Fun, Remember Fun?

There is no practical need, or a need of any kind, really, for a huge negative such as the massive one I exposed here using the Fujifilm BL690. Six times nine square centimeters of pure goodness. One hundred percent. Seriously, what is the point of such a large negative in today's world? But anyway, practicalities aside, it is just nice to have such a big juicy negative in one's possession. Swimming in detail. Crisp as hell. It is just fun. Remember fun? If not, it comes highly recommended.

Fellow Traveler

This freeloader hitched a ride home with me one afternoon after work. It was a journey of a couple of miles with speeds up to 40 mph. I kept thinking that his grip would break free and he would fly away, but nope. He held on until I got home. I was able to grab an amusing shot on the road when the light turned red. 

Good light and plentiful photographic opportunities to you this weekend, fellow traveler.

Pointless Fun

Do you ever engage in a little pointless fun with your camera? Like shooting the moon... Or perhaps airplanes flying overhead? On clear autumn and winter days especially, when the humidity is low and the skies are clear, I confess that it can be mildly entertaining to photograph airplanes on their final approach into ATL. Just because. The feeling usually passes in the span of a few frames, but it never ceases to amaze me how good our equipment has become. Technically, anyway, it seems like a great time to be a photographer. 

Good light and fun, pointless and otherwise, to you this weekend, fellow traveler.

Is Fun Still Relevant in 2022?

Don't you just love the turn of phrase, "Is X still relevant in 2022"? Like the state-of -the-art computer or lens you bought last year? Anyway, remember fun? No, neither do I. But, digging through my image archives, it looks like there was a lot of it to be had about a decade ago, even while out photographing... Good reminder to myself. I need to start doing more of that again. Shooting for fun. This little iPhone 4 photograph got a whole lot of love on Flickr. Remember Flickr? Ha!

Highly recommended: Fuji Instax SP-3 printer

 

I really don't understand how prices for consumer products are determined, and probably never will. And, frankly, I have enough other things to worry about. I like using my instant cameras, especially the SX-70, don't get me wrong. But the prospect of creating Polaroid like output for images created with any camera is pretty enticing. I remember that when the Fujifilm Instax SP-3 printer first came out, it cost more than $150. That exceeded my threshold for an impulse purchase, so I never picked one up. Well, as of this writing, you can find them for well under $100, so I grabbed one over the weekend. What great fun it is to get a high quality instant print from any photo on your device. The shot of the moon was taken hand held using a MFT camera fitted with an old Nikon 500 mm mirror lens, while the image on the right was taken with a full frame mirrorless camera. I've also printed out scans of my 35 mm and medium format film images. The final print size is just under 2.5 inches (6.2 cm), and is slightly larger than a typical square medium format negative. It would be interesting doing a series of small images this way for a show.