No. 9 "Always Expect the Unexpected"

I went out shooting a couple weeks ago before it started raining and shot a pack of PX600 UV+ on my Polaroid SX-70. These two photos are my favorites from the pack. Although I effectively only had 6 shots that had images on them out of the 8 total in the pack. Sometimes problems happen when you shoot instant film and you just have to work through them. Midway through the pack, the camera (which is over 30 years old) didn't reset itself properly after taking a shot. The only way to reset it manually is to take the pack of film out and put it back in, so that's what I did. Only the uppermost photo must have shifted a bit when I took the pack out, because when I went to take the next shot, two photos came out at the SAME time. The result was interesting to say the least, but I kind of like the one on the left though, so I guess it's not a total waste!

No. 8 "What's Your Favorite?"

I have a really hard time knowing which of my photos other people will love. I'm always surprised at peoples reactions when I show them my photos. They may just glance at my favorite in the pile, and then be crazy about a different one that I didn't even give a second look at. So I decided to try and start a series in which I post some of my favorite photos and attempt to explain in a few words why I like them. So let's start with this this:

WYF #1

I really like this one and I think it's because of Entropy (yes, Entropy). The grasses surrounding the cover are just chaotic and disordered, while the cover itself is the exact opposite. It is a perfect circle and has those nice converging lines. It's going against the universe and has ∆S<0. The image is also simple and the contrast also adds a kind of stark quality to the image that I like.

No. 7 "Peeling? What's Peeling?"

Everyone knows the famous white border around Polaroid photos, but they didn't always look like that. Peel-apart film came before the all-in-one or integral film that is so iconic. Aptly named because you have to peel away the print from the negative. Straight out of the camera you have the print and negative sandwiched around the chemicals. After a specified amount of development time, you peel away the print from the negative. The whole process is much more messy than with integral film because you have exposed chemicals and you have to dispose of the negative.


Using peel-apart film is by no means foolproof. You have to manually pull the film out of the camera and the quality of the print depends on how fast or slow you pull. Then you have to time the development time accurately based on the ambient temperature and the contrast and color tones depend on how long you let it develop before you peel. Plus, on some of the older versions of the black and white film, you had to apply a coating to the prints so that they wouldn't fade. This is why Polaroid invented integral film, because all you truly have to do is point and shoot. The camera and film do the rest for you!