I went out to take some pictures just before dark. Not the most productive outing but I do like the result of the last image where I used the “watercolor” filter in the Pentax K-7 to create an abstraction with the different layers into the distance.
While cleaning up today I came across this remnant of Kodachrome in an old return mailer. I’m not certain why the 14th exposure wasn’t mounted and I can’t recall exactly where this was taken. It’s likely to remain estranged from its film strip siblings as it really isn’t that good a picture. One thing of interest is the division of the image space into areas of dark and light that subtend the picture into equal areas diagonally.
Wow that makes it sound so important! I painted this picture when I was in college and it at least amused me. I believe it was destroyed during a cleanup at a business. It should have been a painting of a pretty mountain, it might have survived. At least I found this Polaroid shot of it, it can now amuse me again.
I think I’m good for a while, as far as Canvas’s go, now I just need to paint.
Pre-post update (if that’s possible) I found a few more.
I’ve had these pencil crayons for nearly twenty years now. By all rights they should be little nubs or have been completely consumed in the process of creating art. I can’t completely explain the pleasure I derive from just having them. I love the colours and the softness of the mark they make on paper, but mostly I cherish them because they were a gift. Not just the gift of them as an object but what they symbolize, the support of my parents whatever I choose to do. Perhaps I took this for granted at the time but I can always pull these out to remind me of their wonderful gift.
If it were not for the difficulty in coordinating meeting up with others for Craigslist sales I would no longer have this camera. You see I also have what is considered the more desirable XA which is a rangefinder rather than zone focusing and has a F2.8 lens instead of the XA2’s slower f3.5 and is also aperture priority relative to the XA2’s fully automatic. So having the presumably better camera and not wanting to overburden my storage space… in any case the sales didn’t work out and that’s alright with me.
There is something sublime in taking pictures where you relinquish control to the camera and just look for images. I don’t mean to say that leaving a modern DSLR on auto everything is a new path to creativity but allowing an analogue circuit designed for one purpose to do it’s job 30 years on is hardly artistic capitulation. No but a camera that has a Robert Frank or a Jeff Wall mode that would hasten the end of photography.
“Variations,4 for 1” and “Arrows, which way do I go?” were shot with this camera and here are some other shots from that roll.
Just a little visual parody of the “rules” of composition. You can’t help but follow the “leading lines”, they are so obvious that they are actually arrows. Unfortunately following them doesn’t get you anywhere, unless your parking.
The Pentax K-7 allows you to process your images with digital filters in camera and to stack them together. I’ve played around with this and have come up with a combination that mimics the look of a Polaroid instant print.
After selecting the image I want to convert I applied the yellow color filter with maximum density. (the retro look also allows toning of the image but used alone this gives a reddish cast)
Once you select OK to move on you are presented with the option to save the file or to continue using filters in combination. I select the option to continue
The next filter to be selected is the retro filter with a brown tone
The next filter is the base parameter adjustment with (brightness +1,Saturation -2, contrast +1,Sharpness -3. These can be adjusted depending on the source image.
The last filter I have used which is optional is the miniature filter, it helps to mimic the narrow depth of field from the Polaroid.
And the result?
OK that’s what it should look like, here is the real result of all the processing.
And the original digital file.
The image can also be cropped to a 1:1 aspect ratio which is much closer to the 5:6 of Polaroid Spectra film.
I was playing around with this image contemplating the best look. Any one of them is valid and gives a different impression. The original, as scanned, is in the upper left. Granted the others are all extremes and a less is more approach would likely be better.
