Teddy Bear Part 2

It may be a bit premature but I have decided to put three 8x10 prints of the Teddy Bear image up for sale at Studio 11 (http://www.facebook.com/pages/Studio-11-by-Whatta-Waist/116803751710656?ref=ts) just to kind of size up if the community is receptive of this kind of work or not. These will be black and white silver halide prints and each will be signed by your truly! I have been informed that these will arrive in shipment tomorrow so with any luck they will be available by opening time at the shop if not tomorrow then defiantly by Friday. Also, if you have not been down to see the awesome selection of handcrafted recycled goodies available from all the spectacular artist that sell their work down there you are defiantly missing out!

Do yourself a favor and

Stalk my Blog!

“Like” me on Facebook!  http://www.facebook.com/pages/Studio-11-by-Whatta-Waist/116803751710656?ref=ts#!/pages/machine-washable-photography/123037211066385

“Like” Studio 11 by Whatta Waist on Facebook! http://www.facebook.com/pages/Studio-11-by-Whatta-Waist/116803751710656?ref=ts#!/pages/Studio-11-by-Whatta-Waist/116803751710656

And LASTLY go somewhere you haven’t been and shoot some FILM DAMMIT!!!! http://maps.google.com/ *

*PS I have not affiliation with Google just figured a map might help!

Anscoflex II

Call me lazy if you want but the photo above is not my own I got it from http://www.etsy.com/listing/56294419/1950s-ansco-anscoflex-ii-tlr-camera but it does show the camera I am going to be talking about!

The Anscoflex II is the predecessor to the Anscoflex, basically the only difference in the two was the addition of the two filter controls on the front of the camera. They date to the mid `50’s and originally sold for around $30 (which is a typical price on eBay today.) These enameled metal cameras were designed by Raymond Loewy (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raymond_Loewy) with a fixed f/11 aperture and I am guessing the shutter speed is somewhere around 1/30 – 1/60 of a second. They shoot 12 6x6 images on 620 films (no longer on the market) but you can respool 120 films onto the 620 spools and use these cameras nowadays! Which is exactly what I did and here are the results!

The camera itself was a blast to work with, I had one person assume I was a meter reader because of the “thing” around my neck but it was very lightweight! I found it necessary to keep the leather cover on the camera when shooting as without there tends to be light leaks around the back of the camera. I found the viewfinder to be true to frame on the camera and the camera does prevent multiple exposures. Due to the lack of ability to adjust the shutter speed and aperture, I would classify this as a toy camera but a fun toy at that! I noticed the images were a bit on the contrasty side which is ok by me. On the technical side these images were developed using R09 (Rodinal Formula) at a 1:25 mixture for 6 minutes using Fuji Neopan 100Acros.

TLRs: For Intended Use ONLY

I am constantly searching eBay for cameras that I have not seen nor used with the hopes of winning them and shooting them if they are in working order. Recently I have come across a new acronym: TTV that translates to “Through the Viewfinder.” After some brief research on Google and Flickr I found that this TTV is none other than using TLR (Twin Lens Reflex) cameras as a filter putting it simply. How this works is a person buys a TLR and makes a snoot (a tube) out of black paper or poster board and then mounts a digital camera on top and proceeds to shoot through the viewfinder. So why does this bother me? Well for starters in order to do this you have to remove the pieces that cover and protect the viewfinder (typically done in a destructive way) and secondly this is making it harder and more expensive for people that love film photography to find good working cameras to shoot. Since the new “digital era” film camera production has become almost nonexistent and new TLR cameras other than the Holga is even rarer. I did not form this Blog as a place to rant and rave but this is one of the few times I will speak my mind about the topic of digital vs film…

