This first one is a little less glorious with the upper left corner of the photo that wouldn't develop, but the second one makes me happy.
Saturday, June 7, 2008
Broken=Awesome (sometimes)
Thanks to a fussy old $1 ebay polaroid camera that I've had for a few years now, I managed to DOUBLE EXPOSE a polaroid! I took a photo, and the camera wouldn't spit it out, pressed the button again, and Voila! some fancy double exposure action.
This first one is a little less glorious with the upper left corner of the photo that wouldn't develop, but the second one makes me happy.
This first one is a little less glorious with the upper left corner of the photo that wouldn't develop, but the second one makes me happy.
Thursday, June 5, 2008
Wednesday, June 4, 2008
Tuesday, June 3, 2008
don't shake it!
This one time, my friend Aaron 
and I pretended we were traveling folk singers and sang Outkast's "Hey ya" and illustrated to our audience why you indeed should not "shake it like a polaroid picture".
Bad things happen.
Your singing partners turn into gobbledy gook! You have to realize Outkast is just giving dancing tips, not photography tips. So just shake your bottoms. Not your pictures...
and I pretended we were traveling folk singers and sang Outkast's "Hey ya" and illustrated to our audience why you indeed should not "shake it like a polaroid picture".
Bad things happen.
Your singing partners turn into gobbledy gook! You have to realize Outkast is just giving dancing tips, not photography tips. So just shake your bottoms. Not your pictures...
Monday, June 2, 2008
Tuesday, April 29, 2008
Polaroid vs. Holga
Dilema? I carry multiple cameras around with me and end up taking nearly identical photographs. You be the judge...
Exhibit A: Death Valley Junction
Exhibit B: Death Valley Junction 2:
Exhibit C: Alcatraz
Exhibit D: Roy's, Amboy, CA
I enjoy Polaroids because they satisfy the video part of me that likes the instant gratification. The camera makes that awkward sound and spits out the photograph and you wait your two minutes and slowly watch the photograph come alive. The only thing more magical than that is placing a photograph in the developer and waiting for an image to take its first breath in a dark, red lit room.
At the end of the day I'll have my 120 rolls snug in my pocket anxiously waiting for their magical birth in the darkroom, but I'll also have these Polaroids which are little treasures of the day. Though their image may not be superior to medium format or 35mm film, I tend to value them far more. I keep my negatives safe and I can always make more prints, but this is the only Polaroid I'll ever have no matter what. Even though I have a more permanent and nearly identical record in the tiny grains that come alive through gelatin, I have a pure satisfaction in knowing that this is the only Polaroid. They are truly precious in that way and even more precious now that Polaroid isn't going to make instant film anymore.
I used to buy Polaroids when they came in a 5 pack at Costco. You could get 50 photographs for $45 which is pretty good. After a very upsetting talk with a Costco employee I found out that Costco doesn't even sell the Polaroid film anymore. In fact, they don't sell any film. Period. I understand the convenience of digital photography, but I don't understand the lack of something physical.
Will we still have family photo albums? When we e-mail photos of our children's birthday parties to relatives, will they print them out and put them on the refrigerator? I'm sorry, but those digital prints that you get at Rite Aid or Walgreens or where ever the average American gets their digital prints just aren't as good. Digital photographs take up hard drive space on a computer or still in the camera and can be so easily lost or carelessly deleted. They become so much more expendable and make us bad editors. How many of you have taken a digital photo, looked at it on the screen and said, nah, and deleted it right then and there, or have run out of room on a memory card and flipped though and deleted photos for the sake of more room?
I know film isn't cheap, and polaroids aren't either. But there's something so much more permanent, and so much more special there that I wish more people had the patience and appreciation for.
Exhibit A: Death Valley Junction
Exhibit B: Death Valley Junction 2:
Exhibit C: Alcatraz
Exhibit D: Roy's, Amboy, CA
I enjoy Polaroids because they satisfy the video part of me that likes the instant gratification. The camera makes that awkward sound and spits out the photograph and you wait your two minutes and slowly watch the photograph come alive. The only thing more magical than that is placing a photograph in the developer and waiting for an image to take its first breath in a dark, red lit room.
At the end of the day I'll have my 120 rolls snug in my pocket anxiously waiting for their magical birth in the darkroom, but I'll also have these Polaroids which are little treasures of the day. Though their image may not be superior to medium format or 35mm film, I tend to value them far more. I keep my negatives safe and I can always make more prints, but this is the only Polaroid I'll ever have no matter what. Even though I have a more permanent and nearly identical record in the tiny grains that come alive through gelatin, I have a pure satisfaction in knowing that this is the only Polaroid. They are truly precious in that way and even more precious now that Polaroid isn't going to make instant film anymore.
