Cool Photography

[Andy44]

Well, to deviate from the "Nature Photograph" thread a but, while acknowledging the obvious overlap, I thought I'd start a thread for cool photography in general.

Somebody told me film is "the new digital", meaning that digital used to be the newest coolest thing, but now it's common and film is the niche for people who want to do things differently.

Whatever, film is my chosen method, for various reasons, especially black and white, so that is my focus, but whatever you think is cool goes here.

Here is a guy who took 6-month long exposures with pinhole cameras made out of soda cans!

http://www.pinholephotography.org/gallery/slow/index.html

Feel free to post your own favorites. And if it's nature-related, consider posting it in the nature thread, unless the focus is on the process rather than the subject.

---------- Post added at 09:56 PM ---------- Previous post was at 09:47 PM ----------

Oh, a note on the images in that link: the exposures started at the winter solstic and stopped at the summer solstice, so the streaks in the sky are the paths of the sun each day, each path higher than the last.

 

[eveningsky339]

*looks at pinhole exposures*

*mind blown*

That's just... awesome.

 

[Andy44]

Here's a cool vid from a guy who does wet-plate photography, using a 19th century collodian process:

[nomedia="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gyf8fQOdvDs"]YouTube- The Wet Plate Collodion Process[/nomedia]

---------- Post added at 12:42 PM ---------- Previous post was at 12:35 PM ----------

Here's another of the same guy doing a photo from end-to-end, with cool soundtrack:

[nomedia="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v8Rw0xwQRFg&feature=related"]YouTube- Making ULF Wet Plate Collodion Ambrotypes in Barcelona[/nomedia]

Notice how he makes a positive photo by placing a thin negative in front of a dark background at the end.

 

[Andy44]

Anybody here ever try using or making your own pinhole camera? Worldwide Pinhole Photography Day was last month, here's the website:

http://www.pinholeday.org/gallery/2010/

To view the gallery click the link on the left.

I've never built my own pinhole camera per se, but I did build a pinhole lens for my 35mm SLR camera using an old body cap, some electrical tape, and a piece of tin foil. It worked, but the photo wasn't as sharp as I wanted because I don't think the pinhole was small and round enough. But I will try again soon, and since it only takes a half hour to make one and costs almost nothing, why not?

The photos I took looked a lot like this one, and this guy used the same technique I did, except his SLR is digital: http://www.pinholeday.org/gallery/2010/index.php?id=45

 

[Andy44]

Here's a website I check almost everyday to see cool stuff. I especially like the black and white stuff:

http://1x.com/

Lately digital has gotten so hi-res that it's trying to compete with chemical black and white, but in many cases you can still tell the difference, especially the ones that almost have to have been done with digital equipment and software, like [ame="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_dynamic_range_imaging"]HDR[/ame].

The two technologies can be mixed, though, so there is no clear divide between the two. Many photographers shoot on film, then scan in the negatives and process them in software, and print them out on printer paper. You can also shoot in digital, print it as a negative on a transparency, and then burn the image onto chemical paper the old-fashioned way. Then you can tone the paper or apply other chemical dark room techniques.

 

[tblaxland]

Great link, thanks Andy.

One of my regulars for cool photography is the Astronomy Picture of the Day: http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/. Subject matter is a little narrower than 1x.com, but the photos are undeniably cool (at least IMHO). Today's is a clever mosaic: http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap100616.html

 

[Andy44]

Okay, now that I've got some prints scanned in using my junky Lexmark scanner, I can try to show off a little. These photos were mostly shot in the Washington DC area, many on the Metro train or in the stations. Some were shot in Alexandria, VA, or in Philadelphia, PA. All were shot using 35 mm film and were processed by me in a traditional darkroom. The colored prints are actually black and white photos processed in lith developer, which turns the paper a pinkish-brown color and also gives it that surreal effect.

Lately I've been messing around with abstraction. Being near cities and having a 35mm camera lends itself well to this. Wandering the city and subway at night alone, watching humans in their natural environment...

 

[tblaxland]

Some really nice shots there Andy :tiphat:

How do people on the rail respond to your taking of their photographs? I must admit I rarely take photos of strangers in public for fear of their reaction...

 

[Andy44]

Well, there are various techniques I use to get candid shots in public. For starters, I wait until people are distracted, looking the other way, etc. Or I act like I'm shooting something behind them off to one side, which works because I rarely want them in the dead center of the frame, anyway. Or you can pretend to fiddle with the camera and sneak a shot here and there. For this kind of abstract stuff, using the viewfinder is not always necessary or even always desirable.

I've been busted a few times, but I'm pretty good at talking my way out of it by being friendly and honest, or standing up for myself if they get aggressive. In the US, anything in a publicly accessible place is pretty much fair game, so if somebody really gets in my face I stand my ground, but I never publicly show somebody's photo if they confront me; those negatives only get seen by me for personal use.

I try to respect people's wishes, but in a city where you get picked up by a dozen surveilance cameras everytime you step out your front door, some of which are used by the police, you hardly have any grounds to say the guy with the old-fashioned film camera taking street pictures is threatening your rights. At least I don't turn my stuff over to the authorities, ever. But of course perception is stronger than fact, so I always try to be cool about it.

---------- Post added at 01:23 AM ---------- Previous post was at 01:09 AM ----------

Oh, and let me add: I also try to publicly display only photos where the faces are not easy to make out.

