The Impossible Project, and it was chosen as one of the 20 winners! What makes this exciting is that the 20 winners become official test users of the new film. I can't wait for it to arrive.
Giveaway!
As I'm lucky enough to be getting new test film, I want to share one of my last packs of First Flush, just in time for the autumn Polaroid Week in November! Just put in the comments what you'd like to shoot with the pack, and I'll announce a random winner after the weekend. I'll throw in an Impossible Project sticker too...
Enjoy!
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by Jake Messenger
Beautiful Light
I was in the forest yesterday with the sun being magic. Not enough film, but my Hipstamatic app came in handy.
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by Jake Messenger
Unruhe - in which the author nerds out over Polaroid and The X Files.
The X Files, Season 4, Episode 4.
The one with the spirit pictures. And Polaroids! Or are they? Allow me to bore you with observational nerdery...
A young girl goes into a pharmacy to get a passport photo taken. She has forgotten her cash, so runs out to the car to get it. She gets abducted. After waiting a while, the pharmacist peels apart the instant passport picture he'd taken, to see a distorted, screaming image of the very same girl, seemingly surrounded by demons or ghosts. Eeek!
So let me get my nerd on:
The pharmacist and his passport camera:
It looks like a Polaroid MiniPortrait 203 camera to me. Except it's, um, called an ETAP. You often see this sort of thing on TV, where they will cover up a prominent branding: how frequently do you see a metallic laptop with a blank circular sticker where there would perhaps be a glowing apple?
But The X Files go a stage further, because the plot revolves around scary spirit pictures imprinted on the film, without the need of a camera.
So what film does an ETAP camera use? In one shot we see him peeling it apart, and it looks like Polaroid 100 type, but it seems the ETAP has its own range of film:
Firstly: Gillian Anderson. *happy sigh*
Secondly, the prop-makers went to a great deal of bother with this! Love the faux Polaroid 'squares' logo. I'm wondering if Polaroid expressly didn't want their brand being shown, or whether the producers felt it would be distracting. Perhaps licensing or payment issues. Either way, I want one of these boxes.
Because I'm a nerd.
But the steamy instant action doesn't stop there.
At the victim's house, Mulder notices some 600 shots on the fridge, and goes looking for the camera.
He covers the lens and fires off a couple of shots, to see if the scary images are there:
I like how these are clearly real Polaroids, and they're really developing, not faked up. TV and film drama always likes to make things more exciting: digital cameras making the motor-dirve sound of film cameras; computers that beep and click at every occasion. But here they've clearly got a spirit photographer to imprint on the unexposed negative inside the Polaroid camera. No trickery. Kudos.
Which makes it a slight shame that the passport camera makes the sound of the motor in an SX70 type camera when fired. Sigh. I guess "click" isn't interesting enough.
Also fun is the part where Mulder gets the computer boffin to unscramble that distorted image. It's like a 20th Century CSI. With indexed colour graphics and dithering.
So there you have it: the X Files was cool, and I'm a massive, obsessed nerd.
No new revelations there.
p.s. Special thanks to Carol for the heads up!
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by Jake Messenger
