reflecting again...

Part of getting older is all of the reflecting that you do. Add to that an addiction to coffee (and taking pictures) and this is the result.  This is sooooo representative of me today...  

The photo started as an expired Polaroid 664 print taken with my Polaroid 250.  It was getting late in the day so the lighting/contrast is not as good as I would like it, but it seems to work with the mood of the photo.  Since it wasn't dry yet (and I am very impatient today), I couldn't scan it so I took an iPhone photo and modified it using Snapseed.  I love how you can create things so easily...

from another world...

Took the bottom image for the "Impossible Moment In Time" graffiti theme today. I took the top image using my Leica M8 and adjusted the contrast, using NIK Color Efex Pro, to bring out the details. Let it be known that I messed up the exposure terribly on the bottom one. This affected the colors and the amount of detail in the highlights. I should have set the exposure to full darken to compensate for the PX680 Cool film. For some reason, I continually forget this when I go to take pictures with the Spectra camera.  I think it has something to do with the fact that I don't take pictures with the Spectra very often. 

However, sometimes the mistakes end up being phenomenal photos. Despite the fact that you cannot see all of the detail, the Impossible image is somewhat surreal. Almost from another world far beneath the sea...  

and she smiles...

Took this one while on vacation in California.  We were in the elevator headed back to our room.  The Mint flash works like a charm every time...

schlitterbahn 2012...

Waterparks are not the place to be hauling around a Polaroid camera.  Most of the day it stayed locked up in a storage locker at the park.  That is the neat thing about instant photos.  You don't feel like you need to document any and every activity.  Once you get a keeper, it becomes "the" memory.  I am very happy with the two that I took...

my friend tripp...

Sadi, Sherri and I watched after our friend's dogs a few weeks ago.  Each night I took my SX-70 over and tried to get some pictures.  This pic of Tripp is one of my favorites...

more of me...

What can I say, another shot of me.  Trying to empty out my cameras and get them ready to travel to California this week.

Also gives me a good reason to change my avatar on twitter...

beautiful images...

Caught a couple of beautiful images that I just had to post.

This one was Pyper after she got out of the bath last night.  Wanted to test some more of the PX70 with the mint flash.  As you can see, it works great!  Just have to watch being too far away from what you are photographing...

After church today, I talked Sherri into letting me take an indoor picture of her with just window light from the side.  Amazing how I take hundreds of pictures and very few of her.  Just so you know, this is her choice not mine.  If it was my choice, I would get at least one picture of her every day...

smokestacks...

Got up on my roof and took this image the other day.  The sky was so blue and the clouds looked like puffs of smoke in the distance.

roid week 2012 - my images...

Well roid week 2012 has come and gone. This is the first year that I have participated in the flickr event.  What a great time taking new pictures to post and viewing pictures from around the world.  There are so many talented photographers that use instant film as a method of documenting the things around them.  This alone is inspiring for me.  I absolutely enjoy taking photos and especially instant photos.  Come to think of it, instant photography is has become a hobby within a hobby.

Look forward to many more years of roid week and most of all knowing that some day I can share the original photos with my children, grandchildren and maybe even great-grandchildren...

coffee thoughts...

Earlier today, I spent a short time on the patio in the back yard enjoying the cool morning and having a cup of coffee. This is absolutely one of my favorite coffee cups. Sadi got it for me for Christmas many years ago (from a school store where they could spend their reading points). Funny how the corniest thing can become so valuable and sentimental. Seems that years ago, my girls truly thought that "my dad can fix anything". There was never a doubt in their minds!  As the years have passed and both of my girls have "grown up", this has become more of a joke than a truth. They now realize that there are certain things in life that even Dad can't fix.  Just know that I still hold out hope that I can somehow work to remove these doubts, hold up the cup, and announce that I have again fixed something that was broken...

What a humbling cup of coffee...

a flash from the past...

I have been looking for this instant photo for quite a while.  Took some time tonight to look through some old family albums to see if I could find it.  Amazing the moments that we remember from our childhood.  For some reason, this day and this photo have been stuck in my memory.  Maybe it was the hair or even the abs of steel that I was trying to show off and get captured on film (so that I could show it off more than 30 yrs later)...

wilco in black and white...

Sometimes you just know that you got the shot as soon as you take it. You may have to wait a little bit for it to develop, but you are more anxious than ever to see if it turned out.  This was one of those shots and it was like an eternity waiting four minutes while the image developed under a dark slide.  When I lifted up the dark slide and saw this image, I just smiled...

on their way out...

Sadi, Jace and Brad tonight in our neighborhood before Sadi and Jace left to go eat Chinese food. Always a good night when I get to take a picture...

in mint condition...

This is my first photo using my new Impossible Mint flash with PX680 film in the SX-70 camera.  As with all Impossible products, it delivers a very unique image.  I am always amazed at how the image looks like it was taken many years ago.  If you think the scanned image looks neat, you should see the original!  I can't seem to stop picking it up to look at it.  I don't know why I like it, but I do...