Horn Pond #1

Woburn, MA
See camera (Diana clone)

Disremembering Autumn #2

Morning walk in the local woods.
Modified Agfa Jsoly (Isoly Junior)

Photo A Go-Go

Is "Photo A Go-Go" a great name for a photo show or what?
I'm happy to be invited to this combination photo exhibit/party/auction at the Bakery Photo Collective in Portland, Maine.
The benefit auction and party  is tonight (December 8). I'm hoping someone goes home with my image "Around the Bend".
More information about the Bakery Photo Collective is here.

The Path of Enlightened Uncertainty

Along the route of my morning walk.
Modified Holga 120N.

Robinson's Island Trees #19

Robinson's Island, Prince Edward Island
Ondu 135 panoramic pinhole camera

Lot 14 #3

Lot 14 (Birch Hill), Prince Edward Island
Holga

Vistas Show

 I am happy to report that two of my images, "False Awakening" and "Jump Start Monument Valley", will be in the upcoming "Vistas" show at the Amanda Smith Gallery in Johnson City, Texas. The show runs from November 3 to December 17 and was jurored by Dan Burkholder.
And speaking of jurors, I am even happier to say that "False              Awakening" received the Juror's Award for the show.

"False Awakening" was shot with a modified Ansco Pix Panorama camera (a plastic 35mm camera that I modified by reversing the lens).
"Jump Start, Monument Valley" was shot with a compact digital camera (a Fuji X20).

There are two "openings" for the show on both November 25 and December 16. The gallery is located at 103 North Nugent Ave in Johnson City, TX.
All of the show images can be seen here.

Apex #2

Sea View, Prince Edward Island
Ansco Pix Panorama with a flipped lens

Saint Peter's Harbour #6

Saint Peter's Harbour, Prince Edward Island
Holga in-camera panorama (Holgarama)

Other Worlds Show

My image, "False Awakening", is part of the "Other Worlds" show at the Southeast Center for Photography in Greenville, SC. The show begins with an opening this Friday, October 6, and continues until October 28. Hours for the opening are 6-8pm.
Tom Chambers was the juror for the show.
This image was made with a modified Ansco Pix Panorama plastic 35mm film camera in French River, Prince Edward Island.
Here's a link for all the show images.

Through the Gap

Sea View, Prince Edward Island
Modified Holga

Clothespins #2

Sea View, Prince Edward Island
Holga

Orb #2

Miminegash, Prince Edward Island
Modified Holga

Coastal Erosion

Sea View, Prince Edward Island
Brownie Hawkeye Flash with flipped lens

Thunder Cove, Sunset

Lower Darnley, Prince Edward Island
Modified Holga

Church Steeple and Approaching Storm

Machias, Maine
Modified Agfa Isoly

Jasper Beach #2

It's been awhile.

Machiasport, ME
Holga with flipped and relocated lens

Ami #3

Modified Agfa Click
Expired Verichrome Pan film

Wanderlust Show at Dickerman Prints Gallery

Two of my images are now on display at the Dickerman Prints gallery in San Francisco, CA in the "Wanderlust" show.
Both images are non-plastic camera images made with my pocket digital camera (don't judge me!).
"Parking Lot, Arches National Park was made in Moab, Utah in the parking lot of...well, you guessed it.
"Open" was made through the window of the gift shop in Monument Valley Navajo Tribal Park. I think that this part of the park is actually in Arizona.
If you're in San Francisco, Dickerman Prints is located at 1141 Howard St. Or, you can check out the Dickerman Prints website. The show should be online soon.

