Photo Transfers - to Aluminum Foil?!

My third attempt at photo transfers, but this time to an unlikely medium: ALUMINUM FOIL! I wasn't confident this was actually going to work, but amazingly, household aluminum foil holds up quite well to the transfer process if you stretch it out taut over something. I got lazy, and just wrapped some foil around cut pieces of cardboard without bothering to make them nice and square. Not quite as nice as real Wet Plate/ Tin Types, but still pretty cool looking (much more so in person than via these photos).




Chernobyl (actually, Pripyat, but close enough).


Santiago


Ho Chi Minh


Paris

These photos are actually reversed, because I forgot to flip them before printing, so when transferred they are mirrored from what they originally look like.

The Vanimated Gif

Our drinking and fooding pal, Vania, was back in town for a visit. And so fooding we went last Wednesday to the Black Pig Bistro in Bridgeland. You gotta check out the animated gif below that I made of Vania eating an inventive 'encapsulated olive' dish (she's going to be soooo impressed with me). And then we followed that up with an evening of drinking to excess on Saturday. Today was pretty much a write-off for me, cause I'm old and can't handle my liquor, so I don't even want to imagine Vania's hangover and subsequent plane ride back home to Dublin.

The Fooding Adventure at Black Pig Bistro.


The'Encapsulated Olive.' Juicy, olivey goodness, that bursts open in your mouth. Insert lewd joke here.


Chicken liver parfait, with apple chilli jelly, and some crostini. Like an ice cream parfait, except replace the vanilla ice cream with chicken liver. MM MMM MMMHHH.


Jamon Iberico de Bellota - ham made from the top grade of Iberian black pig, fed exclusively on a diet of acorns, cured for 48 months.


Vania, having the 'Encapsulated Olive' burst in her mouth. Heh.


Vania+Animated gif = Vanimated gif. Ha! I'm a moron. Sorry V. You can punch me when I come visit you in the Dub.


Market Fish = a stew of clams, mussels, and halibut.






Derek is stoked about this flour-less chocolate cake.


The Drinking Adventure at National on 10th.














You know you're in for one MUTHA of a hangover when you're looking like this.


G.Mach, looking ugly as always.

Come back soon, Poonie! We miss having you around. And more importantly, the world needs more Vanimated gifs of you eating stuff.

_Cambio Cambio Cambio_

We haven't gone on any adventures these past couple weeks as we've been helping build a deck for my aunt, so I'll just leave you with some Holga shots from the archives, taken in Buenos Aires last year. I love the chaotic look of the two holgaramas, which are now fittingly a good reflection of the economic mess Argentina is buried in (they've defaulted on their public debt for the 8th time). In case you're not familiar, John Oliver did a great and hilarious piece on this issue a few weeks back on Last Week Tonight.









Interesting bit from when we were in B.A - locals told us that inflation was so extreme that you could buy a new car or fridge, and 6 months later, it was worth more (dollar figure wise) than when you bought it. Also of note, to prevent the flight to foreign currency in the face of a rapidly weakening Argentinean Peso, the Argentine gov't had prohibited the purchase of US dollars by locals. As a result, they turned to selling foreigners local currency illegally out of random store fronts (creating what they termed a "blue market") at a much better rate than what the banks were selling. We quietly exchanged US dollars for Pesos from a cabbie, a newspaper vendor, and some other unlikely businesses, all brokered by shady dudes on the street repeatedly saying 'Cambio Cambio Cambio' (foreign exchange) to get your attention, before they would lead you away to some random secluded spot or store to deal away. For all the secrecy, and back alley dealing, you'd think we were trying to smuggle guns to Russian thugs in the Ukraine or something. #Putingrad.

All photos above - Holga 120N on super expired Fuji Neopan 400. Developed in Ilfosol 3, 1+9 at 68 deg. F for 6:00 min.

The Jenny McCarthy Paradox

I think I've discovered Jenny McCarthy's worst nightmare: that day when scientists create a vaccine… for autism. Oh man, I can picture the look on her face - an awkward hybrid of fear, anguish, and constipation. It'll go viral immediately, becoming a classic meme known as "the Jenny McCarthy Paradox" face. And the heavens will ring out a crescendo of Chariots of Fire on repeat, while double triple rainbows shoot like 4th of July fireworks out of Cherubs' asses.

Imagine Jenny's face with this expression, and you pretty much see what I'm envisioning.


Okay, enough with the totally random fantasy side note. I've been carrying around an Ilford HP5+ Black & White disposable film camera for the past few months, snapping off one terrible photo here and there. I FINALLY finished the roll and promptly developed it tonight in Blazinol (Rodinal), 1/25 at 68 deg. F for 7:30. The camera produces pretty much what you would expect for a single use disposable. Junk, but awesome at the same time. And you need to use the tiny little onboard flash for everything, which people really LOVE getting zapped in the face with. #sarcasm






Anita, being cooperative as always.














And here's the actual disposable camera these were taken with, after I pried it apart to pull the film out.

Containr, in Sunnyside - The Antithesis to Suburban Banality

Wandering around my old stomping grounds in Kensington/ Sunnyside, Anita and I found this interesting use of vacant land, entitled Containr. The best I can come up with to describe it is a public park art and garden space designed by vegan granola crunching, pot smoking, hipster hippies. And I don't mean that in a derogatory manner in any sense. The place has this artsy recycle/ reuse/ repurpose, all natural home-brewed aesthetic to it that is otherwise so utterly lacking in the boring conservative Calgary urban landscape. It seems so fitting that we discovered this public space around the same time I was complaining about suburban banality.

The space and the repurposed shipping containers plopped on it apparently play host to various popup events, bike-in theatres, festivals, and workshops, while also hosting a demonstration garden, honeybee hives, and pallets turned into furniture and sitting space. We need more interesting public spaces like this. MANY MANY MORE.

























In case any of you are intrigued and want to check it out, the space is around 9th St and 2nd Ave NW, across the street from Vendome Cafe.