Quite a break. As usual. Between school and work, I have not had a lot of time to shoot just out on my own. Which isnt really an excuse not to take pictures, but its all I could work out of my brain as an excuse.

Since my last post, I have gotten a new cat. On April fools day. I was taking my girlfriends cat home from the animal hospital near her house they had an adoption area set up. I went in and fell in love with a big fur ball kitty. Maine Coon cat to be exact. Hes an amazing cat already. I actually made a ramp for him to get up into my 6ft tall loft bed. Hes using it already. Pure awesomeness.

Other than that, I did get a new camera bag forcing me to carry atleast one camera all the time. On top of that, I also got a new camcorder. Its pretty nice. I will make sure to post some rolls soon.

The results of the cheap plastic wonders turned out great. The paper mask did some really cool things, even things I didnt calculate. Like the fact the lens hole is not properly lined up with where it should be so most of the pictures came out with only 2 paper panes. As seen in my results they are shockingly clear and crisp. Its weird no one wants to buy them from me. Really odd because I have had ads up on craigslist for months and no bites. (Except from some dame who asked me if they were film cameras when it clearly stated in the title... 35mm cameras.)

I will post more pics soon. Here are the ones that came out cool from the Special Moments 650pc.

It was cool how it happened. The lined notebook paper was all I had lying around, since I was modding a camera when I should have been doing homework or sleeping. And it fit the situation fairly good. Some pics the paper didnt even show up with lines and others its now a large part of why that picture is cool. The pictures like the one at the top let me know I was lucky. Because the light level was so low that it didnt even go through plain white lined paper. I cant remember the ISO on this one but I think it was 400.

Have some other ideas with these cameras. Like silhouette images and overhead projector sheets. I will start on them when I find a contact with them. I take the poor route usually. Cheapest way to do things.

Greenhorn Mistakes. I still make them.

The final number of cameras I own, just hit the marker of 40. Currently two "Special moments 35mm" sit in my car same model of the cheap plastic type. One modded with a paper mask the other one just as it is. And it got me thinking. Why the hell dont I carry one every where I go?

Well first off. I dont want to "be that guy." I dont think that I am a fake photographer or anything. I just like being able to take candid pictures. And I do have a fear of that people think im that dude. I feel like I disturb people or bother them. Well, atleast the people I care about. Random folk your at the mercy of my lens.

And I never have gotten over that. Which is sad. Many many times I see people and I go, "That would be a great black and white picture." Or "Wish I had my camera on me so I could zoom in on that..." It happens all the time.

Thinking about finding out when the trains come through here would be a great idea too. And doing a whole roll of film about my normal daily rituals. Or taking 24 exposures from the hip. All pictures laying on the ground. Stuff like that.

Feeling like I make excuses all the time about it doesnt help either. I should always have a camera with me, no matter what.

As stated before I feel like having a big bulky camera around my neck with a huge puffer diffuser and a pretty good length lens, makes me feel like I am doing something wrong. (Or making people feel strange or flat out uncomfortable. Even if Im not taking pictures then.) And it shouldnt. This is possibly the reason why I take so good to plastic toy cameras. They are very disarming. People could care less you have one of them pointed at them, but god forbid you get out a SLR camera, its like they are standing in front of the firing squad or something.

The USSR made Zenit E was the one that opened the door to me. It looks like the K1000, or the Canon AE-1, I believe its called. And I love the look the feel and the weight of it but I dont have a way to carry it around with a strap. It does not have locks for it, or brackets. And thats the camera I would like to have with me at all times. I have the overwhelming sense that it is built the same as a German Tank.*Durable, and reliable. I feel like it is the most reliable. EVEN THOUGH I have the rebel, the Zenit camera I dont feel strange to have out.

Is it because its technically a vintage camera? Its easy to talk to people about. People want to know what it is, or how old it is. The Canon rebel? Unless they know about photography, (granite everyone is into photography, not many into 35mm anyways) they could really care less, because to the unsuspecting passerby, its as distracting and unsettling as a person carrying around a large caliber sniper rifle.

Two things:

When I take pictures of people I know, I want them to be comfortable, but not staged pictures. Candid is the key to getting good pictures I think. My dad taught me that a long time ago before I got into 35mm.

And the other thing is, when you want to take pictures of people you DONT know, you got to be good at taking pictures stealthy. Seen some ways to do it with smaller cameras, but not a large SLR, its just...... not right. (Disclaimer: unless you have a lens the actual length of a sniper rifle. Then you hide in the trees with a gilly suit. Snap away. Beware, kitty cats like trees too.)

