As much as I appreciate my Nikon D700 digital camera and my high-end Rolleiflex Automat MX 120 shooter, I still have an affinity for my lo-fidelity cameras and the use of wonky expired film.
Case in point.
I can get great “industrial” shots out of my 20-year-old expired Ukrainian Svema B&W 120 film, which because of the film’s composition and chemical age deterioration, provides me with a fantastic, gritty appearance on my shots. This is better than any of those Instragram filters, let me tell you.
A week or two ago, I packed a roll of Svema 64 film – which if it was fresh, would have had an ISO of approximately 80 – into my Kowa Super 66 and took it to Latham for a shoot. Got this picture on New Loudon Road to start off…
A little further down the road, as the sun set in the distance, I found the old Cottman Tire store. The sign was still standing, although its branding had disappeared some time ago. Framed the picture so that the sun was behind the sign, the drifty clouds were in the sky, and shoot shoot shoot.
Earlier that day, I put a roll of Fuji Velvia 100 into the Kowa and drove to the western terminus of the Albany County Rail Trail. I’ve photographed the Rail Trail before; it was the basis for one of my award-winning pictures, the Kodachrome-captured The Railsplitter. This time, I took some pictures with the hopes of using a year’s worth of Rail Trail pictures for a future book or art project.
Go Blackbird Go – next stop, beautiful downtown Voorheesville.
And here it is. Right on Foundry Road, the terminus of what will eventually be a nine-mile hiking-and-biking trail from the Port of Albany to Voorheesville, all repurposing what was once a section of Delaware and Hudson track that spanned from Albany to Binghamton.
Looks like the tracks have been ripped up and discarded, but there’s still some reminders that the train once came through here.
Last Wednesday, which was December 12, 2012 – or 12/12/12 for all you numerologists – oh here, let me make it easier for you to remember –
Yep, I broke out the Trio3D camera for the day. The Trio3D takes three images at once, with the purpose of sending the film off to a special pro lab that will turn the three images into one lenticular graphic. But for now, I’m just going to show you some of the shots I took that day with my Trio3D camera.
You might remember the Sneakers picture from last week’s “Caption Time” caption contest:
And carbon monoxide out of the back of a cheap car would really look interesting with the smoke clouds in 3D…
With any type of 3D pictures, you don’t want a straight-on shot. You want an angle. Like this shot of the VFW sign in North Albany.
And finally, I tested out my newest camera, the Lomography Sprocket Rocket. Unfortunately, Chuck forgot to take the internal mask out of the camera to allow sprocket hole photography… bad Chuck, bad Chuck… so for all intents and purposes, I just have some wide-angle shots for now.
And as you can see from the Sprocket Rocket photos, the sky can go from bright white to nearly dark night in the same frame. Not much latitude, it’s one of the by-products of lo-fi photography and a toy camera and generic film, I guess.
You call it an accident. I call it notes for future use of this camera. As soon as I take the mask out of the blasted camera and get those sprocket holes in the picture next time…
You know… some times I just want to take my cameras out for a little fun-day of shooting. If I get some great images, fantastic. If I don’t, I’ll look over where I went wrong and fix them. It’s like trying to find the aesthetics and meaning in almost everything. Somehow. When my life is full of chicken feathers, I have to try to make chicken salad out of it.
You get me?
Good.
Chuck The Writer 
Nice chicken salad, you found a good recipe!
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