Monthly Shooting Assignment - Jan/Feb 2014 - Cheap camera challenge!

[adelorenzo]

Great stuff Stone and first out of the gate as always. I'm blown away by the images from an old folder lens. Now I really want to get a roll of 127 to try out my old Kodak folder.

I'm pretty stoked by some of the ideas and cameras that people are going to use. Really look forward to seeing the pictures.

Like I said I'm not going to be really fussy about what constitutes cheap. If your beater camera is a Leica or you picked up a Hasselblad at the thrift store then by all means go for it but hopefully people can find some ways to challenge themselves to do more with less. If all you shoot is Portra maybe try some drugstore film or something. I'll really leave it as wide open as possible, mostly I just want to see people have fun and be creative.

Stories and pictures about the camera itself to go along with your entry would be awesome.

 

[NedL]

I'm not sure which camera I'll use to make a submission, but maybe I'll upload some pictures of cameras over the next couple months. I guess about 1/2 of the photographs I make are pinhole or paper negatives or from homemade cameras -- and all combinations of those! To me it's almost a separate hobby from making photos with a film camera and printing them under an enlarger. Both are for fun, but there is something more lighthearted and playful about leaving the house with a coffee can pinhole camera compared to going out with the nikon F3. A different frame of mind!

 

[TheToadMen]

Hi NedL,
Go for the homemade pinhole camera wit paper negatives in this MSA and save the F3 for the next MSA.
I'll do the same.
Let's play!
Bert from Holland

I'm not sure which camera I'll use to make a submission, but maybe I'll upload some pictures of cameras over the next couple months. I guess about 1/2 of the photographs I make are pinhole or paper negatives or from homemade cameras -- and all combinations of those! To me it's almost a separate hobby from making photos with a film camera and printing them under an enlarger. Both are for fun, but there is something more lighthearted and playful about leaving the house with a coffee can pinhole camera compared to going out with the nikon F3. A different frame of mind!

 

[ckagy]

I may try to join in on this one. My mom gave me her old Ansco Sureshot over christmas. Hard to think of a simpler camera than that. Aught to be fun to see what can come out of it!

 

[Pelo78]

First post in this tread!

It happened that just a couple of weeks ago I shot this:



Sheet of sun print paper (cyanotype paper) in a recycled USPS cardboard box using a magnifier I found laying around in my apartment as the taking lens. Just 1 hour of exposure time!

Image intensified with hydrogen peroxide

It doesn't get much cheaper than this!

Technically this is a negative but, since the sky is burned in blue, the image works nicely this way!

 

[StoneNYC]

First post in this tread!

It happened that just a couple of weeks ago I shot this:

View attachment 79781

Sheet of sun print paper (cyanotype paper) in a recycled USPS cardboard box using a magnifier I found laying around in my apartment as the taking lens. Just 1 hour of exposure time!

Image intensified with hydrogen peroxide

It doesn't get much cheaper than this!

Technically this is a negative but, since the sky is burned in blue, the image works nicely this way!

Cool image, though the point of the MSA is to shoot something new, not post your past work.

I'm totally unclear of how this image came into being but you obviously know more about chemistry than I do.

 

[Bertus]

Tin-plate Cheap camera

Tin-plate Cheap Camera Tahbes 1947. Gift. Handling: remove dust and still working! (Ilford FP4)

 

[TheToadMen]

Going dutch on three accounts:
- camera made in Holland
- image made in Holland (Erasmus Bridge in Rotterdam?)
- cheap as well.

Fits right into this MSA

Tin-plate Cheap Camera Tahbes 1947. Gift. Handling: remove dust and still working! (Ilford FP4)

 

[StoneNYC]

Tin-plate Cheap Camera Tahbes 1947. Gift. Handling: remove dust and still working! (Ilford FP4)

Reminds me to shoot an old broken baldinette for fun before I get rid of it

 

[Thomas Bertilsson]

I've got a not so old Minolta point & shoot camera that I can employ for this little exercise, and there should be some VERY outdated and expired C41 color film in the shelves somewhere. Loading up.

 

[NedL]

First post in this tread!....

Wow, cardboard box, magnifying glass and sunprint paper... resulting in a photograph! I like it.

 

[Paul Glover]

I might have a crack at this, just loaded some HP5+ into my mid-1920s Ansco Goodwin #2 (which has a bunch of black electrical tape to help with light sealing and securing the back onto it!)

 

[TheToadMen]

Hi Pelo,
Fox Talbot and John Herschel will be proud of you!!
Very nice image: the negative looks very positive to me.
And no one will notice if they've never done cyanotype ...
Bert from Holland

First post in this tread! It happened that just a couple of weeks ago I shot this:
View attachment 79781
Sheet of sun print paper (cyanotype paper) in a recycled USPS cardboard box using a magnifier I found laying around in my apartment as the taking lens. Just 1 hour of exposure time!
Image intensified with hydrogen peroxide
It doesn't get much cheaper than this!
Technically this is a negative but, since the sky is burned in blue, the image works nicely this way!

 

[VaryaV]

Yay! IP polaroid film just arrived. Going to have some fun now!

