#polaroidone

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Caption-less

My Polaroids all initially had one common theme; caption written at the bottom with a black marker. Usually it would be song lyrics, directly or more metaphorically related to the image at hand. 

This is the first shot ever presented without any caption written at the bottom, all because I felt that what the image presented was all that was needed to say. It was taken on my Polaroid One 600 camera. I was on my way to class on my UBC campus and I ran across this by the student union building. I often like running into odd street chalk art, so I had to stop and look at this one. 

I felt that it was even more powerful of a message, because at the time there were multiple cases of sexual assault going around on campus. It was definitely a devastating string of cases, one that didn’t come to an end for a while longer after this was taken. 

This shot was also the progenitor for my more recent Polaroids, which all no longer carry any captions below the images.  The reason for this shift in theme was because I wanted the image on the Polaroid to be the central focus when I present a Polaroid. I felt that the captions in black marker took away too much from the images themselves.

I also wanted to carry a sense of growth over time in my Polaroids, and I didn’t want to consistently have the captions throughout all my images. It was a nice concept to begin with, but something a bit distracting as I went along. 

I also became more and more uninspired towards the idea of the captions. In the beginning, I was inspired by the idea because I was able to come up with so many song lyrics pertaining to the images itself. However, there are only so many source material to pull from, and the more I went with the captions, the more irrelevant or vaguely related the caption seemed. 

I didn’t want the people that looked at my Polaroids to focus more on the caption, and maybe even question, “what does that caption have to do with the picture?”. I didn’t want that reception to be the central reception it gets once it’s presented. I wanted the people that looked at my Polaroids to look at the various silhouettes, the colors, and the lighting. Not the caption or its relevance. 

That’s how I came to scrap the idea, and this image definitely gave me a good idea of how it would look if it was presented as is - caption-less. I definitely played around with other ideas of what the captions could be, such as dates or names of places that the Polaroids have been taken from. But I couldn’t see how it could enhance the experience when looking at this Polaroid, so I scrapped idea entirely.

It’s definitely interesting to see the first of what came to be what is now my most common way of presenting my Polaroids. It seems so... blank, yet a welcomed change at the end.

Stay tuned for more Little Pieces of Time!

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Unpredictability - Pleasant Surprises

This is one of the first few shots taken on my Polaroid One 600. I got the camera after not liking the limitations of my Polaroid OneStep 600. Although Polaroid One 600 isn’t too different from the Polaroid Onestep 600, it was better at capturing far away scenery. 

This was shot in the Irving K. Barber Learning Center at UBC. It’s where I go most often to study, print off my papers, and scan in my Polaroids.  I was actually on my way to scan in some new shots that day and came across this little corner of the library. It wasn't the first time I saw this corner of course, as I’ve walked past it a million times over the years during my time at UBC.

This particular time was unique because the light flooding in through the stained glass windows was just the right amount of light and at the right angle. If the light was too bright and I took a Polaroid, it would be just the silhouette of the stained glass window and all else would be black. But it wasn’t so bright that day, and I couldn’t help but stop dead on my tracks and start framing it this way and that. It also helped that I was close enough to the lantern so that my flash was able to aid in brightening up that spot. 

Once the shot was taken, I was pleasantly surprised this time. What you see in this image was not the lighting I saw through the viewfinder in real life. Particularly the lantern that hangs by the window. It wasn’t emitting a blue light, it was actually emitting a plain white light. And to this day I have yet to understand why and how that’d happened. I can only assume it has to do with the flash going off from my camera so close to the lantern. But that’s as far as my assumption goes.

I felt that blue glow of the lantern definitely added this cold feel to the photo which I really liked. It made the shot seem even more like this cold and dimly lit castle setting. I remember being so excited about this shot, I practically ran up the stairs to scan it in with the other photos right away.

I know I had said that Polaroids are in fact very unpredictable in their nature, but it’s not always for the worse. Sometimes it can surprise you, and you end up with a much better shot than initially intended. And I think that’s what I love most about Polaroids; they’re very unpredictable and it pushes you to try to frame and work with the best lighting possible, but it can still catch you off guard. Be it good or bad.

