Polaroid SX-70 Test Shots

Photos from my first pack of 600 film in my recently acquired SX-70. I'm not sure if the film pack is really expired, or if there's something wrong with the camera, but I have a feeling the chemicals in each photo aren't fully mixing/ developing. But it's been said before, there has never in all of recorded history been a 'bad' polaroid picture. And these prove it. Decidely lo-fi, poor contrast, and horribly soft. Polaroid perfection!

Shellfish / Shells

I present you a diptych of the before and after of our meal at the Hog Island Oyster Co at the Ferry Building in San Francisco. Half a dungeness crab, 2 little neck clams, 5 jumbo prawns, 2 each of kumamoto/blue point/ and miyagi oysters on the half shell.

Fore:
Aft:
YUM!

Gastroscopic Update

Well now having gone through the actual procedure (see previous post), I can confidently say that the IV drugs they give you are awesome. The nurse tells you that the drugs will make you drowsy and that you likely won't remember much. She's mostly right. I remember trying to say "I'll try" (but it came out sounding more like 'hff hhgg' as I had the bite block keeping my jaw open), and then waking up a short while later with no memory of when it had started, how long I'd been out, or even of the waking up process - my first memory after the procedure is of being fully awake and looking around at the nurses wondering if I could leave yet. I wonder how long I'd actually been awake but obviously still somewhat drugged to the point that my brain was still unable to lay new memories yet...?

Fun times.

Gastroscopy

Does anyone feel like going for a gastroscopy for me tomorrow morning? Anyone? I hear those procedures are super fun, and I'll totally appreciate your friendship for at least a full day.

Wasted Days and Calgary By Night

I managed to accomplish exactly ZERO tasks on my day off today. I actually felt like I was wasting the precious oxygen supply of all mankind. Seriously, it was one of those 'Holy crap, you are a useless human being' type of days. But then, Anita came home and asked me to drive her to Japanese class, so I actually changed out of my pj's, grabbed a camera, tripod, and fired the shutter a few times to make my life seem less pointless.

And on an unrelated note, we've bought a house. Our days of travel at will and frivolous spending are behind us... sigh.

Embarcadero Center

Lazy photo post with no story... Shot with the Nikon D300, Nikkor 17-55mm f/2.8, and a circular polarizer.

Nikon FG Test Roll - San Francisco

Lugging along my new Nikon FG and Nikkor 50mm f/1.2 combination to San Francisco, I fired off a few test rolls. These few came from a roll of Fuji Provia 100 I ran through it, and I think the shots turned out great. Nice saturated colours, good overall contrast, and surprisingly sharp even at f/1.2. I think this has easily become my new favourite film camera. Oh the adventures we will have together...
























I saw a girl shooting with a Rollei f/2.8, so I couldn't resist snapping a shot of her rig. Analog forever!

Deuxième Anniversaire

Every morning I wake up just moments before Anita does. I turn to see her face, eyes still half closed, mouth slightly open, and I smile in amusement as I think to myself, how much good karma did I accumulate in my previous life to have ended up here?

Has it truly been two years already?

Redscale Fail

I received my Nikon FG in the mail this week, and ran a test roll through it this weekend. I redscaled the film before shooting (ie: film was respooled upside down so that the emulsion side is facing away from the lens), and so the results were terrible - lack of tonal range as highlights were just plain red, and shadows were blocky black shapes. This was due to underexposure of the redscaled film (apparently, you need to overexpose by 2 to 3 stops to get a good range of red and amber hues, whereas I only overexposed 1 stop). Anyways, long story short, the redscaled version of these shots were horrible, so I converted them to black and white, which actually gave them an awesome lo-fi vintage look. These photos clearly are not representative of what this camera is capable of, but I really like b&w treatment. The grit and stains on the film are not digital trickery - the lab at Superstore is shit, and they clearly don't know how to process/ handle film, resulting in splotchy negatives that I couldn't be bothered to properly clean before scanning. Click to enlarge and see the grainy, gritty goodness in glorious detail.










3 days of work before we fly to San Francisco!
-G

Update (11-01-2010): View my first successful test roll here.