Plastic Fantastic Show VIII

I am happy to announce that two of my images will be in the upcoming Plastic Fantastic Show VIII at the LightBox Photographic Gallery in Astoria, Oregon.
The images are (top) "Black Sun, Camel Butte" and "False Awakening" (bottom).
"Black Sun" was taken with a Herbert George Stylex camera in Monument Valley with DandiPan film that expired in 1968. "False Awakening" was made with an Ansco Pix Panorama camera with a flipped lens in Prince Edward Island, Canada.
This is the eighth annual Plastic Fantastic show and the eighth time that I have been fortunate enough to be included among the participants. Susan Burnstine is the juror for this (and every) year's show.
In March, I was lucky enough to visit LightBox Gallery in Astoria. It's such a wonderful gallery in a wonderful town. The show opens on June 10th and runs through July 5th. If you're lucky enough to be in Astoria, please stop by LightBox and have a look for yourself.
Gallery info is here.

Sunrise, Nelson Island

Zero Image 4x5 pinhole camera.
Pinhole and zone plate image of the same scene sandwiched and scanned.
Rollei Infrared film with Kodak 87 filter
Rowley, MA

Wide Awake in Dreamsville Show

Wide Awake in Dreamsville is a revised version of of a group of images that were exhibited in Connecticut a few years ago. Some very new stuff mixed in amongst some older favorites.
So if you happen to be in Dallas now through June 17th, pop in and take a look. All the gallery info is in the above image.

Point Cabrillo #1

Point Cabrillo
Mendocino, CA
Modified Agfa Isoly

Polaroid Week 2017: The Beginning and the End

Someone gave me an unused Polaroid One Step Flash camera about a year ago. I bought a pack of Impossible Project 600 film and shot it last summer when I was in Prince Edward Island. Three bucks a sheet? Seriously?
It took me a few shots before I realized that the brightness setting needed to be set to the brightest setting in order to get a decent exposure.
This concludes Polaroid Week 2017.

Glass Beach

Glass Beach
Fort Bragg, CA
Ansco Pix Panorama with flipped lens

Cape Perpetua #2

Cape Perpetua
(near) Yachats, Oregon
Modified Agfa Isoly

The Sunrise Holga: Problem Solved?

That nebulous form in the photo above is my Holga by Sunrise that has been a cause for much consternation these past few weeks. Underneath all that tape is an actual camera somewhere. Believe me. I was so determined to eliminate every possible cause of light leaks that I taped every seam and opening on this so-called camera. I even taped the viewfinder on both the front and back side of the camera. (That’s not shown in the photo but it does explain that external viewfinder sitting in the camera’s hot shoe). In an act of utter compulsiveness, I even taped around the lens where it meets the camera body. This resulted in a lens that was permanently stuck on infinity focus.

The only possible spot where light could enter the camera was the actual place where light was supposed to enter the camera: through the lens.

I took this device out on a sunny morning and shot a roll of film and everything was perfect!

Ok, I’m lying here. The results were pretty much what I had gotten previously with this camera.

Twelve frames that had a major light leak mostly concentrated on the top of the image (which would be at the bottom of the film in the camera).

So it HAD to be the lens or shutter. I untaped everything. I took off the shutter assembly and removed the lens. And there it was. A tiny sliver of space at the bottom of the shutter where light could pour into the camera. I clicked the shutter a few times. Voila. The shutter was not fully closing after each shot on the “normal” shutter speed setting. So every time I pressed the shutter, lots of light was hitting the bottom of the film before the spring on the shutter created enough tension to move the Holga shutter at a rapid speed (some say 1/100th of a second) by the opening in front of the shutter that allows light to enter the camera. In simple terms, I got a crappy shutter on this Sunrise Holga. The good news is The other Sunrise Holga that I bought does not appear to have this issue (although I have not film tested this camera yet).

The resulting roll of film with light leaking through the shutter.

Funny thing is, if you shoot with the shutter set on “bulb” , the shutter does return to it’s proper position. The problem only happens on the “normal” speed shutter setting. So what’s causing this?

I’m guessing there’s not enough tension on the spring to make the shutter fully snap back into position.

But that’s just conjecture on my part.

I did discover a workaround though that makes this camera completely useable at the normal speed setting. It goes something like this:

1. Hold your hand over the lens in order to block light from entering the camera. Set the shutter on “bulb” and click the shutter. This will make the shutter return to it’s correct position for shooting.

