Hipstamatic 301!

Just two days after Hipstamatic 300’s long awaited debut, Hipstamatic is back with an update.

The most noticeable change, for me: volume button shutter works again!

  • In classic mode, volume down expands and contracts the embiggened viewfinder and volume up trips the shutter. 
  • In new pro camera mode, both volume up and volume down both trips the shutter. 

The update text only mentions something cryptic, like the usual “bug fixes and other improvements,” or some such, and there might be some other things that I didn’t notice. 

One small and very annoying issue: if you take a screenshot while Hipstamatic 301 is in edit mode, the app crashes. I think the change to the camera roll is what causes the crash, as there’s a very slight delay between capturing the screenshot and the crash, probably  while the phone writes the picture to the gallery. 

I expect a 302 in rather short order, but only Allah knows. We’ll all have to wait and see. 

Harmon films: the boxes

A couple of months ago, I picked up two rolls each of four Harmon films: Kentmere 100, Ilford FP4 Plus, Kentmere 400, and Ilford HP5 Plus. At the time, I had recently acquired two rolls of long-expired Ansco Versapan and gotten some interesting results with it and the R3 Monobath. I wanted to get started playing with black & white photography, but first I needed two things: more film, and a developer that was more suitable for roll film.*

So I hemmed and hawed and looked at my limited toy fund and hemmed and hawed some more and somehow managed to justify buying 8 rolls of film.

Alhamdulillah and I couldn’t much justify buying chemicals too, though, so the film just sat for much of June and July. But then Eid al Fitr rolled around again, and I received a gang of D76, some Ilford RapidFix, and some Ilfostop, plus some jugs and accordion bottles—thanks Mom!—and the test was in business, sorta.

I still let it sit for awhile.

But now it’s time, more or less.

It’ll be a non-scientific test:just whatever I notice and decide to comment on. And if it’s not obvious by now either you haven’t been paying attention or you vastly overestimate my technical knowledge. This isn’t my first time shooting black & white: I shot some Tri-X at the lake a bit ago, and there’s the Ansco a couple of months back, and some Chromogenic something or other a long time ago.

But developing it is something new to play with, and that’s always fun: Alhamdulillah. I’ll just be shooting the film in my usual lackadaisical manner, processing it, and commenting on the results in whatever way I see fit.

Tonight: the boxes… boring, probably, but interesting to me. Continue reading “Harmon films: the boxes”

Road Trip! Memphis to Dallas

Friday morning, we took our time waking up after Fajr, and had a nice breakfast in the hotel restaurant. We packed up the car and drove down to Beale Street to take a quick walk around before heading back home. Continue reading “Road Trip! Memphis to Dallas”

Road Trip! Chicago to Memphis

Thursday morning, we got started pretty early: up for Fajr, then around the corner to Peet’s, for a change (though Dunkin Donuts coffee is better, really…), where we ate out on the street and enjoyed the cool morning air before packing up the car and heading south.

We stopped after an hour or two and Hana took over driving, which gave me some time to shoot a bit, mostly with Hipstamatic. Continue reading “Road Trip! Chicago to Memphis”

Road Trip! Chicago (2)

After our marathon walk all over downtown, I was sore and I think Hana was too. We decided to take it easy-ish, and after a nice Dunkin Donuts breakfast took the car out and drove up to North Avenue beach.

Hana was really excited to see a proper beach, and North Avenue Beach didn’t disappoint. Continue reading “Road Trip! Chicago (2)”