So somethings you definitely can predict; such as how I predicted that if the light was too bright, it would only show the silhouette of the window with shadows engulfing everything else around it. But there’s an element of surprises here and there that even my current few years of experience can’t predict sometimes. And I like it that way :) 

Stay tuned for more Little Pieces of Time!

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Texture

This shot was taken with my Polaroid One 600 at my favorite place for food, a 50′s themed diner downtown. I was having a night out and decided to swing by the place for dinner and took this shot on my way out.

This is a good example of a shot that showcases the way in which I have settled on how I was going to present my shots on Instagram, at “littlepiecesoftime”. I’d touched on how I’ve presented my shots in the past; such as initially having that black outline all around the Polaroid and such. 

This is the finalized way that I decided was fitting in presenting my shots. You’ll notice that the white border of the Polaroid is a bit more textured compared to just a solid plain white border. And the background is a bit more off-white and grainy. These two elements are definitely something I’ve played around with and experimented for a while to get it to what it is shown here.

I’ve noticed in my earlier shots, that all my Polaroids’ white boarders come out all brightly white and washed out with absolutely no texture. When in reality, the Polaroid that I held in my hand has a bit of texture in its white boarders and I really wanted to show that off in my shots. So I started to mess around with some values on my photo editing software, Gimp.

But before I could even get to the values I would have to go through multiple steps to prepare the Polaroid:

I would first scan in my Polaroids with a plain white non-textured piece of paper as the background. This would make it easier for me to cut out the Polaroid and replace the background with something else, almost like the way movies use green screen behind their actors. 

Then I would cut out the Polaroid from the plain white background and onto it’s own layer with an alpha channel. This is so that the Polaroid would be its own layer with a see-through/invisible background, so I could add any background I wished. 

Then the grainy off-white background as a new layer behind the Polaroid is added. I’d scanned in a coarse off-white piece of paper that I’d ripped out from my sketchbook at an earlier time so that I could have it as a file of its own. I’d messed around with the values of it to bring out the grainy and off-white colors and exported the finished product as an image to have as a consistent background that I have ready to go at any time. 

Rotate and center the shot so it isn’t crooked or more off to the side, etc.

Then I would select out the image itself and only have the white borders selected in the Polaroid layer. The grainy off-white background is in another layer so its unaffected.

After all those steps have been followed, only then I could start messing around with the values so that the image itself remains untouched. I never felt the need to edit the image itself when it comes to Polaroids. I felt that that’s the beauty of Polaroids, that there’s nothing that could be done to really edit them. Sure, you could scan in the Polaroids and alter the images on a computer. But the physical copies of the Polaroids will remain as they are, and that’s the way I liked it and wanted to show it. 

I won’t deny that this is a lot of work, all for a single scanned image of a Polaroid. But I felt that it complements the vibe that I feel whenever I see a Polaroid; this grainy, vintage shot that shows a moment frozen in time. I felt that the plain washed out white borders was a juxtaposition to that; almost too modern looking compared to the vibe of the images. 

So in the end, a bit of extra effort for the border and background to compliment the vibe of the images itself is definitely worth it. Especially when it comes to presenting my images to others and have them see what I see in my images.

Stay tuned for more Little Piece of Time!

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Unpredictability

This is taken on Polaroid OneStep 600, at the old UBC pool after closing where I was finishing up my lifeguarding shift.

This is a good example of how unpredictable Polaroids were when I first started using vintage Polaroid cameras. Sometimes things don’t quite turn out as you see it in the viewfinder. And this is definitely one of the prime examples, except I felt this shot wasn’t completely a dud at the time. 

There was a lot of closing duties in my lifeguarding shift that day, and I took a look at the empty pool. It looked so peaceful, a stark contrast to the busy splashing waters I’d had to scan through earlier that afternoon. So I decided to take a Polaroid of it on my way out. 