2. Set the shutter speed switch to “normal (or “N”). Take an actual photo.

3. Keep repeating steps 1 and 2 until you’ve shot a roll of film. That’s it.

Of course, if you prefer to shoot with the shutter set to “bulb”, then you don’t have to worry about that whole hand-over-the-lens thing.

The final verdict?

A. I bought two Holgas by Sunrise. One has a bad shutter. I’ll be curious to see how many people buy this camera and have similar problems.

B. The “sunny” and “cloudy” aperture settings are reversed. Both cameras that I bought have this issue and another person who bought this camera has the same issue. (He hasn’t shot a roll of film yet though so I can’t say whether his shutter is good or not).

C. I’m pretty much convinced that there’s a part missing on this camera that should be behind the shutter assembly (see my last post). I made this part out of cardboard and taped it in place so that 

this camera now resembles the innards of previous Holga models. This light baffle seems to reduce the amount of extraneous light hitting the film. There’s lots of shiny bits on the shutter that light can reflect off of and this seems to remove that issue.

That’s it for now. I’m getting back to posting actual photos here for awhile I think. If a purchase of the Holga by Sunrise is in your future, I wish you all the best. And I’m looking forward to reading your blog posts.

The Sunrise Holga: Where Do We Go From Here?

If you haven’t read my first blog post about the “new” Holga 120N camera by Sunrise, you may want to start there. For those of you who have read about my experience with the first few rolls of film put through this camera…read on.

Since the last blog post, I have run two additional rolls of B&W film through through the camera.

For the first roll (and the fourth roll overall shot in the camera), I suspected that light may have been entering the camera through the front part of the Holga, so I taped up the entire area around where the lens is mounted the camera body. I shot this roll of film on a CLOUDY day. A day too dark to shoot with a Holga on the “normal” shutter speed setting really, even with 400 ASA film. And although the shots were almost all somewhat underexposed and the negs rather thin, the problem with unwanted light inside the camera body was much better. There was only evidence of light leaks on the first two frames. OK. Maybe I’m on to something here.

But I’m a guy who likes to shoot on sunny days. Hell, I’m a guy who likes to point his Holga directly at the sun. So the minimal film fogging on cloudy days was not much of a practical solution for me.

So for the fifth roll shot with this camera, I shot a little more than half the roll in overcast (but not too dark) conditions and the remainder of the roll in bright sun. For this roll, I taped up everything I could possibly tape both on the outside and even on the inside of the camera. All the seams, around the metal clasps that hold the back in place, anything I could get to really. 

The results? The images made under cloudy conditions were still fogged, but not too bad. The images made in sunlight were awful. Much the same results as those awful image samples that I posted last time.

So what have I learned upon closer inspection of the new Sunrise Holga?

1. There’s a lot of “space” in this camera in front of the shutter mechanism that did not exist in  previous Holga cameras. The opening in the Sunrise Holga is now one and a quarter inches square.

In previous Holga 120Ns and 120Ss and Wocas the opening is seven eighths of an inch square. How do I know this? I measured. And I have all these other older Holga versions. Although the difference may not sound like a lot, it is a lot when you’re looking at them side by side. The Sunrise Holga also has very shiny metal pieces on the shutter mechanism that would make excellent surfaces for bouncing around all that extra light that’s getting into your camera. So is this the problem? My guess is it’s not THE problem, but a big part of it.

Original Holga 120N shutter area on the left. The Sunrise shutter area on the right.

2.  Bonus feature alert! The sunny and cloudy switch settings are reversed so that the “cloudy” aperture setting actually moves the smaller (sunny) aperture into place. That’s probably something I could live with if the rest of the camera was actually light proof. And it’s sort of humorous, in a Holga kind of way. And I checked the second Sunrise Holga camera that I bought (still untested) and this aperture “feature” is also true with this camera.

