Ready to Set Sail & Instant Photography...

Some of you have known that recently I have been on an Analog kick.  Pen & Ink, Books, Paper Day Timers, things that require some effort to obtain a physical result.  This also migrated to photography.

I still love technology and all it's wonders.  Just that it's time to take a step back and get some human satisfaction.

Polaroids or better known today as Instant Photography.

What is it with this Polaroid kick?
Is it coming full circle - considering my 1st camera was a Polaroid Super Colorpack Land Camera?
Perhaps.

The attraction to the Polaroid is something I have come to discover that other people shooting Polaroids are experiencing.  JOY.

The day that the photo above was shot, a group of Japanese tourists were watching in amazement of the old Polaroid 110a (Pathfinder) camera and the Polaroid 195 I was using.  Not long after that, a man just came up to me and we had a nice conversation about Polaroid and photography.

Before all those encounters as I traveled down the street to take a test shot of some bricks, a couple of young ladies stopped and starred at amazement of what I was doing and thought what came out of that box was just really cool.

Camera geek moment here...
I have gotten all tied up with megapixels, sharpness of images, bokeh (the out of focus stuff in the background), nose control, matrix metering, etc... that I've forgotten what I wanted from all this.  A bit of art and a bit of journalism and get some sense of satisfaction and joy out of life.

Looking at books on photography lately, looking at the work of Alfred Eisenstadt, Vivian Maier, Robert Frank,  Cartier Bresson, etc.... I realized I'm forgetting what this is all about.  Expression.  Communication. Art.  Simply put.... PHOTOGRAPHY.

So why Polaroid.  Why not just shoot my SLR's and film.
Polaroids look like Polaroids.  Perhaps not the best in technical terms but it's the closet I can get to capturing a "true" image.

Another Geek Moment...
35mm film.  Shoot it.  Take it to get processed (I'm too lazy to build a dark room), Print or Scan it.

My problem is this.  The 35mm negative.  The image from my eyes to camera lens to film is 35mm straight from the camera.  That means if I want a hard copy of exactly what I shot.  It's 35mm.  Great for slides.... not so great for prints because in order to get a sized print... I have to use an enlarger to TRANSFER that image to paper.

A Polaroid.  It's about 4" x 3".  No enlarging.  Take what the film gives me and that's it.  I have in my hands a true captured image.  Unaltered.

That is the reward and why I'm going to spend time on this form of photography.  To see what I can get out of it.

So with all this said.... it's time to set sail to discover.