Tag Archives: Polaroid Sx-70

{Instant Wedding} Hope and Richard

Today, I offer up the instant photos I took at Hope and Richard’s wedding. Using Polaroid cameras and Impossible Project films throughout the day was SO FUN! I knew the lovely bride and groom would dig the look and feel of these Polaroids, especially since I had purchased a bag of Impossible Project “old generation” film. Those older generation films can produce some unpredictable results!

One thing I enjoyed about photographing Hope and Richard’s wedding was that they decided to go against tradition and see each other before the ceremony. They had a little bit of private time with one another before the hub-bub of the wedding got into full swing. Of course, they wanted photos of this, so I was there as well!

(Polaroid Sun 660 AF • PX 600 Silver Shade “matured” film)

Waiting on Hope to come down to meet him

Seeing each other for the first time on their wedding day

Admiring his bride-to-be

 

(Polaroid SX-70 Sonar • PX 70 Color Shade Cool film)

So happy together!

Heart-shaped ring pop I brought to use as a prop during the photos I would be taking during their pre-wedding time together

Bride and her Maids

 

(Polaroid Sun 600 AF • PX 680 Color Shade “matured” film)

Elenore, the sweet little flower girl

JUST married!

First dance!

Dance floor

 

Prior to the wedding, Hope requested that we display her bridal portrait Polaroids at the reception. I told her that it might be cool if we also hung up the instant photos I would be taking throughout the day of the wedding. I’m so glad we were able to do that!

 

{Rainbow} Spectrum

I am DYING over here.

I just told you about how great The Impossible Project’s new and improved Silver Shade film is. You thought I was stoked then? Well, baby, look at me NOW! (Pretend you can see a big ole smile across my face here. Because there definitely is one.) I’ve just shot a pack of NIGO edition PX 70 Color Shade film, and it was so good that it made my face melt!

I had never ever tried TIP‘s color film before. The times, they are a changin’ though. The Impossible Project folks have been allowing Pioneer members test what they call their “12/11 batch” – a magic batch! I’ll give you a couple of specific examples of what made me want to try it at this particular moment in time.  Please click here and here and here to see what’s been catching my eye (more awesome examples can be found in their online shop’s sample gallery.)  On top of all those pictures piquing my interest, TIP then one-upped themselves by marrying that new formula with a really cool colored frame edition of their PX 70 film. In their own words (ganked from their online shop’s product description):

PX 70 Color Shade by Nigo Film Edition not only features our latest Color Shade film formula, but also varying colorful frames – yellow, orange, red, pink, lilac, dark blue, light blue, green, black and white featuring the logo of Nigo – ®. One film pack contains eight images as usual, and the occurrence of the colors varies randomly in each pack.

I jumped on board and ordered a pack of my very own. I mean, it’s spring and time shake things up with some color! Am I right?? I think so. So, here, I present to you, 8 6 frames of Impossible Project NIGO edition Color Shade film.

Conclusion: The “12/11 batch” film is excellent! I was amazed at how bright the film’s colors were, yet the photos have a “vintage” quality. And as far as at the colored frames on this particular edition of PX 70 are concerned, I thought they were so fun! I can think of lots of applications for such an added touch in my photos. To my knowledge, the NIGO film is a limited edition. But, honest to goodness, I’d be very happy if they said, “Due to popular demand and Amanda’s heartfelt pleas, we are happy to announce that NIGO edition film is a permanent fixture in the Impossible Project line-up.”

 Technical info: Polaroid SX-70 • NIGO Edition Impossible PX 70 Color Shade • PX Shade inserted in camera • Photos allowed to developed in a box, for 30 minutes or longer – the longer, the better! If you are patient enough for that! I ruined the last two shots by way of “Operator error.”  They had very pretty blue frames though!