2A. Second bonus feature alert! When I removed the lens and the plastic piece to which it’s mounted, I discovered four circular holes (about a quarter inch in diameter) drilled through the front of the camera body for no apparent reason other than to let more light inside the camera. I have no idea why they are even there in the first place, but they have now been taped over.

3. The lip around the camera body which acts as a light baffle for the camera back is slightly shorter than the baffles on earlier Holgas. It’s a pretty minimal difference, but it’s there. So perhaps the light trap that this is supposed to create is less effective than previous Holga versions. I’m not one to tape up cameras. I have four “reliable” Holgas that I use now (two 120S cameras, a Woca and a 120N) and I have never taped any of them other than to cover the red window in the back or to hold the camera back in place so it won’t fall off. I have never had any problems with light leaks on these cameras or on any other Holgas that I have owned. BTW, I have only ever seen comparable light leaks in a plastic camera known as a “Leader”. It’s sort of a Diana clone. Maybe that’s a future blog post.

4. Most of the light leaks/extraneous light issues are happening at the bottom of the camera. There’s a sort of teardrop shaped light strike which is prevalent on many negatives on the top of the image. (See the image at the top of this post). And since the image is reversed top to bottom in the camera, the top of the image would be at the bottom in the camera. There’s also a few arc shaped light leaks which are happening between frames when the film is not being exposed. I’ll refer you back to point number three here. There is also a bonus light leak in the left center of the negative which happens on the vast majority of frames. Perhaps light bouncing off of something shiny in the camera?

So where do we go from here? I’m shooting one more roll with this camera. I am taping everything up well beyond what any rational thinking person might do. I have cut a cardboard insert (and painted it black) that I am placing in front of the shutter area so it will be the same size opening as the opening on previous Holga cameras. I have also taken a sharpie and/or black paint to most of those shiny shutter pieces.

After these latest modifications, I’m going to shoot a roll on a SUNNY day. This camera is dead to me if it won’t function in conditions in which I photograph most of the time. Do I expect big changes? Not really. Who was it who said insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results?

And when I don’t get different results, I’m having a contest. First prize winner gets a lightly used Sunrise Holga.

The Curious Case of the Sunrise Holga

There’s been a bit of a buzz online recently about the reintroduction of the iconic piece of image-making plastic known as the Holga 120N camera. LA-based Freestyle Photo, for one, plans to have the camera available for delivery in a few months time (sometime in June/July).

But here’s the funny thing, you can order this camera right now on eBay. As a matter of fact, it’s been available for order on eBay for a few months now. And as an early adopter, I placed my order in late December 2016 from a Hong Kong seller and received the camera early in January.

The camera is now made by an entity called “Sunrise”. The label on the front of the camera above the lens now says “Holga 120N by Sunrise”. It sure looks like the original Holga 120N. And much like the original Holga, it comes with a couple of masks (for square and rectangular images), a strap and a lens cap that you should immediately throw away (or you’ll forget that it’s still on your camera after you’ve shot a couple of rolls of film). It even comes with a small instruction booklet for those who may just be beginning their Holga adventure.

I wish I could report that the camera actually works like an original Holga 120N. I tested it out by shooting one roll of B&W recently and, much to my surprise, nearly every frame had been struck by light somehow getting into the camera. Hmmm. I wasn’t really sure how this happened, so I persevered and shot another roll. For the most part, the results were identical. Perhaps a couple of good frames and several fogged frames. Ok, I thought. I’ll tape up every seam on the camera body and shoot yet a third roll. No luck. One good frame and eleven light struck frames.

The strange thing is the fogged frames don’t look like typical Holga light leaks where light gets in through the back of the camera and an imprint from the film paper backing shows up on your negative. This looks like the light is somehow entering the camera through the front, perhaps even through the lens/shutter area(?). I did watch the shutter fire several times and it seems to be working normally. I removed the back and placed the camera on a light table. I shut the room lights off and fired the shutter multiple times and, perhaps it’s my imagination, but it did look like the may have been some extraneous light bouncing around inside the body. There is a small gap around the end of the factory supplied mask and it looks like there’s a bit of light entering through there. So I’ll most likely tape this up and try another (the fourth) roll.