This one was definitely a strange occurrence, because the lighting was definitely brighter than how it’d turned out. The pool was still pretty well lit from he ceilings by warm toned lights, which created a contrast from the blue of the pool. That is what I wanted to capture. But I later found out that the Polaroid Spectra camera may have been a much better choice in taking a shot in a setting like this, as it has a much powerful flash and is able to capture images better in a less brightly lit setting. 

The way in which it looks shaky was also part of the unpredictability. And I know this wasn’t actually me having a shaky hand, because I did later try the exact same lighting and setting with the most purposefully still hand to see if it was due to shaking the camera by accident.  I have an educated guess as to why this shaky image occurs, but I’m still not quite sure if it’s true: the mixture between not as well lit setting as well as a large body of water reflecting the light of the ceiling every where.  But again, this is an educated guess after multiple experiences in a similar setting. 

This is when I realized that I wanted to explore other models of the original Polaroid cameras. I knew from the beginning that Polaroid OneStep 600 is a very beginner friendly model that isn’t as complex or able to do anything fancy. But I didn’t like the concept of being limited by the simplicity of this model. This particular model of Polaroid OneStep 600 I was using was also more for closeups rather than scenery shots. Polaroids are already pretty unpredictable on their own already, and I didn't’ want this limitation to make the unpredictability higher. 

This is what pushed me to start look at other models; Polaroid One 600, Polaroid Spectra QPS, and so on. I knew I needed a little more time to get a better grasp at the unpredictability of Polaroids. But I also knew I’d catch on pretty quick, and I wanted a seamless transition to using another camera. Therefore I did all the research I could and remember getting a Polaroid One 600 soon after this shot was taken. 

This unpredictability of Polaroids definitely made me think twice about framing, lighting and attempting to guess how differently the shot might come out compared to what I see through the viewfinder. Definitely an experience worth having when it comes to being in Polaroid photography but certainly tedious!

Stay tuned for more Little Pieces of Time!

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My Cameras

Kicking off my new blog by introducing my babies - the cameras I use!

I started playing around with the idea of taking pictures with Polaroids about 2 years ago. I knew they were still around, the ones that are actually from the 80′s and 90′s, but I wasn’t sure where I could get my hands on it exactly.

So I started off with what was easily available at any electronics store; a Fuji Instax Mini Camera! I wanted to see if it was for me, walking around taking photos of things around me, and I felt that the film for it was affordable enough for me to make mistakes with it and just try it out for fun. It was with this camera I fell in love with the concept of walking around with a camera that would print out a physical photo of something interesting I’d run into that day.

From there my camera collection grew very quickly. I started off with the Polaroid OneStep 600 to get a good feel for the original Polaroid cameras. Polaroid One 600 and Polaroid Spectra QPS quickly followed suit, all found through a small camera and film shop called Beau’s Photo Supplies.

Polaroid OneStep 600 was a great camera for someone who’d just stated to dip their toes into the more vintage Polaroid scene. It was very simple to use because it was just point and shoot!

Polaroid One 600 was also similarly simple to use and great for someone just starting out in the Polaroids scene. I found it a bit better for scenery photos compared to the Polaroid OneStep 600.

Polaroid Spectra QPS (Full switch) was definitely the camera that pushed me from “getting my feet wet” to “I love this and I want to do this seriously”. This one I got trying to challenge myself and to get started on using a Polaroid camera that wasn’t so simple as a point and shoot. What I mean by “full switch” is that there are multiple knobs just under the viewfinder at the back of the camera that allows the user to have more control over the outcome. Things such as flash or no flash, a timer if you wanted to set it down and get in the picture yourself, brightness of the photo, and auto focus or manual focus. At first I didn't’ know what knobs made which difference, so I just started out by playing around with different knobs. When I figured it all out, I genuinely fell in love with this camera! It made the colors, especially on a sunny day, just pop and look so vibrant! the wider frame also allowed me to capture better scenery shots. So needless to say, I was absolutely heartbroken when it stopped working a few weeks ago! RIP! thankfully I was able to find the Spectra SE model at Beau’s photo supplies a few days ago, and it seems to have the same settings as the QPS! Can’t wait to get out there and give it a whirl!

