pictures of us...

It is always a good day for me when I get to take a picture of Sherri. It is an even better day when I actually get her to take an instant photo of me with one of my Polaroid cameras. She's not completely brainwashed yet, but I have made some progress...

off the beaten path...

Always amazes me the things you can come across if you just take the time to get off the beaten path and explore the backroads. Most of the time I am in a hurry to get somewhere and I take the fastest route which usually involves Interstates. Not exactly the scenic route. Saturday was such a refreshing day in that I had an open schedule to do whatever I wanted with no reason to be in a hurry. I spent some time in downtown Denton to visit with Armand at Denton Camera Exchange and then headed north to Dennison, Sherman and Celeste on my way back to Greenville. Didn't really find the "fall landscapes" that I was looking for, but definitely found my share of stops. I caught a couple of the stops on some Polaroid 690 expired film that ended up being my favorites for the day...

Tyler and Pyper...

So many memories were captured today. We had such a great time together as a family eating meals and enjoying our afternoon outside in the sun and by the pool. For some reason, Pyper was so excited about taking photos today. Thought I would post this one first because it is Tyler's last Father's day with only one child. Allister makes her debut later this week...

sunday morning in the mines...

photos of matt...

Matt Ronan came over to Greenville last night to get me to help him with a light leak that he had on his camera. Good news is we fixed the light leak so he can stop wasting exposures of his expired Polaroid 669. Tried to take a photo of him using one of my few remaining exposures of Polaroid Chocolate film. Unfortunately, that was sorta bad news because I overexposed another shot (see below). I mixed up my reading from my light meter (@80 ISO) and the exposure I was getting with my Fuji camera (@200 ISO). Basically I wasn't paying attention... ugh...

So after that, I still wanted a photo, but I didn't want to chance another chocolate exposure so I pulled out some of my most reliable stash: Polaroid 690. I bought all of this film over a year ago from Don's Photo Equipment in Dallas. The good thing is that more often than not, I hit the exposure on this film. Another one in the win column...

saturday mornings...

As much as I like traveling, I love Saturday mornings at home with my family (and my coffee makers). Pyper stayed with us last night so we went outside right after she got up to play some golf (Pyper calls it baseball) in the back yard. She looks a little rough, but it WAS before 9:00 am on a Saturday...

in perspective...

Roidweek 2013 Day 4, image #1

a milestone for Stratton...

Went to Childress, Tx over the weekend to celebrate another milestone in our family. Stratton (top & middle photo) was graduating high school. I got a big shot photo of him and one of him with mom and dad right before he was leaving for the ceremony. Sawyer didn't make the photo so I grabbed one of him on Sunday before we left...

after the rain...

Sometimes in this life, the greatest beauty can be found after the rain...

los angeles traffic...

Got the opportunity to go night shooting with Toby Hancock in LA.  He seems to be able to pull any and all lights out of the night and capture them on film. One of my goals was to get a slow-shutter night shot of traffic. Captured this one on expired Polaroid 690 film with my Polaroid 600SE camera on a tripod...

standing tall...

ping pong...

Every year when we go back to Childress America, a new competition surfaces (last year's competition is here and the year before is here). This year ping pong was the game of choice.  As always, Sawyer and Stratton were ready and willing to pose for an instant shot between games...

globehopper...

A mural outside the Globehopper coffee shop in downtown Richmond, Va.

Took the images using Impossible PX100 Cool film in a folding SX-70 and Polaroid 690 film in a 100 Packfilm camera.

starbucks in the afternoon...

What a busy Saturday it was.  Took a break in the afternoon to stop by Starbucks and grab some coffee and a picture...

a night with Pyper...

Pyper stayed with us last night.  Always a fun time!  She is constantly doing something entertaining.  You just have to be quick with the camera to catch the moment.  She put on the glasses and was walking around laughing (and going "round and round").  The light leak is because I moved the film from one camera to another and didn't get the dark slide in all the way.  I used the Spectra closeup lens to get a head shot.  

As you can tell, by the time I took the second one she was getting "sweepy"...

feasting...

Started a little early this year.  We had our thanksgiving lunch at work today.  A few of us got together and cooked the turkeys in my garage this morning.  Wow that turkey was good!

a different kind of halloween...

The pictures below are from the 80's themed halloween/birthday party that Sherri and I went to on the weekend before halloween.  I left all of my digital cameras at home.  I took three different Polaroid cameras (SX-70, 250 Packfilm, Spectra AF).  Better than any costume that I could have worn.  FYI, the glasses that I was wearing were actually mine from 1988.

The cameras were a hit!  Always fun to see everyone amazed at such old technology...

After the party was over and the scanning was done, I gave all of the photos to Kathleen (the birthday girl).

just one more...

I have so many pictures to scan, but it is so fun to go out looking for just one more to take.  I drove around downtown Greenville today and saw another large wine barrel/vat sitting our behind the winery.  The sun was shining directly in my face while taking the picture.  I had to put my hand over the light sensor of the camera so that it would expose correctly in the shadows. Because of this, the shutter was actually very slow and the image lost some sharpness...

Texan Theater at Night...

Night photography (as inspired by Toby Hancock)...

What a difference in film. The first is expired Polaroid 690 film (reddish/hazy finish), the second is Fuji FP-100C film (sharp and vibrant colors). Both have a unique signature that makes each special.

Finally had another night where they lit the lights on the Texan Theater in Greenville.  Made a special trip back home to grab some Polaroid cameras and get back downtown.  Here are the first two images from tonight.  All images were taken with the camera on a tripod.  I have some other images that are still processing. Will try and post them soon.

fading...

even though it is expired, this film has been solid with it vibrant colors.  this one was shot directly at the setting sun with my modified 250 land camera that has the rodenstock 127mm lens attached.  the sun flare gave it an extreme red cast and it looks somewhat faded. hope it wasn't light leaking through...