Author Archives: stoatly

Phound Photos Volume 14

I had several cameras with found film in them. As usual, most had nothing but a couple had something. I had gotten this roll processed at The Camera Shop of Santa Fe and it wasn’t scannable. I set it aside and came back across it while cleaning the office/workshop. Before chucking it, I held it up to the light and could barely make out some images. I scanned and did some heavy correction. The trouble is, it sat around so long I don’t remember what camera it’s from. The film is so dark I can’t make out any edge markings or frame numbers either. After I scan some other found film I may be able to do a “Cat In The Hat” and figure out which film it’s not and hopefully narrow it down.

Update 25 September 2019: I take snapshots with my phone when I find film and I think this is from a Canon Z115. I still don’t remember when or where I acquired it but it’s a start.

I usually don’t post all of the found images from a roll but these tell a cool story.

Building a log house

Hard work

And long days

A lot of progress

Coming along nicely

Every project’s nightmare – snow before it’s weather tight

Vintage VW and solar panels

Another building. Workshop? Studio?

Nice views

I thought the camper lid was up but it’s the building behind it

Sunny so maybe work can resume soon

Detail of the side door

Detail of the front door – beautiful cedar

Shadows from the west – solar panel facing south

After the snow – getting a proper roof

This is going to be a gorgeous house

Not sure if these are from before or after the snow

Giddy or exhausted – maybe after

Clowning for the camera

OK, do a serious one

Camera shy

Chillin’ on the porch

I guessed the order based on progress I could see. Some are probably off but close enough.

Random Post for 17 September 2019

This may be my favorite comment on the 52 Cameras YouTube channel

Red eye reduction on wedding pictures made BORG BRIDE!

I think the generator was spewing diesel fumes into the building again when I made this

Thanka. Thanka verra mush.

eeg

I love this. Especially because a rock is a bud and a microscope is a bong

Inspired by: https://imgur.com/gallery/RZqNrSQ
The cats were driving M nuts. She wrote “I’m tired of their shenanigans. They think it’s my duty to entertain them”. Auto-correct jumped in and changed it to “Duty Town Terrain”.

Album Cover game (yeah, I misspelled shenanigans)

52 Cameras: # 184 — Bell & Howell (Canon) Dial 35-2

Kodak Color Plus 200 scanned on a Canon CanoScan 9000f at 2400DPI and resized for the blog. Any edits are in the image file names.

They look like tampons but they’re ice sculptures.

Another fun night shot.

I don’t remember what this sign is for – I just like the abstract shapes.

Flamingos at the Flamingo.

A little more than half way done with the scanning. If I see something interesting, I’ll add it to the post.

CNN sucks

WARNING: This post contains foul language.

This is such a fail I’m not adding the “humor” tag.

The first Democratic debate, hosted by NBC and streamed on Youtube, worked fine.
The second debate, by CNN, was unwatchable. We have a modern smart TV and it has the “CNNgo” app but it wouldn’t work, even with cable credentials. Trying to stream via cnn.com was pathetic. They tried, but the servers were not up to the task. It was useless. Other streaming services worked fine so it wasn’t our network. I found transcripts (from someone other than CNN, of course) the next day.

This time, for the climate town hall, CNN didn’t even pretend not to be greedy incompetent f__ks. They’ll probably edit or take down the page but this is what it says:

Specifically states “CNN.com’s homepage” $$ Nothing about GIVE US MONEY $$

I tried watching on an iPad. It crashed and reloaded the page repeatedly. Amazingly, the countdown timer kept working. I tried a laptop and other than buffering and showing an ad with the countdown timer running, it worked-ish. For a while. See, they only showed a 10 minute “preview” before the video stopped working and they shook us down for TV provider credentials:

Democracy in action

Not that that would work, I wasted enough time on CNNgo before.

M has dish credentials. We don’t have it but she pays for her grandma so she can watch her telenovelas. Even if CNN was competent enough for that to work (they aren’t), this is our f__king democracy. Whether you’re a Democrat or not, one of these people may be our next president so it’s kind of important to know what they think about things.

Here’s the thing. Even if it worked, CNN should not be shaking down voters for money in order to provide this information. It’s a privilege that they got the debate and the town hall. It’s guaranteed viewers. Lots of viewers. Embed the ads in the stream and put it on a competent service.

This is capitalism at its worst: 1) They have a monopoly for this event. 2) They shake us down for money. 3) Even if you show, via TV provider credentials, that you gave them money, it DOESN”T F__KING WORK.

CNN: you can buy better, but you can’t pay more.

52 Cameras: # 183 — Yashica 230-AF

It speaks well for this camera that even with the shutter malfunction, giving a useful format of 36mm wide X 12mm high, I got some usable images. Most are sharpened a bit – they’re cropped to about 25% of normal area.

Kodak-Alaris Color Plus 200. I’m glad Kodak-Alaris re-introduced Color Plus. Usually, Gold 200 is what’s available in the US. Color Plus is good film for really cheap. I like it better than the Gold — it isn’t as saturated so images are more WYSIWYG. I can always add saturation in post if that’s what the subject calls for.

Scanned with a Canon CanoScan 9000f at 2400DPI.

Ant pile

Flowers in our friend’s yard

I left this uncropped except for the black part. It made an interesting composition

M was critter-sitting. The meanest turkey you’ll ever meet.