Polaroid SX-70 Land was the next camera I got. This was such an iconic camera in its day, so I was VERY excited to get one. After getting a good grasp on how to use the spectra, I wanted to further challenge myself and found that the next most fussy camera to use was this SX-70 model. And boy was it fussy! One of the most common mistake I would make was with the manual focus dial. As someone who’d never had to focus an image myself in the previous models, I definitely struggled with it and would often end up with a very blurry or out of focus shots! I’ll admit, this annoyed me to no end! But I learned to actually take however long it takes to frame a shot and focus it to get it just right. It was worth it once I got it right though, because the camera delivers images with this grainy quality that I’d admired in vintage photos.

Polaroid Land 350 was my most recent addition to the family. And here I thought the SX-70 was the fussiest! boy was I wrong! Not only is it manual focus, but there are variety of knobs/dials that must be switched in a particular order, and the peel apart film for it must be peeled apart around after 50 seconds (but also dependent upon the temperature!). If kept too long you’d end up with just a blank, dark photo! But when found the right balance, it is very fun peeling apart a photo and watching the colors come to life! It doesn’t have as grainy of a quality as the SX-70, but it adds this (for the lack of better word) “vintage filter” to the image with a warmer tone. It is quite a bit heavier in weight compared to my other cameras, but because of how ancient it looks I just love it even more!

And there we have it, my cameras! I loved my journey through each of them and I can’t wait to shoot more with them! 

Stay tuned for more Little Pieces of Time!

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A Scrapped Idea

This shot was taken with my Polaroid One 600 at 5am as I was rushing to an early morning shift as a lifeguard at the pool I was working at last summer. I was rushing past as I caught a glimpse of the fountain’s water reflecting the sky this way and I couldn’t help but stop in awe. It almost looked like there was another world in the fountain water. 

This was around the time I was playing around with the various ways in presenting my Polaroids on Instagram, and I knew wanted to try something different out with this shot. 

After settling on bringing out the textures of the white borders of my Polaroids when presenting them on Instagram, I’ve then played around with the idea of tapes showing up around the edges.  I’d seen in various forms of media of this being done, be it to keep the Polaroid secured in someone’s journal or on someone’s wall. I thought it was a neat idea that could potentially add an element of personality or relatability to my Polaroids. 

To get the tapes to show up so prominently in a scan of a Polaroid was also difficult to begin with. So I went back to the basics and scanned in the Polaroid and the tapes on a plain white piece of paper and cut it out as a whole to paste onto the grainy textured paper background on gimp.  The white of the plain white piece of paper seemed to help in having the tape show up more significantly without giving up the illusion that it’s a normal piece of transparent tape. 

The process for this was much longer as I wanted even the tiny edges of the tape pieces to be cut out as they are before being pasted onto the grainy textured paper background. But the finished product was perfectly aligned with the vision I had in mind, so I felt that the extra hours put into it was worth it. 

However, this idea was scrapped after two or three Polaroids being presented this way. Due to the tapes being in the frame, the actual image has to be further away, which ends up looking smaller compared to the Polaroids being presented without the tapes. 

I’ve also noticed that the tapes do add to the effect of the textured white borders and the background, but it almost adds to it too much. So much so that it takes away from the image itself in the center of the Polaroid. The point of my Polaroid scans that I upload on my Instagram was never to show the world how well I can present these Polaroids. Of course, it’s nice to present it in a well put together manner, but that was never the main point. The main point was always to share the images themselves and share the way I saw beauty in things on a daily basis. 

Outside this main reason of the tapes taking too much away from the image itself, I also thought that because how long each edit took, I was starting to lack the motivation to post as regularly. And I wanted to be consistent in my uploads and didn’t want to be burned out so quickly. 

So as pretty as I thought it was aesthetically, I had to scrap the idea of presenting my Polaroids this way entirely. I may present it this way again once in a while, if I feel that it would add to the image in some way without bringing too much attention away from the image. But for now, it’s a scrapped idea I’d once had. 

Stay tuned for more Little Pieces of Time!