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And so another ‘Roid Week comes and goes. As always, it’s an inspiration, with so many fantastic pictures posted. Clearly instant film is dead: the group has 1378 members and 3891 pictures were posted! It would be interesting to know what proportion is Impossible, what expired Polaroid.

Anyway, here are my shots, in order, with minimal commentary. Click the pictures for the original Flickr page.

Monday:

Two Chocolate film shots in my Super Shooter. The hatch for pulling the film out is a bit tight, so sometimes odd things happen...

 

Tuesday:

I have to have corners. Even if they’re round.

 

Wednesday:

Poor Pod City of London.

 

Thursday:

Some spring shots with a badly deployed pack of Impossible Project PX680 (photographer’s error).

 

Friday:

Red things near work.

 

What fun! So many thanks to the originators of ‘Roid Week, gardengal and * cate * for making it happen. See you in 2012!

And so it ends! As ever, I've really really enjoyed 'Roid Week, especially as this time I wasn't a. violently ill or b. in hospital for an operation!

Do check out the pool and the discussions.

My final shots are daffodils, one on PX100, the other on Fade to Black which was peeled after a few minutes and scanned against plain paper.

I love the Fade to Black film, and am sad that it was only a limited supply (they've just sold the last of it from the Impossible Project store). It's also slightly anxiety-making as it needs scanning or peeling before the image goes too dark. A nice challenge though.

On a technical note, I discovered a great way to shield the emerging PX100 shots from light, using a Paul Giambarba Edition box from pack film. Worked a treat:

So that's 'Roid Week done for another spring. Bring on Autumn!

Penultimate day. I took some flower pictures in the morning, but was saving them for Friday, as I wanted to get these 600SE shots up first.

I would be neglecting my duties not to put forest pictures in the pool...

 

I had to post off my old Nikon D50 which I finally sold on ebay (only took me a year to get round to it), and even though it was a fairly grey day, I thought I might as well take my Holgaroid out and about with the Sepia film that's been in it since the Autumn. Just round the back of the Post Office is quite an old part of Cambridge by the river, and the street names - Abbey Road, Priory Road - give you an idea of what used to be there. Mostly, it's just Victorian terraces. One house has heavy wisteria on its front. Looks like an artist lives there. But as to the older stuff, there's an abbey building dating back to the 17th Century. I'm really pleased with how the focus and framing worked here. Anyone who's used a Holgaroid will know that aiming it is more art than science... The third shot I took (only two per day in this 'Roid Week) is of the last remnant of the 13th Century priory itself. Carefully framed to miss out the connoisseur of high strength lager on a bench nearby. Only two more days to go! Swim in the pool.

Day two. Took some shots during the day, another couple of London corners on 600 film which may go up during the week (but I don't necessarily want to repeat myself).

So instead, here are two melancholy angels from Mill Road Cemetery in Cambridge on Impossible Project PX100 film. Moody.

Visit the pool for so much amazing goodness.

And in another exciting development, the stars behind 'Roid Week are giving away two packs of PX600 film every day to two lucky people. And I won one for Tuesday! Obviously I have lots of film already, so watch this space for what I plan to do with it...

I love 'Roid Week. It introduced me to so many amazing photographers in the two blasts last year, and the shots coming out so far are amazing as ever. Such a great, supportive, interested community. The only problem is there not being enough time to look at everything as much as I'd like.

For the full pool check here.

And for the digested read of people's faves, check here.

Here are my two entries - two grand buildings in London, catching the evening light, captured on ATZ film.

Mortimer/Wells

Goodge/Newman

With 'Roid Week '10 a couple of days away, I have of course been applying my mind to which cameras/films I'm going to point at things. I have my SX-70s with the possibilities of Artistic TZ, Fade to Black, 600, some Time Zero, and of course some Impossible Project PX100 and PX600. There is also my ProCam with its Spectra film. My Holgaroid still has a couple of shots of Sepia left in it... Ah yes, the dwindling pack film. I have some more Sepia, some Chocolate, a couple of packs of 669 and one of 690, as well as a pack of B&W Fuji. But as my Polaroid 250 is on the fritz, I'll have to use my...

600SE!!!

(Here's an excellent overview at filmwasters. I sadly only have the one lens at present...) Yes, I finally managed to snag one off eBay for a reasonable price. I was very excited, even though the seller said it might need a little attention. Turned out is needed a LOT of attention as nothing worked: cable release was stuck, shutter wouldn't fire, rangefinder wasn't moving, viewfinder was foggy, both backs were in a crappy state. Got straight back to the seller, and he was keen for us to get it fixed, so I sent it off to a great repair shop in Sheffield, Premier Electronics. It took a couple of weeks, and involved pretty much stripping the whole thing down and rebuilding it. Turned out the poor camera had probably been submerged at some point. Anyway, it came back to me, as good as new, and the seller and I went halves on the repair (which was only £120). Repair guys said it was a pleasure to work on, as it is completely mechanical - no batteries or wiring. Most modern cameras are a pain, as circuit boards are not the most fixable. If you've never used a 600SE, it's a beast: a big black box with a large lens on the front, definitely more functional than ergonomic. But it produces beautiful results. My first film was some 125i Silk which has lovely "true" colours. I tried it under some cherry trees. So I think I should be OK for choices this coming 'Roid Week. Oh yes, and in other news, it turns out Polaroid are bringing out a new camera! The Polaroid 300 is a new design for the company, and it uses a brand new Polaroid film! And by new, I mean it's a Fuji Instax Mini 7 and film with the word Polaroid on the front. Literally. But they seem happy about it: "We are thrilled that today marks the return of instant. It's bigger and better than ever." You can probably guess how I feel about this. I'm not going to waste pixels on their crap. Here's the story at BJP. Feel free to circle in red the parts that piss on the memory of Polaroid, the ambitions of Edwin Land, and the hard work and love of The Impossible Project. You may need more than one pen.