I used to buy Polaroids when they came in a 5 pack at Costco. You could get 50 photographs for $45 which is pretty good. After a very upsetting talk with a Costco employee I found out that Costco doesn't even sell the Polaroid film anymore. In fact, they don't sell any film. Period. I understand the convenience of digital photography, but I don't understand the lack of something physical.
Will we still have family photo albums? When we e-mail photos of our children's birthday parties to relatives, will they print them out and put them on the refrigerator? I'm sorry, but those digital prints that you get at Rite Aid or Walgreens or where ever the average American gets their digital prints just aren't as good. Digital photographs take up hard drive space on a computer or still in the camera and can be so easily lost or carelessly deleted. They become so much more expendable and make us bad editors. How many of you have taken a digital photo, looked at it on the screen and said, nah, and deleted it right then and there, or have run out of room on a memory card and flipped though and deleted photos for the sake of more room?
I know film isn't cheap, and polaroids aren't either. But there's something so much more permanent, and so much more special there that I wish more people had the patience and appreciation for.
Bravey Crockett and the Mystery of the Moving Rocks
Ok, so I'm not floundering after all. I've actually started to edit bits of the video I've shot, and am getting a really good idea of what I need to shoot to flesh this thing out. The working title for this project is, "Bravey Crockett and the Dirty Windshield".
But who knows, it could be called "An Afternoon at the Ice Capades" or something equally random next week. Not that my current working title is completely random, but a girl does change her mind. You don't even want to know how long it took me to come up with "Welcome, Human" as a title for my senior film...
I can't say I've ever gone into a project with a title in mind before. Believe me, this makes it rather difficult when sorting through Final Cut Pro files. The Final Cut file for this project is "desert world". They are all super vague like that. Do you know how many films I've shot on Coney Island? If you do, then you know how many Final Cut files I have that are titled, "Coney Island Rough Cut", "NicoleConey", or simply,
"Coney Island". When talking about Coney Island with my friend Jonathan Johnson he made a comment something like,
"We all know that's the key to your heart".
I couldn't have said it better myself.
But, I digress...
Currently I have a ten minute edit of a scene that will be in my film up on vimeo.
For all of you youtubers who would rather see entirely original content, I suggest you venture over there.
This scene was shot at Death Valley's racetrack, which is well known for its mysterious "moving rocks". When the playa is wet and the wind blows, these rocks glide across the surface leaving paths behind them. No one has ever seen the rocks actually move, or know how long it takes them to form these paths. Sadly though, it looks like some people have removed many of them and taken them home for "souvenirs" as there are many paths with no rocks at the end of them. Which is just silly, because these rocks have no significance in any other place.
Now if you like, you can watch the scene from my film. I'm still in the very early stages of editing, so constructive criticism is, as always, highly encouraged and happily accepted! Thanks and enjoy.
Bravey Crockett and the Mystery of the Moving Rocks from Nicole Melanson on Vimeo.
But who knows, it could be called "An Afternoon at the Ice Capades" or something equally random next week. Not that my current working title is completely random, but a girl does change her mind. You don't even want to know how long it took me to come up with "Welcome, Human" as a title for my senior film...
I can't say I've ever gone into a project with a title in mind before. Believe me, this makes it rather difficult when sorting through Final Cut Pro files. The Final Cut file for this project is "desert world". They are all super vague like that. Do you know how many films I've shot on Coney Island? If you do, then you know how many Final Cut files I have that are titled, "Coney Island Rough Cut", "NicoleConey", or simply,
"Coney Island". When talking about Coney Island with my friend Jonathan Johnson he made a comment something like,
"We all know that's the key to your heart".
I couldn't have said it better myself.
But, I digress...
Currently I have a ten minute edit of a scene that will be in my film up on vimeo.
For all of you youtubers who would rather see entirely original content, I suggest you venture over there.
This scene was shot at Death Valley's racetrack, which is well known for its mysterious "moving rocks". When the playa is wet and the wind blows, these rocks glide across the surface leaving paths behind them. No one has ever seen the rocks actually move, or know how long it takes them to form these paths. Sadly though, it looks like some people have removed many of them and taken them home for "souvenirs" as there are many paths with no rocks at the end of them. Which is just silly, because these rocks have no significance in any other place.
Now if you like, you can watch the scene from my film. I'm still in the very early stages of editing, so constructive criticism is, as always, highly encouraged and happily accepted! Thanks and enjoy.
Bravey Crockett and the Mystery of the Moving Rocks from Nicole Melanson on Vimeo.
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