MY RANT: These days everyone is a “photographer” as if owning a camera is the only rite of passage into this lifestyle. There in lies the problem with some of the photographers today they do not take the time to learn their trade. They do not understand f/ stops, aperture values, ASA (ISO), or dragging the shutter. Set it to Auto, click and wha-la you are a photographer. If you did not get it right in camera then off to Photoshop it goes! Boost the saturation, blur the hell out of the skin tones to almost a plasticy feel, crop the crap out of it and finally run it up in size to where it is almost pixilated and take pride in what you did. Just so your friends can Ohhh and Ahhh over it on social networking sites. Please do not get me wrong I have a digital camera and I use it when I have to but I make the choices, I do not pawn my work off on some computer chip to do the thinking for me. Yes there was a time when I first started out that I would have fallen into this category but I never EVER called myself a pro (and still do not), and would never had charged for my services at that time in my life. I see people today blow off 200-300 shots in under an hour and you ask me why… I will tell you in one word INSECURITY. It is insecurity in themselves, insecurity in their knowledge of their gear and insecurity in their craft as a whole. Why are people scared to shoot film? #1 reason, it cost too much. To me that is a line of crap, a roll of film is $5, processing is anywhere from $1-$15 depending on what you want done and who processes it. I bought an RZ67 with two lenses for a fraction of what I spent on my Canon EOS 1D Mk II body alone. Digital cameras go obsolete yearly if not monthly. My RZ67 is still one of the top cameras in its class and has been for years. In my opinion if you want to be a photographer got back to its roots and try out film, learn where your craft came from, learn, learn, learn!!! My all time favorite quote I feel say it best “EVERYONE WANTS TO BE A ROCKSTAR, BUT NOBODY WANTS TO LEARN THE CHORDS.” I wish I knew whom to credit because it is so true.

~*~*~END OF RANT~*~*~

So what does this rant have to TTV?  Those cameras that people use for TTV give the same effect on film as they do on a digital sensor so why not use them as intended. If not leave the camera on the market for someone that will use it for what it was made for and stick to your filters and plug-ins in Photoshop. If you have already picked up one of these TLR camera put a roll of film in the camera and USE IT AS INTENDED.

The Teddy Bear

I know this is going to sound weird and maybe a bit crazy but I decided that I was going to set out and make a photo of a teddy bear. I wanted to get past the cute and cuddly and give the image a feel of torment and violence. My intention was to make a stop at the local Goodwill and purchase a teddy bear using the $2 I had in my wallet and upon finding one wearing a tacky Christmas sweater I did just that. The goal was to dirty and dismember this bear to get the look I was going for, but in looking for a place to start, I was lost. I had had it all worked out in my head to rip and tear apart the bear, remove an eye and the drench it in a puddle and cover it in dirt. Then it hit me looking into its eyes I was taken back to a time that I was a child and I valued my stuffed animals (mainly a little cream-colored dog that I referred to as “Puppy”)  and realized in my heart that I couldn’t do it. Maybe this bear had a child that looked up to it as I did to “Puppy” and who am I to destroy that? Who am I to end this imaginary life? You look at movies like Toy Story and it makes you wonder, what if?  So for me I had to put this bear in a place that I assumed it would best be suited alone, abandoned and in it’s darkest hour (even though this was shot at 10am.) Currently this bear has a place in the passenger seat of my car until I take it upstairs and put it with my other bears. I know it may seem like I rescued this bear but in all honesty it was the one that rescued me…

Technical data:

Film Capture w/ RZ67

Aperture: f/3.5

Shutter Speed: 1/250

ISO: 100 (Neopan Acros 100)

Off Camera Strobe

Filters: Cokin ND4 and Cokin 003 Red  

Scanned to 16x20 @300 ppi

More Color...

AHHHHH Color!!!!

Typically I am not a fan of color but with the passing of Kodachrome at the end of the year I figured I had better shoot something in color. Although I screwed around and didn't get my Kodachrome shoot I did pick up some Fuji FP 100 C. I have always found a retro joy in laundromats and figured this would be a great place to try out some instant film. Below you will find the results. I do have a word of advice however with instant films, they should not be tucked into notebooks for safe keeping until you get home. You will notice some grayish white scratching on the last scans from where the paper peeled the image off.