Flowers in the yard.

I wish I had a better photo of Hank. He’s a 300 lb sweetheart.

Jem. His paws were in the unexposed part. Another sweetheart.

52 Cameras: # 182 — Taron VIC

Everything black is blue.

The Iron Giant at Meow Wolf Santa Fe

Wolf at Meow Wolf in Santa Fe

Wolf with auto-white-balance

Hank, the 300lb pet pig

52 Cameras: # 181 — Kodak Brownie Starflex

Barrancas at Pojoaque Pueblo

Light through the leaves

Dramatic sky

This image was in the video but this is before I cropped & cleaned up. There’s a head in the upper left. He noticed I was shooting a film camera and we talked a bit. His name’s Siddho and he’s a photographer in Santa Fe.

Siddho’s head

A shout out to Bob for giving me the film. He’s the same guy who lent me his Nikon FM.

Original price (sticker underneath)

Later price and then 1/2 price

Exposure instructions right on the backing paper

It performed well for film 37 years past its “develop before” date

52 Cameras: # 180 — Bolsey B2

I’ll start with an image that’s in the video. I just metered the scene without compensating for the strong back light. This is what I got:

Goober & Jem: un-adjusted

Using the scanner adjustment to compensate. I can see them but the background is brighter (don’t care) and they look hazy (do care). This is the result:

Dragged the scanner software midtone on the histogram to 60 (default 128)

I tried the Photoshop merge, the same wizard that let’s you create a panorama. It did not cover itself in glory. Several manual variations later, I came up with this:

Stacked the images as layers and played with transparency. Then used the levels setting in Preview.

I may be able to get something better using layers with a selective erase (I got better results putting the darker layer one top and varying the transparency, which seems counter-intuitive to me) but I’m not sure it won’t look like modern HDR-that-doesn’t-look-real images.

The film & the lens handle wide contrast ranges if you meter properly

I have a scanner-brightened version of this too but I haven’t tried exposure stacking.

I was trying to avoid cars in the frame and ended up with “Ladies & Gentlemen, St. Francis has left the building”.

52 Cameras: # 179 — Time Magazine Promotional Camera

I wanted to shoot with this camera before I start modifying it and maybe destroy it completely. Plus, I got an unused roll of film in a camera bag that came with a camera. – some Kodak HD 400. No idea of its age or how it was stored so it’s ideal for a low-expectations camera.

Links mentioned in the video:
https://www.instructables.com/id/Upgrade-Your-Time-Magazine-Promotional-Camera/
https://collectiblend.com/Cameras/New-Taiwan/
1984 Time Magazine camera promo commercial

Most of the Time cameras have the fake motor drive bump out – mine doesn’t. This guy has the exact same camera, right down to the SN on the lens.

Some color tweaks and haze removal but that’s more the film than the camera.

IAIA Museum of Contemporary Native Arts (MoCNA)

Rug drying in Santa Fe

Jem – a cat with a purpose

Trinity’s just trying to stay cool

Phound Photos Volume 13

Kodak Max 400 found in a Canon Sure Shot Ace. The film canister doesn’t give any clues about the date. The camera is from 1988.

Some young ladies having fun trying on prom(?) dresses.

Weird to think they’re probably in their 40s now.

The film was horrendously jammed. With a good battery, the film wouldn’t rewind and it was at the end of the roll so it couldn’t wind either.

Double exposure

The extra exposure from the back being opened created what looks like the Sabattier effect.

An even more extreme example of the effect.

Cropping out the overexposure and a little tweaking of levels and this could be a nice image.

There are twelve frames with something. A few of those are salvageable as “normal” images. To get the film out, I had to work in the dark bag and cut it loose from the canister. Then I was able to feed it around the take-up spool in the wind direction until it separated from the spool.

Some notes & random thoughts

The film has a really pronounced curl along its length so it was difficult to get it into the scanner. While researching how to get rid of the curl, I came across a suggestion to iron it. I used a black portion of the film to try it. I did about five seconds and the film picked up the texture of the cotton cloth (old summer-weight PJs, not textured) and the table beneath it. I do not recommend ironing curly film. By inserting the film emulsion down, apex of curl up (opposite Canon’s directions), I was able to get the film holder to make it flat enough to scan. It’s easy to flip the images in post. The scans are OK but the film is in a sleeve inside a large hardcover book. I’m curious how long it will take to flatten. I found some wrinkly manuals I’d put in there maybe a year ago (and forgotten) and they look great.
I really want to experiment and figure out how the pseudo-solarization came about and repeat it on purpose. On the first yellow image above, I think the left part was on the spool towards the back of the camera and the image was increasingly shielded by the take up spool as you move right. The same for the rotated portrait format image. I’m guessing the landscape one was a lower frame number so it was more shielded. I’ll have to check the numbers. That the effect is yellow is a good starting point for reproducing the effect. Exposed through orange tinted backing, yellow’s RGB complement… I have a lot of research to do.
The camera is a little weird and kind of cool for an f/3.5 wide angle P&S from the 1980s. It has an “Easy Viewer”, a low-angle viewfinder like the Photura, and the left side slides off to become an infrared remote. I have a battery and some dead film for transport testing. If it works, I’ll shoot with it and feature it soon.

Exit 272

Humor, art, photography, and random things I find interesting.