Four cameras but no bear spray

On our scramble up Wasootch Peak, I brought along a Kodak Instamatic 500 film camera that was given to me recently. Between Anita and I, we had two camera-phones, a digital camera, and this film camera, but no bear spray because I couldn't find it in our basement. So while we could shoot a bear with four different cameras, we'd be hooped if it decided to charge us. #hikingfails

For the camera nerds, the Instamatic 500 is a 50+ year old beauty (see photos at the end). It is shiny chrome on black, has full manual controls, and a Schneider-Kreuznach 38mm f/2.8 lens. Designed originally to take 126 film (obsolete), I reloaded a spent cartridge with 35mm film instead and shot some photos of Anita scrambling up the peak. The camera doesn't play nice with the film perforations of 35mm, yielding numerous slightly overlapping exposures. But despite the unpredictable overlaps, the results are still pretty awesome. All shots taken on expired Kodak T-Max 400.








Slightly overlapping exposures.

Chernobyl, 30 Years On

Tomorrow is the 30th anniversary of the Chernobyl disaster, where a routine test at the facility triggered the largest and most devastating nuclear meltdown in history. Here's a throwback to a few years ago, when Anita and I toured the exclusion zone around the evacuation area just an hour away from Kiev, Ukraine.  

We were initially taken to a little briefing centre where our slightly kamikaze guide explained how he figured it was no less bad for your health to sit in daily traffic jams in Kiev, than to live and work in a radiation exclusion zone such as the area surrounding Chernobyl.  I'm not so sure his science was as sound as he seemed to believe, but whatever.  Without him, we would not have been granted access to see the remains of the actual reactor that exploded that fateful day, nor the surrounding ghost town of Pripyat, which had forcibly evacuated on short notice, leaving behind a time capsule of everyday life in Soviet era Ukraine circa1986, only slightly worse for wear from decades of reclamation by nature and the elements. Urban exploration enthusiasts would have a heyday in this town site.

Regardless of your feelings about the utility vs safety of nuclear power, these photos demonstrate the very real human impacts associated with it when it things go awry.






Inside an abandoned school in Pripyat.








The rotting floor and remains of the gymnasium.






There's something incredibly sad and haunting about seeing an abandoned amusement park.




This ferris wheel in Pripyat never got to take it's maiden voyage...








Our guide, using some kind of geiger counter, attempts to explain how even the most irradiated military vehicles used in the cleanup are only mildly radioactive anymore. I'm not so sure I believed his meter, but considering I was standing pretty close, it's probably too late for me.


Reactor number 4, which exploded on April 26, 1986. It was subsequently 'entombed' in a concrete sarcophagus to reduce radioactive emissions.



















Black and white photos shot with the crap Holga toy camera on Ilford XP2 Super 400. Colour photos taken with the Nikon D300.

Photographing the Pupils - Part X

Last night my shoulder was screaming bloody murder, so I went to bed, in hopes of escaping the inexplicable pain. But the slightest movement trying to find a comfortable sleeping position would hurt, and then when I finally fell asleep, I'd have recurring nightmares of suffering from an injured shoulder, which would jolt me back awake... to more pain. DAMMIT JIM! Being 90 sucks. Someone prescribe me some powerful narcs, stat.

Anyways, here's my latest group of students that graciously sat for a quick portrait. Sadly, this is the first and only roll of film I've shot this year, thus far. Motivation and inspiration has been severely difficult to come by as of late. Shot with the Hasselblad + Zeiss Planar 80mm, on Kodak Tri-X 400. Souped in Ilfosol 3, 1+9 @ 68 deg. F for 7.5 min.

70mm Holga - Centre Street Bridge

While the Holga factory has ceased operations, many snobby photographers are scoffing and exclaiming good riddance. But to me, the closing of this iconic manufacturer of an admittedly crappy all plastic toy camera is rather sad. Because for all its inherent flaws and limitations, those very same limitations force you to think a bit more creatively when shooting photos, which is never a bad thing. The lo-fi results are hit and miss, but when you utilize it to its strengths, you can get some pretty interesting results.

These shots of the Centre Street Bridge (one of my favourite things to waste film on in Calgary), were captured yesterday with the Holga 120N, with 2 overlapping 35mm rolls of Fuji Neopan 400, spooled onto a 120 take up spool. Could I achieve similar results in Photoshop? Sure. Would it be nearly as interesting, challenging, or fun? Not even close.