I’m posting some results here so you can see some of the strangeness happening with this particular camera. I’m really hoping that I got a “bad” one. Being the glutton for plastic camera punishment that I am, of course, I immediately bought another one. I’m hoping to shoot a roll with this “new” camera in the next week or so.

The photos:

This one is perhaps the most "normal" of any of the 36 images made with the three rolls of film I shot with this camera. No technical difficulties here, just that usual Holga look.

Here, the image is visible for the most part but there are major light leaks on top and on the left. And I'm not totally sure what's happening with those sun like orbs of light near the top left center of the frame.
I do sort of like this defective image, however.

These four images are typical of the majority of the frames on the three rolls of film. Thirty one of the thirty six frames looked pretty much like these.
The light leaks on the top and left are pretty dominant and there's even a hint of light striking the film on the right on one of them.
I guess I was shooting trees that day.

In the meantime, color me skeptical regarding the new Sunrise Holga 120N. And if anyone out there has bought one, I’d love to hear from you.
In the meantime, I'm off to shoot a couple more rolls of film.

Windy Point

Near Brookings, Oregon
Modified Agfa Isoly camera

2017 Krappy Kamera Show

I am happy to say that my image, "Albuquerque #2", will be a part of this year's Krappy Kamera show at the Soho Photo Gallery in New York City. The juror for this year's show was photographer and Shots Magazine publisher Russell Joslin.
The show will run from March 8 through April 1 with an opening on March 7 from 6-8 p.m.
This image was made in, you guessed it, Albuquerque, New Mexico with a Holga camera.
It's always a great display of images created with "alternative" cameras, so if you're in NYC during the show, please check it out.

RayKo 10th Annual Juried International Plastic Camera Show

It's that time of year again for my favorite plastic camera show, the 10th Annual Juried International Plastic Camera Show at the RayKo Gallery in San Francisco, CA.
I am fortunate to have three images in this year's show: "Antelope Canyon", South Granville, Prince Edward Island" and "Black Sun, Camel Butte".
The show will run from March 1 through April 23. The always fabulous opening will happen on March 1 from 6-8pm.
Ann Jastrab was the juror for this (and every year's) show.
If all goes well, I'll be in attendance at the opening. Please say hi if you're there.

Walking Along the Edges

As an inveterate tinkerer of all things photographic, I have added, swapped, moved and deleted more than a few images on my website and I have unearthed yet another series of images that I am calling "Walking Along the Edges".
You can have a look here.
Like most "series" of images that I have (mostly unknowingly) created,
there will surely be changes afoot in the near future.
Probably even tomorrow.

Castle Hill Trees #3

Ipswich, MA
Kodak Brownie Hawkeye Flash with flipped lens
Expired Kodak Verichrome Pan film

Mysterious Figures #3

Ipswich, MA
Kodak Brownie Hawkeye Flash with flipped lens
Expired Kodak Verichrome Pan film

Off Season #23

Ipswich, MA
Holga

The Speed of Light #4

Ipswich, MA
Modified Agfa Isoly

If I Should Vanish

If I should vanish
If I were gone
The waves would roll on
The waves would roll on

-Don McGlashan, "The Waves Would Roll On"

Lower Darnley, Prince Edward Island
Holga

Off Season #19

This was shot with the new (but definitely not improved) Holga camera made in China by an entity known as "Sunrise". This was the first frame on the roll and the only frame that did not have crazy light leaks or very strange shutter issues.
I suspect the back may not have been completely secure, so for the interim, I'm blaming myself. I'm developing another roll shot with this very camera soon, so I'll find out more in the next few days. Or not. Ah, plastic cameras...