Polaroid Troubles
I continue to try to get the Polaroid Land 100 camera working properly (see earlier posts here and here). There have been very few moments of good light the last few weeks, so I have barely used it. This photo was taken in Victoria’s Chinese Cemetery. I underexposed it by about 1 stop as the white marker in the foreground was my subject – that part worked OK, though probably a bit less than a full stop would have been better.
I framed the shot through the viewfinder so that all the headstone was in the shot, and cut the image off at the top of the fence. Or at least I thought I did – the guideline in the finder dips below the top of the bellows unit so I thought I should use that as the coverage and estimated from there. Looks like I should use the top of the bellows unit/lens board as the bottom of the frame, or even a bit higher. Clearly an adjustment to the viewfinder is needed and I have found instructions on-line in the form of an old service manual, but doing it properly does not look completely straightforward. First I will take some more photos and see if I can estimate well enough to not need to bother with an adjustment.
Where the streaks comes from I am not sure. This was the last shot in the pack. When I first got the camera I opened it on the film, not noticing there was some in the camera. So, it is possible that it got a bit of a zap of light at that time, though I doubt that is the cause of this pattern. I don’t know how long the film was in the camera, but the other pack that came with it expired just a few months ago and it is likely this film did too, so probably it is not age related degradation. Maybe it was the way it rolled out of the camera – not pulled fast enough, or pulled too fast, or something. I have cleaned the inside of the camera, including the rollers that were a bit gummy and loaded a new pack, so it is ready for more experiments.
There does seem more to making pictures with this camera than I had expected.
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Done With Elan
A few days ago I stopped by Clover Point in the area of the sewage facility to test a roll of film and new camera body. My regular visitors will recognise this as a frequent subject of my photography. This visit had the rare timing of the doors being open and the inner workings being partly visible, so some of today’s photos capture that aspect for the first time on these pages. There have been some changes since my last visit – all the main steel doors are now covered with photographs of the surrounding rock (my lead photo includes, on the right, a part of an open door laminated with a photo), and the signs warning it is foolish and forbidden to climb the rock walls have been re-posted, ironically on top of the un-climbable photo of the rock wall. The graffiti artists have come by to add their improvements to the photographs which makes me wonder had the city used photos with graffiti painted on the rocks whether that would have deterred graffiti on top of the photos. I know there are standards of behaviour in the tagging community when it comes to over-painting other people’s work, I just don’t know what those rules are. Painted murals don’t get tagged, but I guess that photographs do, or at least ones like this.
This post is a companion to my weekly post on 52 Rolls that has published simultaneously. The text in this Burnt Embers post concentrates on the camera but includes most of the photos from the first roll of film. The 52 Rolls post (find it here) has a selection from these photos and talks a bit about the film. Photos posted here that are converted to black and white can be seen in colour at 52 Rolls, and vice versa; so if you are interested then head over there as well.
Tattered Prayers
One last look at Coombs where these prayer flags have faded nearly to monotone and are unravelling in the wind.
Baby Bark II
This is the second of two shots of my granddaughter that I took this day – the other has already appeared as Baby Bark.
This was one of her quieter moods where she can tolerate sitting still for a photograph.
View with a Glint
Two more photos of View Towers, a frequent subject in this blog, though not necessarily well captured.
Edit: after writing this I see that Gary at FilmAdvance has just posted another View Towers shot, very kindly dedicated to me.
His shot is from Yates Street on showing the other side of the building – this shot is from Fort Street.
Two
My granddaughter had her birthday recently.
The gingerbread cake was a big hit, as were the candles. She had not blown out a candle before, but got the hang of it right away.
The cake was made with extensive help from the little wooden ones that live in this house, as can be seen here.
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Old Town Fake
This tower is in the centre of Victoria’s Old Town but it is not the bell tower it feigns.
In fact it is (or is said to be on the internet) a cell tower designed to blend in with the surrounding heritage buildings.
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