So then, that was 2009, eh? How to summarise it?

Um...

Oh yes - in general, photography, and specifically, POLAROID!

At the beginning of the year I had a few cameras: a Nikon D50 was my main workhorse, with my iPhone with me at all times. In a couple of cupboards I had my dad's Nikon FM, unused for years, my first generation Mamiya 646, also unused. No need to use film - digital is where it's at!

Brendan Dawes on twitter mentioned this online store called PolaPremium which seemed to be selling Polaroid film and cameras, and also about The Impossible Project who were working on a plan to bring back instant film. Sounded interesting.

Then I went to the new Photographers' Gallery on Ramillies Street in London, just around the corner from where I work, and saw all the delicious film cameras in their shop, and a wall with Polaroid film for sale. Interesting. Didn't my dad have an old SX-70 lying on a shelf?

And so it began. In the spring I visited my parents in France, with a cartridge of Artistic TZ in my bag. The camera worked fine, and the obsession took hold. He let me take it back with me, just in time for 'Roid Week! (Here are my pictures from Spring 'Roid Week 09)

I'd already been on Twitter for a bit, mainly just tweeting amongst friends. 'Roid Week opened that right up introducing me to the Polaroid focal point which is Anne Bowerman. Anne and her partner Dave Bias were behind Save Polaroid. They are the American wing of PolaPremium and The Impossible Project. (Dave also designed the Medeski Martin and Wood website. My. Favourite. Band. Ever). Anne's tireless work, enthusiasm and encouragement through Twitter and flickr is the glue which joins the new Polaroid community together.

Also through 'Roid Week I found out about Etsy, again through Anne, but also through the fantastic work of the fantastic Nancy Stockdale and Lauren Beacham. I set up a store, and while sales have been slow, it's great to have an outlet for prints. One of my aims for 2010 is to push my store a bit harder.

So in brief, the world of analogue photography re-opened for me. And this resulted in accumulations... I'm now the proud owner of:

1. SX-70
2. SX-70 Sonar
3. Polaroid Land 250 Automatic
4. Polaroid 3000
5. Polaroid ProCam
6. Lubitel (which I don't like and will sell)
7. Holga
8. Polaroid back for the Holga
9. Vivitar Ultra Wide and Slim (thanks to Jess Hibbard for being my enabler with that one!)
10. Vivitar 3D camera
11. Digital Harinezumi
12. Olympus Trip 35 waiting to be picked up from the post office. 

I may have forgotten one or two cameras in there. Oh, yes, I also upgraded my D50 to a D90, and got a lovely 50mm lens for it. That will do for now, although a Hasselblad and Polaroid 600SE are needed, of course.

As the year went on, I found a wonderful subject for my cameras in Thetford Forest. Shot it with 600 film:

I shot it on Time Zero:

I shot it with Blue Polaroid film:

And on my Vivitar UWS:

And on my Holga:

(Forest shots here)

I went to France three times:

(more France shots here)

There was another 'Roid Week in November...

And it was a year of getting to know many great people through Twitter and Flickr, many fantastic photographers, too many to single out, although special mention goes to Jeff Hutton who devised his brilliant and generous Polaroid Giveaway Project, which saw him sending out originals on the condition that recipients posted an image of the Polaroid. I went out on Christmas day to the forest with his image of the Rockefeller Center in New York (taken on Chocolate film for 'Roid Week in November):

So there you have it! Happy 2010, everybody. May your year be full of exciting and interesting photographs. May mine be full of Impossible Project film!

And so, the last day. So many great pictures! I've put together two galleries of my favourites, so you can see my top 36: Gallery 1, Gallery 2.

My last three pictures were taken in early September using the rest of the pack of expired Time Zero I'd had in the forest (see day two). My bike had a puncture, so I walked to King's Cross station in the beautiful sun.

Little Argyll Street is directly across from where I work. The colours on this film proved unbelievable. Pinks greens and blues. Lovely.

A bit further north, on the junction of Great and Little Titchfield Streets, the light on this building was fantastic:

By this point, I only had two shots left in the pack, and I really didn't want to waste them; when might I ever use a film with these qualities again? (the other Time Zero I used in France (one here) came out quite different, leaky glowy. Very nice, but different). So the camera went up to my eye many more times than I pressed the shutter. I'm glad I waited. Off Gower Street, in the complex of UCL buildings, is this amazing place:

Some more 'Roid Week reflections to follow.

Sad to miss day 3 due to being in hospital, but I had day 4 ready to go when I got back on Thursday evening...

Back to the forest, and what felt like the end of a season. It was the day the clocks had changed, so it got dark early, but thankfully there was some lovely light still. This was some 779 film from a Polapremium promotion, and it had managed to get a bit of frost on it in the fridge. No adverse effects though...

This is lens flare. Or wood-spirits: