Moore Musings

This is a shot from my Olympus XA2 using homemade redscale Kodak 400 Max (or maybe Ultramax, I forget.) I shot this using an ISO of 200, thus overexposing the photo. It’s lost a lot of the yellow/red/orange tones that you get from shooting redscale, but I still like it. To me, it’s very much like a watercolor.

This is a picture from my new-to-me Polaroid 3000, AKA “Big Swinger.” The only film it takes is B&W ISO 3000, which is kind of limiting since the shutter is fast, essentially rendering indoor shots useless.

That said, what I like about it is that it vignettes with it’s crappy plastic lens, uses AA batteries and seems easier to pull out the film compared to my Polaroid 104.

Something about this shot reminds me of the photo-realistic paintings of Mark Tansey.

I wish Kodak Portra 400VC wasn’t such a pain to scan, because I like the vintage look I get when I shoot it with my Stellar (Diana clone.)

I recently became aware of a photographer name Ralph Eugene Meatyard. His name alone caused me to delve into his work. He was an optician by trade, but more than dabbled in photography. After working with a Leica rangefinder, he moved onto a Rolleiflex medium format camera.

To me, his work with the Rollei really shines. His square images are well composed, but it’s the spookiness of his work that sets him apart. He uses double exposures, masked portraiture and camera movement to convey a sense of isolation and mystery.

More of his work can be found here: http://www.geh.org/ne/str085/htmlsrc8/meatyard_sld00001.html

Basically a give away camera, Vivitar’s Ultra Wide and Slim became a coveted toy camera that sold for upwards of $40 just a few months ago. I picked up two of these cameras around the beginning of 2009, and have shot about four rolls with one of them.

This pic is from a roll of Polaroid ISO 200 which expired 11/2002. I don’t know a lot about this film, but it was supposedly made by Agfa, and had a long shelf life. While this picture has a nice expired film look to it, a lot of the shots in bright light have snappy colors to them.

This is the best vignetting I’ve seen with this camera, so some ISO 200 film may be on my wishlist.

I’m looking to turn this into a photo blog, as this is where a lot of my creative energy is going nowadays.

This shot is from a Minolta Maxxum 7000 SLR with a 50mm lens at 1.7, no flash. It was the first true autofocus SLR camera. Introduced in 1985 as a mid-level shooter, this was my first foray into photography outside of point-and-shoots.

Fast forward to a few days ago, and my dad digs up the camera for me to take a look at. I put fresh batteries and some Kodak Ultra Max 400 in it, and rip off 17 shots that day without problems. Without cleaning the lenses after nearly 25 years of neglect, I shoot the rest of the roll.

I’m looking forward to shooting with it again. Hopefully I can get some zoom lenses for it.

Keeee-runch!