Instax Wide 300.

New toy. Yay.

This freakin’ thing is HUGE at 4″ deep, nearly 5″ tall, and 7 1/2″ wide. It weighs in at 1.62 lbs.

The pix are good sized, with the actual image 2 7/16″ tall x 3 7/8″ wide. The whole integral film packet is is 3 3/8″ x 4 1/4″.

I came with a snap-on close-up filter, but ~16″ is as close as it’ll let you get.

I opened the box, attached the strap, plugged in the batteries, then I burned through a 10-pack of the wide film walking around the house, garage, and yards.

Fun camera. It’ll take a little getting use to the heft, and framing with the viewfinder, but it does take pretty cool shots.

Vic’s addiction, Dead roses, Buddha, Lieve’s addition.

Spoons.

Play. Play. Play.

Ricoh GR Digital II. And a half-dozen plastic picnic spoons.

Because, symmetry.

Four shots.

Circa 2006.

F Heart K, Sabrina’s Fancy Shoes, Spring Clean, Hollow.

Four shots with my first DSLR, the Pentax *ist D.

These images are all from my second photoblog, circa 2006.

I chose this particular camera because at the time, it was smaller, lighter, and easier to hold than any of the other brands.

It still works. And it’s in really good condition. Really. It looks like new.

It’s a great little camera. And I still have a good selection of lenses for it.

Discoveries.

Totally worthy.

It’s funny how sometimes you look at a picture (or 3) and dismiss them as not being worthy. They’re put in an envelope or box, stored away, and quickly forgotten.

I came across these three Instax Mini 8 shots just before the start of Fall ‘Roid Week. They were in a Instax Monochrome box on my desk, a box I hadn’t opened for who knows how long.

I shuffled through all the pictures and noticed these three under-exposed shots being somewhat similar. Interesting.

Only then did it dawn on me to group them as an abstract triptych.

I like the way they look together.

Printmaking blues.

Positive.

I made my first attempts at cyanotypes yesterday. Interesting process. Simple, really.

Reminded me of way back, during my mid-20s, when I worked as a draftsman for a civil engineering firm. I made a lot of blueprints in-office for field use. I’ll never forget the smell of ammonia.

Cyanotypes are pretty similar.

It takes mixing two chemicals – ferric ammonium citrate and potassium ferricyanide – and brushing the mixture on paper in subdued light.

The chemicals are non-toxic, but probably not good to ingest or inhale. Wearing gloves is a good idea.

Perfect? No. Cool? Yup. Fun? Definitely!

I made a cyanotype of this geometric pattern I created in Adobe Illustrator, which I printed out on a sheet of clear acetate.

I placed the acetate over the coated paper and sandwiched ’em both between a thin sheet of plexiglass and a backing board, holding everything together with clamps.

I set it out in the direct sun exposing the paper for about 8 minutes. I unclamped the printing frame, removed the paper, rinsing it under running water. I then dipped the paper into a tray that had a bit of hydrogen peroxide mixed in with water to help darken up the blue.

You can place any number of different things on top of the paper. Besides the graphic, I also used a small branch from a plant. I plan on using photographic negatives from my medium and large format cameras in the near future.

Perfect? No. Cool? Yup. Fun? Definitely!

There are bunches of tutorials on YouTube. Bunches.