Its all about disarming your subject. Pictures with "hostages" is not good, unless thats what you go for. Even though I know this I would love to take heed to my own advice more. Im getting more to the point now where carrying my cell phone (Awful camera on it might I add) and taking pictures is easy. BUT the phone is not SCARY to people. See the problem?

What I figure is, if you have a camera, whatever size shape, color, type, if you have it all the time people around you just dont care anymore. Then that makes it easier for you to take candid pictures albeit without a flash. These people you are in contact with are strangers for a while, like students, then after time they become acquaintances. For the people that see you every day, or scheduled times every week, they dont care after a while. They dont even notice it after a short period.

As for strangers, get a hanky out and shoot when they are not looking. That or carry a plastic Barbie camera until you just flat out dont care about the awkwardness anymore.

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This was all brought about this past week, when my cat of 11 years, Pants, a stray feral cat we acquired and my only real pet I could call my own died. Rather abruptly I may add. And I didnt realize how many pictures I had of him until I went to tell my friends in the internet world who he was and how important he was to me. Sometimes you realize, all you have left of a loved one is saved either in memory or on negative film. There is always a reason to take pictures. And if you dont do it at all then your missing out on what could be some of your most important memories. Memories in your brain or film. Its important to me because I know which one is more reliable. Ill put my money on film.

*noted, I dont compare the Germans to Russians when it comes to reliability. I simply made a reference to both in that paragraph. Both are amazing. Tanks or cameras.*

Holga 135BC - Fujifilm 200 ISO

I finally decided that I wont sell my Russian Zenit E camera. I had a friend of mine come home from being deployed (Yet again, and again...) and he had caught me at work the other day and asked me if I still had it. Kindly I explained to him that it was not a casual 35mm shooter and it would need to be babied. He then turned down his offer. Which I was kind of happy about. That being my first real camera.

On another note, I got a message from the stubborn chinese man behind the ebay account between me and a plastic camera. He said that "The holiday time was crazy, and that the item was shipped." Only took me what, two weeks of messages everyday to get a reply. Nonetheless it is on its way here to my abode.

The Vivitar Ultra Wide and Slim came. New and still in the gift wrapping. Total cost was about $22 dollars and well worth it. I have not loaded it. But Will post some pictures soon with it.

Also been following some ebay auctions recently but I am becoming more fond of the buy it now function. A user posted an ad for a buy it now, Vivitar panoramic camera new, for $2.99 buy it now. I couldnt wait. I watched the numbers of available cameras he had and said, "Screw it, I dont have a panoramic yet..." If it was anymore I probably would have waited, but what can I say?

Testing out the Special Moments 35mm plastic camera still. I hope this thing works long enough for me to get the pictures in the roll developed. I feel really unsafe and uneasy with it. Super light and totally plastic. Does not feel "Solid" in the least bit. Gave a few to friends and family members and will be glad to see if ANY of them actually used it. I even gave film away with it... sigh.

Currently I just got started on flickr. Pretty cool. When I feel like I have established myself on there more I will post links on here to it.

And before I forget the biggest news. Operation "Plastic Ninja." If you do not know what I am referring to I am talking about my recently broken Holga. I am sure I mentioned it on my last blog. The take up spool on my Holga broke, so I went and got a new one, for the fantastic low price of $53.66.

I actually didnt pay that. I take that back. I NEVER would pay that much for a Holga. Operation "Plastic Ninja" was to return the broken one inside the box of the new one. I saved you enough suspense, it worked. And I have to say the new Holga feels beefier and more mechanically sound than that of the broken one I magically swapped. The new one has metal inside of it. METAL! Its like a whole new camera. Well. It is a whole new camera. We will see if it makes a difference and if it lasts through 4 or more rolls. I would put my money that the new one will.

Im $53.66 cents richer, with a new camera, and a feeling of satisfaction. Screw that getting jipped on a camera. No I dont feel bad. Thats what happens when your products are shit and your quality control guys are sleeping on the job.

The picture posted was the last roll to go through the broken Holga.

Christmas

I have lots of new things to blog about, just have not made an attempt to get it on here as of late.

First off. Been ebaying way to damn much. There are 12 step groups and Im bound to search them out at this point. I was really doing good until lately. But ill get to that.

My Holga 135BC take up spool is friggen broken, after only 3 rolls. Im plotting to exchange that this week sometime since Christmas is the time for returns. By the way, Im pissed about it. I was planning on using the thing.

I splurged (Ebay) and went ahead and ordered a Lomo camera really really cheap. It was the actionsampler chrome. Its the one with 4 lenses. Pretty cool got it for $8 bucks. And it came with a lomo book too.

Also searching for trashcams online found a Dollar store camera that is fairly sought after. I went to 3 local place and found one that had some. I bought all of them. All 40 of them. Want one? Email me and ill give you a price.