Freckled Face {Underexposed}

 

I didn’t scan or upload this shot when I did my little blog about my first experience with the Impossible Project’s PX100 Silver Shade UV+ film because it was so badly underexposed. I picked it up a week later, and I decided there was something striking about the image, despite its exposure issues. I’d taken the photo with the intent of highlighting my niece’s perfectly freckled face, but came out with something completely different, completely by accident. I’m now quite satisfied with what it turned out to be. And I’ll try again another day to show the freckles in the way I meant to. That is, unless, my SX-70 has other plans…


As to how the photo came out this way, perhaps my fellow SX-70 users will learn from my mistake:

As I mentioned in my original PX100 blog post, I “fudged up” some of the photos in that pack of film.  I’ll try not to get too bogged down in camera mumbo jumbo, but something I didn’t know about my Polaroid SX-70 was as follows: if the frame counter is at “0” (normally indicating that the camera’s film cartridge is empty) and you press the shutter button, the SX-70 doesn’t try to give proper exposure to a photo – because it doesn’t think there is any photo actually being taken since the cartridge is supposed to be empty! The shutter DOES open very briefly, but you’d have to be very lucky indeed for that shot to turn out, given the brief shutter speed. That is what happened to the last couple of photos in my PX100 cartridge. I’d gotten a photo jammed in the camera and fired it a few times to try to get the camera to shoot the next photo out. I eventually solved the problem I’d created for myself, but didn’t know it’d create a problem with the rest of the photos down the line. Since I’d “dry fired” the camera, its frame counter reached “0” earlier than it should have. Leading to my gaining the knowledge that a “0” on an SX-70 frame counter = “Picture? What picture? I thought I was empty!” [that’s the SX-70 talking, naturally…]

The Impossible, Now Possible?

I am an avid  fan of instant photography. I hope you know that about me by now. Unfortunately, when Polaroid stopped producing film for their instant cameras, it kinda put a damper on my ability to use most of my Polaroid cameras. Sad face.

Enter The Impossible Project.

The Impossible Project (TIP) began working to produce film on the equipment at the old Polaroid factory. You can find a nice timeline of their journey on their website, which includes much more info than I can detail for you here! Anyway, I have to tell you: since TIP had to “start from scratch,” the first films they began making were kind of…finicky. It was not as straight-forward as “put our new films in your  Polaroid cameras, and you can expect exactly what you got from Polaroid films.” They posted tutorials on their site about how to get the best results from their films and there seemed to be a lot of discussion within the online photographic community about how users’ photos were turning out. I was curious to try the film from TIP, of course, but…

The film is a little more pricey than Polaroid film was, though I suppose that is understandable at this point. However, the price had always been a deterrent since I didn’t think I could trust the film enough to justify the cost. You know what’s awesome though? A very dear old “photography buddy” of mine sent me some Impossible Project film as a pressie in 2010.  This was in the early days of the film’s production, so I had trouble getting things just right in my photos. I began to think that you had to do a tribal dance to the Instant Photography gods in order to get a TIP photo to “work”!

PX100 photo from 2010

Having said that, it was really important to me was that the Impossible Project people were trying. It’s made me very happy that someone was doing something proactive about keeping instant photography alive. I have kept a keen eye out on the progress of TIP‘s products, which has been easy thanks to Flickr and Twitter. I’ve watched the Impossible Project’s emulsions get better and better. I’ve been getting REALLY excited! And, whaddya know, some of their new PX100 black and white film fell into my lap! This time, my experience was MUCH different than it had been in 2010. Right out of the box, my first shot “worked”! The photo wasn’t in focus because I’d never used a manual focus SX-70* before, so my finger slipped and took the photo before I’d properly focused it. But that was “my bad.”  The exposure definitely turned out!

Le “first official shot on the PX100 Silver Shade UV+”

And a few more, por ejemplo:


Technical info: Polaroid SX-70 • Impossible PX100 Silver Shade UV+ • PX Shade inserted in camera • Photos developed face down or in a dark place once removed from camera, for at least the recommended 4 minutes or longer when possible.

Conclusion?

I know this was only one pack of that film, but I’m likin’ it! Any of the images that “didn’t work” were purely a matter of operator error – that is to say, I fudged them up! I think I’m sold on the newer TIP films after this experience and having seen so many good shots from others who are using those films. I’m excited to watch the progress of what TIP is doing in that factory of theirs. Viva la instant photography!


*Using that particular SX-70 will be the subject of another blog posting, another day! It’ll be one of my “Yard Sale Finds” posts!

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