Which also lends itself well to this sort of abstract thing.

 

[tblaxland]

Another interesting perspective of the galaxy from APOD: http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap100629.html

That page also links to some more cool fisheye photos: http://digital-photography-school.com/15-fun-fabulous-fisheye-photos

 

[Andy44]

Very cool stuff, TBX! Among the many toys I have in my junk pile, a fisheye is not one of them. I'd love to have one, but I don't think they made one specifically for any of my cameras. There might be one that fits a universal T-mount somewhere out there, though.

Since all of my "serious" photography is shot on film in an obsolete camera(s) most of that software magic stuff is lost on me, although if I scan my stuff in I could always process it digitally. I prefer sticking my hands into carcinogenic chemicals, though!

One thing that cracks me up is one of the commentors complaining about having to manual focus stuff. None of my favorite cameras has auto-focus, LOL.

I really love that whole full-spherical view stuff, it's amazing to see everything in sight pictured on a rectangular 2D surface.

---------- Post added at 01:12 AM ---------- Previous post was at 12:47 AM ----------

BTW, did you look at that guy's blog? He's got an interactive panorama there: http://www.neilcreek.com/blog/2007/05/15/more-from-albert/

 

[tblaxland]

Very cool stuff, TBX! Among the many toys I have in my junk pile, a fisheye is not one of them. I'd love to have one, but I don't think they made one specifically for any of my cameras.

I don't even have a camera with removable lenses, though I'm watching the mirrorless interchangable lens market with interest, should one of my kids happen to accidentally drop my old Kodak compact :lol:

Yeah, auto-focus is handy but hardly required. I like manual focus too, when I can get my hands on my father-in-law's DSLR that is...

EDIT: Nice panorama there, too, thanks :tiphat:

 

[Andy44]

I don't even have a camera with removable lenses, though I'm watching the mirrorless interchangable lens market with interest, should one of my kids happen to accidentally drop my old Kodak compact :lol:

Yeah, if I was in the market for new digital gear, those ILC's look pretty nice. I wonder why a DSLR has to be so big? A film SLR has mirrors and prisms in it, and they aren't so thick.

If Fujifilm makes one I would be tempted. I have one of their older cameras, and while it lack resolution at 6 MP, the CCD electronics in it gets amazing saturated color. I have been unable to reproduce those vivid colors using various brands of color film.

But if I'm going to blow money on another camera, it will probably be a vintage twin-lens reflex...

Something like this:

 

[TSPenguin]

Let me start with a few shots I took with a Canon A720 IS.

This is the Patrouille Suisse sweetening the birthday of our harbour.



They can easily be mistaken for Deltagliders!



Now some shots I took with a EOS 1000D using the 18-55mm Kit lens (non IS). These were taken during a night with -14°C using long exposures.

Part of my harbour:


Focus on the actual harbour structures:




On my way to the previous shot, I found these stairs:




That buildings east front (left) is a particular nice construction.


Especially if you tone map 9 shots:


It really was quite cold that night. Check out the ice in my beard! I kept removing it to no avail...

 

[Artlav]

Interesting.
Strangers are more strange when they are somewhat out of their natural habitat.

When i'm in cities that are rich on monuments, i often take shots of the tourists playing their role:

They don't usually notice, or look the wrong way:

Or just waste time in the hot sun doing something that they think is unavoidable:

I'm still thousands of miles from my collection, so i'll have to watch birds fly below:

And, for a different definition of cool, here is an incomplete attempt to film the entire year as would be seen by somebody, who accidentally set 3000000x time accel, and looked out of the window:

And 100000x one (HD available in both):

The camera, unfortunately, gave way after only four months.

 

[TSPenguin]

Nice to see your project finally shows some results. Too bad the cam died...

 

[Andy44]

I like how it looks like the window sill is moving, but it's really just snow piling up in front of the camera.

 

[tblaxland]

Great contributions TSP and Artlav.

The Powerhouse Museum in Sydney recently had a trainspotting photo competition and I visited their exhibition recently. The winner:
The pit, Zhalai Nouer coalmine by David Hill, Midhurst, England

Other images can be seen here: http://www.powerhousemuseum.com/trainspotting/

I'm also hoping to get to the World Press Photo 10 exhibition. It's in Sydney this month but is currently touring the world so you might like to look up when its in your part of the globe: http://www.worldpressphoto.org/inde...&selectedItem=35&Itemid=154&bandwidth=high#35

 

[Andy44]

So I have this project I'm working on, but I had to start with some tests. These are cellphone pictures of my laptop screen, with one of my addons depicted in lunar orbit. The idea is to make photos of space-age or hi-tech subjects using primitive photographic methods. I set my cellphone to "warmtone" mode, which gives the photos a very 19th-century look to them. The results look like an old sci-fi movie shot, or something shot during the Cold War:

I learned a few things from this. For starters photos of even matte computer flat panels are complicated by reflections. Also, a tripod with a very steady mount is required. And I have to remember that on a computer panel, even the black sky gives off light which will register on the film or CCD.

I think I'm ready to expose this using a real camera next, and make a photo using an alternative process. Will keep you posted!

 

[Izack]

Cool! I can almost hear the dry '60's narrator telling me what the future will be like!