When Edwin Land created instant film, I doubt he could have known how much people would come to love it. For 60 years after its inception, it was wildly successful, despite its often expensive cost. From the housewife to the professional, everyone made a little room for Polaroid in their lives.

When the company announced its impending shut down in 2008, there was a universal cry that went out across the internet. Even those of us who use Fuji pack film were distraught because there are some things that it just doesn’t do as well as the original Polaroid film. As of the end of 2010 even Fuji’s 100b instant B/W film has been discontinued.

As a result of the Polaroid Instant Film shut down, some companies put their remaining stock on clearance, and others raised prices to just south of insanity. Nevertheless, the converts of the instant film cult made a rush to bolster their stocks before it was gone forever. Now, with The Impossible Project in full swing, there is a glimmer of hope for those of us who still cling to our intregal film cameras. However, even with this silver lining, the end of an era is drawing nigh as digital photography continues its march towards the future. In the world of instant films, the heyday is long since passed, and things will never be the same. Its final glimmer of existence is nigh and we will be alive to witness its journey into that long goodnight.

I have oft relived the memories of moments shared by my family, long before I was born, through the Polaroid shots that remain. Even at 32 years old, I have a box of Polaroids of myself when I was young. Unlike digital, Polaroid has a “real” aspect to it. It’s tangible, it can’t be backed up in its original form and always unmarred by photo retouching software. It simply is what it is. The image came into existence the moment it was captured; each shot is a little slice of what life once was.

The Reasoning Behind the Project

Earlier this year, I learned that there was a chance that I had testicular cancer. Even though I knew that cure rates were high, there is nothing in life more sobering than the knowledge that something might be killing you from the inside out. As I went through the medical tests to determine if that was the case, I decided to write a list of 100 Things To Do Before I Die. I made the promise that if I got out of the predicament unscathed, I would try my best to complete as many items on the list as possible. Several of the items are Photography related … #11 is taking a photo trip around America. (if you would like to read the entire list, it can be viewed here, feel free: http://docs.google.com/Doc…)

As you might have guessed, I was given a clean bill of health. Now, with the Instant America Project, I hope to accomplish one or more of those goals in life, as well as attempt to capture tiny moments of America in glorious Polaroid/Fuji images. Each image will be geotagged the old fashioned way … with an archival grade pen. The resulting images will be scanned digitally each day and a select few will be uploaded to the Instant America Project’s website. Upon my return home, some will be framed, some professionally reprinted, and those destined for pledgers will be shipped out. The remaining original images will be signed and placed into longterm storage to protect them for future generations. After this is completed, a website will be set up to display all the images, and a book will be designed and assembled. The book will be shopped to publishers, and if it is not chosen for publication, the book will be self-published through Blurb (or comparable POD book company). A gallery showing may eventually become a reality as well. Permanent donation of the collection to a museum will occur within 5 years of completion. All updates will be posted to the Instant America Project’s website as they occur.

How It Works

Pledged funds will be partly used to purchase the pack film needed for the project, due to the cost of Polaroid branded film I will be primarily be using Fuji packfilms 3000B, 100C & 100B. Polaroid 600 compatible artistic film will come from The Impossible Project. Original Polaroid 600 film will come from my own stash and purchased, where found, along the way. Initial computations estimate a minimum of 550 exposures.

Remaining funds will pay for gas, the occasional hotel stay (I plan on camping some to increase funds available for the actual project and to get that great morning light) and food. The goal is to travel through at least 11 states in 12 days. The tentative track includes a loop that begins in Kentucky, goes through Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, Nebraska, Colorado, New Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Tennessee, and ending in Kentucky. A 3100 mile trip through America’s Heartland, the Rockies, the High Plains, the Desert, the Breadbasket, and the renowned Red Dirt roads of Oklahoma. The entire project will be completed by the beginning of Summer 2011.

Cameras

During the course of the project I will be using my own Polaroid cameras. They include a Land Camera Automatic 350, Land Camera Automatic 450, Land Camera Automatic 250, Polaroid Spirit 600, SX-70 and One Step 600. Pack film cameras have been converted to use modern lithium batteries and view finders have been enlarged. An additional Land Camera Automatic 250 is currently in the process of being converted to a fully manual 127mm pack film camera. If I locate the needed 5″ 127mm shutter in time this will also be a camera that is used in the project.

Also, regardless of the book publishing, 5% of any and all personal proceeds garnered from future endeavors related to this project will be donated to The American Child Photographers Charity Guild (http://www.acpcg.org/). The ACPCG, is a worthy non-profit organization devoted to taking portraits of terminal children and children in crisis for families in need. An emotional difficult job, but a worthy one indeed.