Ebay again, has found a way to let me know cheap Asian companies make cameras, and I being a collector of sorts think I should buy them. Specifically a 3 lens lomo style camera. I went ahead and got one of those too. Cheap. $4.25 cents to be exact. Problem here is that the seller doesnt speak a lick of english to my knowledge and fails to let me know if the thing is shipped. And hes pissing me off now to the point where I feel like I should have just paid the extra $75 cents for an english speaking ebayer.

And finally. While Christmas shopping I found another camera. The pop cam, its like the 4 lensed actionsampler but its in Andy Warhol-esque color filters. Like a pop painting every shot.

I have lots and lots of new things to do with photography. I also managed to get my kit for my main camera, which is now the Cannon Rebel G. Bought a puffer diffuser for it and a couple of cheap lens filters as insurance. It works awesome. Also been trying to sell my ZENIT E but to no avail. Turns out no one wants Russian cameras! Not even the biggest local camera store in our area.

Things worth about $165 bucks refurbished if you got it from lomos website. I would have sold it for $30 bucks probably two weeks ago. Now I decided im keeping it for better or for worse.

Lastly. I been really really good about finding info wether it be on Flickr or on Google in general. Since I stay away from wikipedia I usually get good info on cameras. The trashcams thing took alot of my time up. So I can learn from modding the lot of 40 cameras I took up. But at the same time I was hounding ebay (I notice how much I say it because spell check hates ebay) for a rare rare rare plastic cam. The Vivtar Ultra Wide camera is the more expensive of the finished non production plastic cams. Quit making them some time ago. But its the brother of the oh, Lomo LCA. 22mm lens takes insane wide shots, blurs, dark corner, everything. Well I got one.

At the time of this post, some of the cameras I won, I am still waiting for replies (from english speaking friends of Hong Kongs ebay sellers) or waiting to just receive them in the mail. I will post pics of the new additions soon.

And Happy Holidays. Get ready to make resolutions. New Years will be here soon.

I know what mine is. "Shoot more 400 ISO and higher film, and only buy black and white."

Purgatory.

As stated before in my previous blog, I had said that eventually I would like to enter the world of Digital Photography. But really not in the sense that most people do.

For the most part, the casual photographer will pick up a rather cheap box digital camera to tinker with. On the other end a serious "Money making" photographer will go out and dish the amount of a pretty nice used car for the next money making camera. I stand right in the middle somewhere.

I want a digital SLR camera that I can adjust the settings on it to take the holga-esque dark edges pictures I like. This is proving harder than originally planned. I did find out that I can adjust the settings enough to start getting this effect on my own with the Canon I do own now. Have I achieved that? Not really.

After a half roll of expired Kodak 400, I did get a few good shots. Along with the other 14 or so that were not mine but the original owners. Strange. Pictures of people I dont know.

Turns out also, that there is no filter made as of this moment that I or anyone at the local camera shops know that just do the masking I want for dark corners. Seems easy enough. I guess its because on that "money maker" end of the spectrum, they pay to just use photoshop. Which is so lame.

Im using a decent 35mm Canon SLR and basically totally relearning how to do these things. On my own may I add. This is why I waited so long to even touch this camera. Its so in depth, so far over my head, that its scary. But not so much now.

Figure that by the time I spend about 20 bucks on film and developing, I should have a firm grip on what I need to do to get the dark corner effects with a Mid Ranged priced SLR camera.

I did order some really cheap lens filters from ebay to screw around with. Got two UV filters for around $4 with free shipping. And Im bidding on a vintage soft filter to take portraits with. Get on ebay or craigslist and save some money. Now, you can modify with custom things to make a cheap UV filter into a artsy point and shoot auto-focusing powerhouse. To an extent.

Looking to get a puffer too so I can get better pictures up close with this built in flash. I wish I could turn it off sometimes.

Moving to more digital is daunting. Its kinda scary at times. But now, I feel like I have no excuses to capture the best pictures I possibly can. The holga being a loose firing cannon is a mulligan machine. You either make great shots or well, you know. They come out burnt.

Awesome still in my book.

By the way. The auto focus is great. My manual focus shots came out good as well. This is all new to me. They recommend using AF, because the brain inside is smart enough to figure all the bugs out on its own. However, to capture what I am looking for which is essentially the problems most people despise in professional photography. Seems I can use either AF or MF to achieve beautiful imperfections.

Dont get me wrong about the huge jump to wanting DSLR. I still like 35mm and always will. Its so warm and analog-y. Its inviting and pleasing to the eye. I dont think I can love digital nearly as much as 35mm. Its kinda just feeling like I need to make the switch because the market is getting better.

