Kodak Instant Camera Fun!

I've been meaning to write about something VERY fun--shooting with a clunky Kodak instant camera from the early 1980s! A couple of years ago, my mother found a never-used Kodak Partytime II camera in the storeroom of her shop. Sometime circa 1983, someone had given it to her--but without any film (weird!) She never used it, so it was mint in the box when she discovered it. It even had a corroded battery sitting in styrofoam! So, she gave it to me, knowing I love instant photography, but there is no film in production that works with the camera. (For more on the history of Kodak instant photography, click here and here.) So, I was left with the notion that the camera would never be used.

However, my camera was rescued thanks to the amazing Kevin Pointer, who was so kind as to give me a pack of VERY expired Kodamatic film! (It's been out of production since the mid-1980s!) Finally, in September, I was able to shoot some of this film, and so far, I've gotten two images that I'm particularly excited about!


Laika, Labor Day 2009
I love the way a huge chunk of this image just died, but my whippet is still apparent!


The Greenhouse
This is the beautiful greenhouse at the Fort Worth Botanical Gardens. I'm really excited about the light in this photo, however dark it may be.

One of the weirdest things about this film is watching it develop. It is very vivid at the moment of developing, but then it gets darker and darker. It's so interesting to me to see what happens with film as it expires! This stuff is remarkably stable for being expired about 25 years! If I get some more nice shots, I will share them with you!

faded glory

As my stash of beloved Polaroid films dwindles, I've been trying to enjoy shooting interesting places and people, and came across a crazy old mansion a couple of weeks ago that really demanded attention. "El Castile," or the Waggoner Mansion of Decatur, Texas, is apparently still occupied, but you couldn't necessarily tell that by looking.

Behold the last photo I will ever take using the beautiful Type 85 Polaroid film...


The Waggoner Mansion (2009)
Camera: Holgaroid
Film: Polaroid Type 85 (expired)

And here are some other photographs of this rather magical, out-of-time place:


Faded Glory (2009)
Camera: Holga with Polaroid back (Holgaroid)
Film: Polaroid Chocolate 80


El Castile (2009)
Camera: Polaroid 104
Film: Polaroid Blue 100


The Ghosts of Waggoner Mansion (2009)
Camera: Polaroid Spectra System SE
Film: Polaroid Spectra (expired)

Thanks for looking! I have not added these to my Etsy shop, but if you'd like a print, please let me know and we can make it happen!

My Grandmother's Polaroid Camera

In 2005, my mother gave me my grandmother's old Polaroid 104 camera. She had found it when they were moving  things out of my grandparents' home (after they both passed away), and wondered if I could use it. It was in great condition, with the exception of the battery contacts. They were dead due to having been stored with a battery in them. All of this time, I have wanted to shoot the camera, but never got around to having it fixed.

Well, the other day, my dear friend fixed it for me, replacing the old battery set up with a new one! The camera works! I initiated it yesterday, in honor of World Toy Camera Day! Although the Polaroid 104 wasn't considered a "toy" when it was sold between 1965 and 1967, it does have a plastic lens, making it a super-fun plasticcam worthy of "toycam" status in my book! 

This is one of my favorite photos from yesterday's first day using this awesome camera, which comes complete with my grandmother's name in DYMOTAPE on it! I'm so excited to keep this special family camera in action!



Antenae (2008)
Camera: Polaroid 104
Film: Polaroid UV-ID
Location: Denton, Texas, USA

orchids

I love orchids, and I am very excited that the one orchid I have right now is preparing to bloom again. When I lived in Santa Barbara, I had several orchids, but they would never re-bloom. I followed all the advice about food and temperature, etc, but they would never send out new shoots. When I moved to Florida, however, I got a new orchid that I completely ignored--I just left it on the patio, never fed it, only occasionally watered it. The humid and warm conditions of that place, however, had that orchid blooming like clockwork every October. When I moved away from Orlando, I gave that orchid to my friend Fon, and I'm sure her green thumb has that orchid blooming still.

When we moved to Texas, I found that our master bathroom has a perfect window for all kinds of plants, and so I invested in a new orchid and sat it on the bathtub near that magical spot. It bloomed three times last year, and now it's about to bloom again. Like my Florida orchid before, I pretty much ignore this plant. I never feed it and only occasionally water it. In honor of my excitement over this plant and its impending blossoms, here is my favorite Polaroid from last year's orchid blooms.


An Orchid's Promise (2007)
Camera: Polaroid Sx-70
Film: Time-Zero

Signed prints in my Etsy Shop!

the beginning of the rainbow

I love the sky. I love the way the sky is a constantly-changing canvas. I know that's a cliché, but I mean it. And I love to take polaroids of the sky, especially using Time-Zero film. When we lived in Florida, I took a lot of photos of the sky. However, the sky in Florida is small. It's beautiful, but trapped in humidity and storms so often that it could be suffocating. The skies over our current home in Texas, however, are far bigger. We're not living in the biggest sky country, but it's far more expansive than the one that resided over us not two years ago.

One evening in the late summer of 2006, I walked out into our back yard, my SX-70 in my hands. I looked up at the sky just as a rainbow was forming. I took a photo, and felt like I'd found a pot of gold. How often do we see the birth of a rainbow?


The Beginning of the Rainbow (2006)
Camera: Polaroid Sx-70
Film: Polaroid Time-Zero
border removed in scanning
Location: Denton, Texas

Girls at the Harem al-Sharif

This is one of my favorite Polaroids that I've ever taken. I was in Jerusalem in 2006; it was the first time I had been there since I was living there while doing my dissertation research in 1998-1999, and the city was far more depressed and restrictive than at that time. Still, my love for the people of the Old City, as well as its peerless holy and historic sites, didn't stop me from spending as much time as possible walking the streets with my cameras and talking with Jerusalemites. On my last day there, I went up to the Dome of the Rock, known to Muslims as the Harem al-Sharif, or Holy Sanctuary, and came across these three young women coming down from the Shrine. I took the moment to take their photo, and it was really amazing to watch it develop with them! We chatted a little bit while the photo emerged as only a Polaroid can, like magic, and then said our goodbyes. They went down from the site and into the Old City while I went up to the monument one last time. I asked them to pose for an up-close portrait, but they refused. That's fine; what a portrait I have by which to remember them!


Girls at the Harem al-Sharif (2006)
Camera: Polaroid SX-70, Alpha 1, Model 2
Film: Polaroid Time-Zero
Location: Jerusalem