I am a voyeur. A peeping tom.
I see in the dark and I reign in the light.
I view the things that are, and imagine those that cannot be.
I look and I truly see.

I wear the hats of many.
I am a climber, a diver, a driver, a miner.
A mother, a father, a son, and a daughter.
An artist.

I sail the seven seas.
I walk across deserts and brave the arctic breeze.
I march through jungles. I trek airy peaks.
Just to try and look and see.

I contort, I wedge, I bend, I pose.
I crawl through sand, dirt, fire, the snows.
I shoot the mountains large, the smallest of rose.
I frequent the places where no one else will go.

Famine, fires, floods, wars, earthquakes.
Their prints sit beside those of pristine lakes.
The lens unflinching at the horror, the horror.
It is only there to look and see.

I chronicle our time, the history of earth and man.
I record my life in portions of seconds.
Till that final shutter closes.
My images will remain when I am gone.
Reminding others that I was here.
That I was unafraid to look and see.
I was a photographer.

A few months after my order with Mpix I was in need of some more prints. Having just purchased some gear from Adorama, they had hit up my Inbox with an email detailing their print service. I ended up ordering several prints on their True B/W Paper (Ilford) and Metallic paper (Kodak). All I can say is WOW. The prints were excellent, richly colored and the paper just felt better in the hands. Having a background as an Art Director in Graphic Design, I know paper quality when I feel it. No need for a caliper here! Overall, the only Con I have for AdoramaPix is their sizes in True B/W Matte paper are a little too limited in my opinion. I’d like to see a solid 11″ x 14″ and maybe even a 16″ x 20″.

My prints arrived via USPS (although faster methods are available) in seriously sturdy packaging. In fact, I often deliver my prints to buyers in this packaging (always be sure to recycle them once you’ve worn them out!). Each print job was individually wrapped and back boarded. Larger prints include corner protection “bumpers” to eliminate crushed corners.
Overall, packaging from AdoramaPix get a 5 out of 5. The boxes get a 6 out of 5, 1 extra for being able to reuse them.

Other than the one small issue of True B/W Matte print sizes, I have had no serious issues with AdoramaPix. If you DO need larger True B/W Matte prints, drop AdoramaPix a note asking them to carry bigger sizes, until then you’re stuck with going elsewhere. All in all, I HIGHLY recommend you try out AdormamPix. I use them as my primary source for prints and Im sure you’ll be happy with your results as well.

UPDATE: I’m getting some increased web traffic after being mentioned on AdoramaPix.com’s blog. I just thought I would update this review with my most recent dealings with AdoramaPix.com. Three weeks ago I placed an order which included a 20″ x 30″ print on Kodak Lustre paper.

In all honesty, this print was a bilateral test. One, I wanted to test just how far I could push some of my earlier, lower megapixel/resolution, shots. Two, I wanted to see the 20″ x 30″ quality from AdoramaPix prior to offering the option for a project that I hope will turn into some name recognition within my home state. When I received my order it was perfect, as usual, however the 20″ x 30″ print had been creased during shipping.

I was literally on my way out the door for a shoot in a neighboring state when I dropped AdoramaPix a quick email detailing what had happened. BEFORE I GOT OUT TO MY SUV, I had a response from AdoramaPix telling me they would reprint the image and ship it out, Rush Order, at no charge. By that evening I had a shipping notice and the print was sitting on my porch when I returned home.

I can’t begin to explain how impressed I have been with AdoramaPix. From quality prints, excellent color correction (by request), top notch paper (the Kodak Metallic is simply breathtaking), and now super customer service. AdoramaPix is an excellent choice for all those needing prints, from a mom needing prints for Grandma, to the casual photographer, and to the dedicated professional. Nothing from my original review has changed and I continue to highly recommend AdoramaPix.com for all your photographic printing needs, as well as Adorama.com for everything else. Cheers!

Occasionally, however, photography can land you in a spot where you have reached an apex. A point in time and space where the cosmos/nature are prepared to give you a rare Jackpot payout. To send a message, as if to say, “We’re watching you, keep up the good work.” For me, this happened yesterday.

After driving through No Where, South Eastern Kentucky for over an hour we arrived at the top of a small mountain. 2200 feet in elevation. Small by Rockies’ standards, but approaching the top of the world in this area of the country. Last time we were here we got to see the elusive elk that meander around these parts. This time there were no elk, but the wild horses that roam the area were hanging out for a mid-morning snack. We snuck around leaving quite a distance so as not to spook them.