 

[adelorenzo]

Everything so far is AWESOME.

Stone got us out of the gate with large format images shot with an old folder lens.
Pelo, an in-camera cyanotype with a homemade camera? Love it.
Bertus that's a great image and a very cool camera.

To keep things rolling while we wait for more entries here are a few shots of my own from the summer. Taken with a Konica A4 compact ($3 at the thrift store), shot on Kodak Gold 200 purchased and processed at Wal-mart.


Hiking in the White Pass by Dead Link Removed, on Flickr


Starbuck on a hike to Devil's Punchbowl by Dead Link Removed, on Flickr


Dewey Creek near Skagway, Alaska by Dead Link Removed, on Flickr



Paul hiking down to an alpine lake by Dead Link Removed, on Flickr


Packrafting the upper Wheaton River by Dead Link Removed, on Flickr


Carbon Hill by Dead Link Removed, on Flickr

 

[MattKing]

Anthony:

Just one point.

Although I don't think the rules say anything about this ......

While your shots look absolutely fantastic, I think it would be frowned upon if you picked your own

 

[adelorenzo]

Rest assured those images are not entries into the challenge being a) my own shots and b) not taken during the time period. I'm just trying to keep the enthusiasm going while we wait for more entries.

 

[NedL]

Anthony, you sure do live in a beautiful place. I'll get some pictures of my cameras up here soon.

Right now I'm waiting for some potassium bromide to arrive in the mail, supposedly on Saturday, and then I'm going to try to make my first ever calotype. That's got all my attention right now, I'm really excited to try it. Still need to find the right size glass tray and a bottle for the sensitizer but getting close!

 

[MattKing]

Rest assured those images are not entries into the challenge being a) my own shots and b) not taken during the time period. I'm just trying to keep the enthusiasm going while we wait for more entries.

I don't think that my tongue-in-cheek emoticon was strong enough.

They are really nice shots.

 

[Bertus]

Motor Vehicle Accident Report Camera

Found this old Motor Vehicle Accident Report Kit onder my spare wheel and inside a 200 asa Italian colorfilm.
(free camera kit included the insurance papers)
It was there for a loooong time.
Surprise surprise: a black Duct tape was on the bottom.
Film developping in HC110 B&W developper random for 8 minutes 1+25.
Printed on old agfa premium-color Black and White paper (old paper bulkroll also a gift) in the dark, in agfa developper 1+10 for 1 min, stop and fix.
The picture is taken yesterday from the abandoned kindergarten I visited in my previous life.

 

[TheToadMen]

Nice soft tones.

Found this old Motor Vehicle Accident Report Kit onder my spare wheel and inside a 200 asa Italian colorfilm.
(free camera kit included the insurance papers)
It was there for a loooong time.
Surprise surprise: a black Duct tape was on the bottom.
Film developping in HC110 B&W developper random for 8 minutes 1+25.
Printed on old agfa premium-color Black and White paper (old paper bulkroll also a gift) in the dark, in agfa developper 1+10 for 1 min, stop and fix.
The picture is taken yesterday from the abandoned kindergarten I visited in my previous life.

 

[VaryaV]

Found this old Motor Vehicle Accident Report Kit onder my spare wheel and inside a 200 asa Italian colorfilm.
(free camera kit included the insurance papers)
It was there for a loooong time.
Surprise surprise: a black Duct tape was on the bottom.
Film developping in HC110 B&W developper random for 8 minutes 1+25.
Printed on old agfa premium-color Black and White paper (old paper bulkroll also a gift) in the dark, in agfa developper 1+10 for 1 min, stop and fix.
The picture is taken yesterday from the abandoned kindergarten I visited in my previous life.

How cool is that, eh?

Great stuff coming in... this is going to be fun.

 

[StoneNYC]

Found this old Motor Vehicle Accident Report Kit onder my spare wheel and inside a 200 asa Italian colorfilm.
(free camera kit included the insurance papers)
It was there for a loooong time.
Surprise surprise: a black Duct tape was on the bottom.
Film developping in HC110 B&W developper random for 8 minutes 1+25.
Printed on old agfa premium-color Black and White paper (old paper bulkroll also a gift) in the dark, in agfa developper 1+10 for 1 min, stop and fix.
The picture is taken yesterday from the abandoned kindergarten I visited in my previous life.

Cool story, though it looks more like a prison than a kindergarten... Wow

Oh this gives me some good ideas, I've only ever developed C-41 in Rodinal 1:100, good to know it's doable in HC-110 with good results as well (though I've stopped using HC-110 for now).

This gives me an idea...

 

[ArtO]

Really interesting MSA. I've been enjoying the entries and discussions a lot. I'll have to see what I have that may allow me to enter. Hmmm. A cheap camera, with expired film. I think I can manage that. The duct tape will be questionable at best.

 

[StoneNYC]

Really interesting MSA. I've been enjoying the entries and discussions a lot. I'll have to see what I have that may allow me to enter. Hmmm. A cheap camera, with expired film. I think I can manage that. The duct tape will be questionable at best.

I have a plan... I may put duct tape on it in the end just to be silly