Shake it like a Polaroid picture

Even though today’s digital photography lets you see, to some degree, how your photo turned out immediately after you take it, there is still something wonderful about having a hard copy to actually hold. It’s so rare nowadays to have lots of actual photos laying around. Instead of filling photo albums, most people just fill their iPhoto library. Digital film is easier and faster than 35mm, but you rarely get that nice concrete picture to hold. This is one of the reasons I love the idea of the good old Polaroid camera. You get to see your picture within minutes of taking it and you have a hard copy to hold on to.

I remember playing with my parents’ and even grandparents’ old school Polaroid cameras. It was always so fun to see your image develop right before your eyes as the chemicals mixed and worked their magic. For years now I’ve wanted to get my hands on just a plain old Polaroid camera to play around with. I was pretty upset when, not so recently (in 2004 I think), Polaroid announced that they were ending their production of the instant film for their cameras. Their film cartridges, which usually come with 10 exposures, are now an extremely pricey commodity. People are scrambling to buy all of what’s left of the already “expired” film. So when my wonderful boyfriend got me a Polaroid camera for Christmas, I couldn’t wait to go try it out. After I spent almost $80 on two packs of film, that is. Now I have the annoying problem of being afraid to use the camera to the extent I would like, since I don’t want to “waste” the costly exposures. I began to look around online for some interesting ideas for shots and techniques. There is plenty of really cool stuff out there. A lot polaroid related articles on line are now about how to recreate the look of a polaroid for your digital images. If so many people want the look of polaroids, why did they stop making them??? It’s so sad to think that once all the film that has been produced is used up, people will no longer be able to take these really unique and interesting images.

Polaroid did come out with a digitalized version of an instant camera, from which you can immediately print and share images you took (Polaroid PoGo), but the nostalgia and artistic look and feel of the original just isn’t there.

For now I will savor the 2 packs of Polaroid film I have, and try to create some nice images with them. I’ll try to buy some more film before the price increases to $100 a cartridge, or before there just isn’t any more. I wish Polaroid would see that there is still a significant demand for the classic, and restart a limited production on their film instead of killing it off all together.

Some interesting Polaroid related websites I’ve found:

New York Times: Reader’s Photos (a nice gallery)

Using Photoshop to recreate Polaroids

The Impossible Project tries to save instant film

Another Gallery (blog)

There are so many more polaroid inspired websites out there, and I refuse to accept that polaroid instant film is a thing of the past. It will not be a great classic lost in the digital age.

I hope.

the day weird white fluffy stuff fell from the sky

The unimaginable happened over the weekend. It snowed in Columbia. Not just a little snow, I think I approximated 6″ were on the roof of my car. My professor asked our class to post some of our pictures from the snow. I didn’t take my digital slr out in the snow, which was probably a good idea, since I ended up getting in a snowball fight. I would have been pretty upset if something happened to my camera. I did get to take some pictures with my point and shoot Lumix though. None of them turned out great as far as professional photos would go, but I did capture some idea of how much snow there was. Most of the pictures I took were at night, which made photographing the snow a little more difficult. I had gotten off work right before it started snowing hard, so by the time it was pretty deep on the ground it was 10 p.m. or so.

I usually think that I’m one of those people that don’t get all excited about the idea of snow being forecast on the news. I always think it’s strange how everyone suddenly has to run out and buy milk and bread because they think snow might fall. I guess after living in South Carolina for 12 years, one becomes somewhat skeptical of snow showing up whenever it’s predicted in the weather report. I found myself pretty excited though, about this snowfall. I had a great time playing in it, making a snowman, having a snowball fight, and just enjoying the look of it being white everywhere. I guess I hadn’t seen real significant snow for a while, and forgot how pretty it made everything.

© Selina Westerwelle 2010

This image is from pretty early on in the night, probably around 9:30 pm. It’s the parking lot in front of the apartment building. You can see that the snow is still coming down in the glare of the street lamp.

© Selina Westerwelle 2010

© Selina Westerwelle 2010

The first image shows how much snow fell within a 2 hour period or so. The pile of snow on the top of the side mirror of my car, is a pretty clear indicator of how much snow came down within such a short amount of time.

The second one is of the snowman we built before the snow got too slushy. It had already started melting a little while we were outside playing in it. But since it was so much in such a little time, much of it stayed on the ground for a while. The parking lot and streets cleared pretty quickly though. Our snowman was looking pretty ratty the next day in the sun, and another day after that, only a small pile of pine-straw filled snow remained. It was cool while it lasted though.

And I must admit, there is still a snowball or two in the freezer.