While Cleaning Up the Office, I Am Reminded of How Much I Miss Polaroid

Yeah, it happens.

Once in a while I have to break down to clean the office. I find it is a great way to procrastinate from doing something that is not ready yet. Creative block – no problem… dig through the cabinets. Heh.

This time I found my little box of Polaroids. One of a kind images that have been in there since the 80′s. (No, I never throw photographs away… not in my DNA.)

I had a few different Polaroid cameras, as well as Polaroid backs for my Nikon, Mamiya, and 4×5 cameras.

My favorite film was the Polaroid 55P/N. It delivered a beautiful negative as well as a black and white print that was also super high quality.

And of course I shot a lot of B&W and color Polaroid in the camera backs. Think of it as old-guy chimping.

But one of the cameras I had so much fun with was the “Swinger”. A small, flash built in camera with a plastic lens, this thing would spit out a shot in an instant and develop right in front of your eyes in about a minute.

Colors were all over the place. Sharpness could not be of any interest to you if you shot this camera. It was a mess if you looked at it as a technical issue.

It was amazing for simply making cool images.

I liked pretty much everything about it… the wild and convoluted color, the softness, the patina that rendered differently under different lighting situations… all of it.

I shot a couple thousand of these things, and kept a couple hundred.

It was always fun to shoot the crew and the models while they were getting ready with this thing and then give out the prints. Recently a MUA from back in the day wrote me about how much fun it was discovering those images again. She had kept them for over 30 years… heh. Wow.

Anyway, I thought I would share a random ten images with you. The models are most like grandmothers by now, and the styling is sooo 80′s. I don’t care.

I can remember pushing the button on every one of these images. I remember the moments like they were yesterday.

I am kinda like that about photography.

Which is another reason I loved that little Polaroid.

Instant memories.

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I have been asked back to creativeLIVE to do a workshop on Table Top Product Photography. You can see more at their site. Dates are June 21, 22, 23, 24, 2012. Register for free and watch all weekend!

I was recently on creativeLIVE and have received some rave reviews of the workshop. If you are interested in taking a look at the workshop, you can find it on creativeLIVE’s web site here. I think it is a tremendous value and if you are unable to attend any of my workshops, this may give you a ton of information you will want to have to push your photography to the next level.

About wizwow

I am in love with light.

Also known as Don Giannatti, photography has been the focus of my life for most of my adult years. I have written three books for Amherst Media (available on Amazon and Barnes & Noble: keyword 'don giannatti'. Lighting Essentials is my flagship blog and ezine with a slightly different slant than most photography related blogs. If you are interested in becoming a better photographer, check out www.project52.org. Thanks for visiting.

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