After a few minutes the “Alpha” male amongst them began to make his way towards us. His actions weren’t hostile so we stayed put. He came up to my friend first, putting his nose into the hood of my friends 400mm Canon lens. The horse noticed me taking a few shots of him and my friend, and came over to me. Highlight of my day. Petting him for those few moments, I felt connected to something WAY bigger than me. Miles from civilization, in the wild, 2200 feet up, 360 degrees views, super cold, and windy. Just us and our new friend. Don’t worry nature … I got the message, loud and clear.

Photo by Daniel Boggs

http://peterphun.com/blog/2009/05/01/top-10-mistakes-of-beginning-photographers/

The only one I would add to the list is not learning off camera lighting. Even if it is just using reflectors and available light, off camera lighting is very important, especially if you plan on doing portraits. Enjoy the post, it really is top notch!

While there are no direct upload vectors for Lightroom to iPhone there is a way to work around this deficit and get your best images into the iPhone. Note: I am a Mac user, so the instructions I am giving here pertain to Mac OSX, however they should be easily ported to the PC platform.

1. Locate your Pictures folder. On the Mac this is usually found under your Username. Create a Folder named “iPhone LR Upload.”

2. Go into Lightroom and Export the images you would like on the iPhone into the folder you just created. They should be in JPEG format, and I usually reduce the Quality to ~80 to save a little space.

3. The Lightroom Export will convert all your chosen images to jpg files and save them to the folder.

4. Next, in iTunes, under the iPhone synch options find the tab labeled “Photos”

5. Under the tab you will see a check box labeled “Sync Photos from:” with a drop down menu next to it. Open that drop down and chose “From Folder.” This brings up a Finder window.

6. In the Finder window navigate to your “iPhone LR Upload” folder and click “OK”

7. Make sure the “All Photos” option is checked under the “Photos” tab and proceed to Sync your iPhone.

After this, your Lightroom images will show up in a Folder called “Photo Library” under the “Photos” icon on the iPhone.

Enjoy!

At first look, the book is very well made and put together. The basic print paper is a good weight and took the ink well. The color images were dead on. The glossy cover looks good and the paperback cover is stout. The binding is tight giving the book a good strong spine.

The cons was I found my RGB B/W images had a light green cast to it, but Im sure that is an issue of Lightroom/Photoshop/Me than it is Blurb. Shippping was a tad bit high in my opinion, but if you look you can usually find free shipping coupons on the web. Another Con is their Booksmart software. I found it usable yet dismal at the same time. If you’re very creative I highly recommend downloading some templates from The Art of Engineering blog. She has released them in both TIFF and InDesign file formats. These templates allow for custom layouts so you don’t have to use Blurb’s preset layout defaults. I used these templates for [ In Situ ] and loved them. Very well done.

While I may chose to publish a traditional book via a normal publisher at some time in the future, I find the positive aspects of self-publishing via Blurb too good to pass up.

If you still think these types of shots take tons of wallet draining gear, hit the Jump and think again.

As you can see this is a shot of what I threw together to get the shot at left. I have better gear, as well as a more suitable area for this type of photograph, but I wanted to show that it’s easy to get quality shots with minimum gear.

The setup, which was in the floor next to a bed, is 2 basic off-camera strobes triggered with hotshoe optical triggers. Both strobes/flashes are diffused with simple typing paper. The background is black foam core with a piece of plate glass to provide the glossy under-reflection. Shot with a Nikon D80 w/ 50mm f/1,8D lens. Shutter is set to flash sync speed of 1/200th second, and f/stop is set to 8 to control the amount of light reaching the sensor. Remember when using a flash, it is aperture, not shutter speed, that controls the exposure. So what about cost? Below is a quick rundown …

• Vivitar 5250 = ~$15-25 or less
• Vivitar 5600 = ~$10-15 or less
• 2 x Black Matte Foamcore = $7
• 2 x sheets of typing paper = Free
• 1 x 16″x20″ plate glass = Borrowed from a picture frame
• 2 x Wein Optical Triggers = ~25-35 each

So for less than 100 bucks you can be set to do this kind of photography. Sure, you could spend upwards of 1000.00 on this exact same setup by switching the old Vivitar strobes for brand new ones from Nikon or Canon. Upgrading the foamcore to seamless paper or cloth. Shoot through umbrellas, light stands, and all the other little things photogs have. But I can promise you that the outcome will be so close that you might not be able to see the difference. So get out there and try this technique. Its great for smaller things where you want to capture alot of detail. Flowers are excellent, small antiques, eBay auctions, as well as any type of creative still-life shots. But, don’t stop there, you can use the flashes as off camera lighting for portraits or any other shot to get all kinds of professional looking effects.

(Pics Link to the Full Sized Images on Flickr)

ThreeFive Photography’s Guide to Shooting in Remote Locations Rev 1.1