As somebody who hates flash^*, this is a subject near to my heart. Harry Benson, known among other things for his photos in the immediate aftermath of Robert Kennedy’s assassination, offers tips on using natural light in dimly lit environments. It’s mostly common sense. Shoot in aperture priority mode, use a fast (insanely fast, in the case of his 50mm 1.2 prime) lens, utilize the light that’s available to the best possible effect and, perhaps most importantly, don’t be afraid. Still a good read. Two things he doesn’t mention; things that are equally obvious; Use image stabilization if you have it and the single most important tip: use a tripod if it’s even a little bit viable.

(New York Times)

The Impossible Project had 31.536.000 seconds to re-invent Instant Photography. Big countdown. Big announcement imminent. Then, nothing. Reports are  in that the new instant film may never see the light of day. What’s the holdup? Nobody knows, but the news doesn’t sound good. The project “encountered an unexpected problem with one of the components vital for production,” says a spokeswoman. “This undesirable fact is now engaging all of the Impossible team’s attention and is forcing a rescheduling of the project’s timetable. As such, the NYC press event on 22nd February has to be postponed.” That would make the timing of Polaroid’s announcement of a new line of instant cameras rather unfortunate.^*

^*: It’s worth noting that Polaroid isn’t really Polaroid any more. Polaroid went bankrupt in 2001 and its assets were liquidated. A bank bought them and created a new corporation to exploit the name and technology. This group licensed its name to everything it could extract a dime for, stopped making film and cameras and went bankrupt in 2008 after its parent company turned out to be a four billion dollar ponzi scheme. The Polaroid assets, including its fine art photography collection, were auctioned off to some company nobody’s ever heard of for two pittances and a goat. This company, PLR IP Holdings, intends to recoup its investments by auctioning off the right to use the name Polaroid to different companies for different applications, including gaming peripherals and USB speakers. The right to slap a Polaroid logo on instant cameras went to the Summit Global Group, and they’re the people who thought it would be a good idea to create a new instant Polaroid camera that would use the Impossible Project’s possibly impossible instant film.

I have a nice Nikon Digital SLR and it has a lot of buttons, lots and lots of buttons combined with so many menu settings that I am still finding new options. This camera takes an amazing technically stunning photograph. There are two questions that I ponder on. Do I take a stunning photograph? Is that particular photograph improved with all the technological wonders of my digital camera?

Perusing the amazing Project Gutenberg, I stumbled across a motherload of vintage photography ads. From the No. 1 Autographic Kodak special pictured aside to the photo oil colors I’ve mentioned before, this is a real treasure chest of nostalgia.

A lot has changed in the last 90-odd years. f4.0 was considered fast back then, for one, and “practically free of double image” was considered high praise for a lens. Most of these ads are for products produced by boutique manufacturers long since forgotten: Ica-Contessa, Willoughby’s (the world’s largest camera supply house), Wollensack, Glundlach, and more. They’re all here.

Click on the image to launch the vintage photography ad slideshow.

A hundred years ago, the first infrared photo was published in the Journal of the Royal Photographic Society. To say that the world hasn’t been the same since is a bit of an exaggeration, but it’s certainly looked a bit trippier since.  Like so many things,  once the purvey of the rich and dedicated, IR photography is almost trivial now. Your camera sensor is already sensetive to IR light, if less so than visible light. So all you have to do to take an infrared shot is filter out the actual, visible colors. I guess it goes without saying that there are filters for that. Once you filter out the visible spectrum and you dial up (way up) the exposure time, what you get is a glimpse into a world that looks almost, but not quite, just like our own world.

Even if you don’t have a camera that takes filters, you can play around with IR photography yourself. All it takes is about four layers of Congo Blue and 30 seconds or so of exposure in full daylight. And a tripod. Trial and error may be involved.

(Photo via Wikipedia)

Full disclosure: I’m not a professional photographer either. However, I’m also not an idiot. My friend Blake (who is – a professional photographer, not an idiot) and I paid a visit to a local military monument Saturday; a beautiful aircraft carrier that now serves as a museum, oozing history and character. We were both having a huge photog geekout, pointing out interesting subjects and angles and fussing over ISO settings and aperture. These excursions aren’t just interesting because of the pretty things they offer as photographic fodder, they also provide an opportunity to become more familiar and comfortable with your gear. We both ended up snapping on macro lenses and taking pictures of rivets and latches and gun barrels. The lighting wasn’t great below deck, but neither of us were about to bolt on a flash. Blake has a d300 and the sensor and that thing will go down to 1600 ISO without a hitch – bit of grain, sure, but not even that much. I was shooting with a fairly new and very fast Sigma prime, so my relatively crappy sensor didn’t matter too much.

Years ago when I was shooting as a commercial photographer in Sydney I did a lot of architectural photography. I was hired mainly because of my specialty with low light and available lighting. I loved shooting the visions of architects and interior designers, but most of all I loved the heritage listed and older buildings around Sydney.

My particular obsession was with art deco and gothic theaters. At that time most of them had been torn down or abandoned, the few that remained were so beautiful and many of them had been restored to original specifications.

There is a theater in Cremorne called “The Orpheum”, an art deco theater built in 1935 and fully restored in 1987, reopening in December that year. I used to see any movie that was showing just to experience being there. In the main theater they had an organ that would rise from the ground and would be played before the movie started. Now this was cool as most theaters you are bombarded with Coke ads, boring and I don’t like the taste of the stuff.

Holgas are known for their optical shortcomings and the interesting effects those shortcomings produce; Light leaks, plastic lenses, shutters that can only be called such by the greatest possible stretch of the imagination – all part of the Holga experience. This though – this takes the cake. The Holga stereo pinhole camera omits the lens(es) entirely, opting instead for a teeny tiny aperture (f 80 or so, if memory serves). I’m thinking a tripod is pretty much a must for this. I’m also thinking the trademark holga imprecision may work against this fascinating little machine. Light leaks may lead to interesting effects, but in 3D photography you really can’t have inconsistencies between the two images. Still, it’s a fascinating idea, executed in typically minimalist style, and I’m aching to get my hands on one.

(Holga 120PC-3D Stereo Pinhole Camera)

The Guardian, that stalwart bastion of not being the Times, together with iStockphoto, bastion of not being fotolia, is holding a photography competition. The theme: the British Zeitgeist. I’m not entirely sure if the irony there is on purpose or not. First of all, the zeitgeist in Britain is apparently that only terrorists take pictures. Also, zeitgeist is. . .erm. . .not a British word.

Snark aside; the prizes ain’t great – in fact, they won’t even buy you a decent camera, but the terms are fair; you keep the rights to your pics. My assumption would have been that iStock would get to license them inb seven sizes starting at a dollar each.

(Britain iS)

That follow focus hack form last week? I got that. I mocked it, but I got it. This though – words fail me. It would appear that the inventor used a hand drill to make this thing. I’ve always loved the spirit of invention that permeates photography. People make diffusers out of milk packs, barn doors out of cardboard, monopods out of string. Some of these hacks have been so elegant that they’ve become viable commercial products. Somehow I don’t think that the hand drill focus crank will be joining those hallowed ranks any time soon.

(Focus Drill)