"I was thinking Pentax, Kx. Stormtrooper white? Yes. Thank you."

Come to the dark side, we have memory sticks.

Recently. I have not spent a whole lot of time shooting 35mm film. And for that matter, I have not been shooting 120 either. I was kind of stunned after having a person at Walgreens tell me that they can develop 120 medium format film. Only to find out from person #2 at Walgreens, they indeed do not.

Speaking of which. I have a roll of 120 half way shot.

After some surfing on ebay (as usual) I found out that I can get some filters that can emulate the mask in the Holgas. The soft dark edges I am oh so fond of, could easily just be a filter thats slipped on the barrel of a SLR camera.

And with it being now December. I guess I shouldn't torture myself with looking at Digital SLR cameras. The better idea about such a matter would be to search for lightly used camera stuffs and save some money. But then again, this wouldn't even be close to possible until after the holidays.

In turn. Ill be getting out my Cannon Rebel G, the kind of the 35mm flavor to play with until I can figure out some sort of plan to get a Digital SLR. Maybe start a fund? Put some coffee cans with a picture of me on them at the local gas stations? I can see it now.

Regardless, I couldn't afford one now at any rate. With holiday time here you got tons of items and things to buy for family and loved ones. This merchants holiday is specially horrible mainly because every one is guilt tripped into this sort of annual period. I personally hate this time of year. The only good thing that comes out of it is seeing family, watching children open presents, and the skyrocketing suicide rates.

Its just another day of the year. And a good day to take pictures I have to remind myself. Its not all bad.

Filters - first impressions.

Finally. I received my long awaited package from overseas. My lens kit for my Holga came today from Hong Kong. Reminding you that anything from China takes forever to get here to the states. Specially if its free shipping. It took nearly a month to reach my door step. 

As stated before, the kit included 11 filters and a lens filter holder. Out of the 11, one was not in good shape from my ebay seller. I quickly emailed him and stated one was defective. He politely asked me to send a picture and I did within minutes. To make sure it was defective of course. The one that was dead upon shipping was a red soft surround filter. It had two major scratches on it where if I was focused correctly could mess with some exposures. This is what it looked like. Given I had to get the angle right to see it.

I don't think that if I was shooting in a certain distance it would effect my shots much, but given the length of time I had to wait and the hiatus in being excited about getting my cameras out, I felt that saying something to the seller was in order. He quickly emailed me back and gave me a partial refund on my purchase, knocking my cost of the kit down from the original $25 to about $22 dollars. 

Without hesitation. I checked if it had gone into my account and got two lens cap leashes for my other cameras. Which in total were $3 dollars. Instead of $4 dollars a piece. 

This is why when I purchase anything online its good to get something from a seller that has a 99% user rating or higher. The guy was quick to refund me as soon as I gave him proof of the product being screwed up. I also rated him the highest after the transaction as I could. Always always always give positive feedback for people who treat you good. You might have to order things from them again. And they will remember you too by the way.

Enough about the ebay junk right. I was excited about the soft surround filters the most. Not so much the color ones though. Used in the right setting they can make a shot. And I have done the research. I was quick to use the gray soft surround thinking it could do justice to the mask inside my 135BC. 

I was not let down. I used it for a majority of my shots done on this roll. The colors ones I used were eh. The gray was nice though. Very subtle at varied distances. Dramatic in some others. Blurring out everything but the main object in the focal point. I was not too particularly hot on the color ones for the situation I was in. I love low light level shots, only using the sun. I have yet to venture into hotshoe territory. And I was doing shots around dusk. To experiment with the mask and filters.  So the color ones shouldn't really been employed at the setting I was shooting in. I was just anxious to use some of them and to mix it up. 

135 BC with blue soft surround. The distance I was shooting and had it set to made the clear area and the rim of color super dominate. Not like what I was looking to do. 

135BC with gray soft surround. This was what I was aiming for. The rim of the filter is almost non existent. 

135BC with gray soft surround. Same thing. The gray one is easy to see that it doesn't make the edge of the color/clear iris noticeable. This one was more forgiving so to say. But then again I cant really be judgmental about the color ones yet given I didn't give it a proper chance in the right environment. 

Although. All of the shots I took today made the mask inside my camera seem more worthy. The lens filters tend to restrict the amount of light going into the corners and makes the mask in the 135BC stand out. All of them were darker more intense and more artsy. Which is really what anyone would be going for anyways if they decided to get a Holga. Right?

You can view all of the pictures on my personal site at: www.myspace.com/meierphoto

Very excited about this new addition to the simple point and shoot way of taking pictures. Now I got a while before I can say I even know what I'm doing (Other than experimenting) with these filters.