Best/Worst of 2014: iPhone

With 2014 drawing to an end, and with loads going on just now that will likely impede my shooting over the coming weeks—let’s look back at my best/worst from 2014.

The selection process was simple: I created a Smart Folder in Lightroom to pull everything with 2014 in the EXIF data. I then loaded them up in an 8 image wide grid in the Library view and dumped everything that caught my eye into one collection.

I then went through that collection and identified some themes, and here we are.

To be honest, I think it would be more useful to look at my best/worst of 2013… I could be more objective, I think. But I’ve done it this way, and I’ll stick with it.

Everything here was shot with the iPhone using a variety of apps (mostly the built-in camera app).

Getting closer…

I picked up a negative holder—Lomography’s Digitaliza—to aid in this scanning project. It’s a help, for sure: no worries about scratching the film, unlike the cardboard-and-tape versions; sturdy, seemingly well-built; no complaints. But it’s not the solve-all that I had hoped for. I still need to build a rig to keep it sturdy and slide along.

I’m thinking balsa wood, maybe: light, fairly easy to work with, reasonably sturdy, reasonably inexpensive. But I’m also thinking that might be overkill a bit.

That said, the first several cardboard things I constructed didn’t quite work: trying to build a box around a cylinder is tricky. (I forgot that I had a square with a hole cut in it that I made last weekend before I ran out of time… that might make it easier: something to try if I have time later today, InshaAllah.)

But this is fun, for sure, and with current materials and a steady hand, I can almost fill the frame with one negative: GoGo.

In other news, after watching a couple of excellent how–to videos on Ted Forbes‘s Art of Photography podcast, I picked up chemicals, some brown glass jugs, a developing tank, darkbag, and other stuff to try my hand at at-home C-41 development. With 5 rolls exposed and waiting, and 3 film cameras with film at various stages of exposure, I’ll get around to some of that soon, InshaAllah.

All in all: good times. Continue reading “Getting closer…”

Digitizing film without a scanner, redux (part 1)

Well, it only took me 3+ months, and I’m still not quite there, but I’m closer… much closer.

After last time’s more-or-less failure (see the initial Digitizing Film without a Scanner series: part 1, part 2, part 3), and with the recent ordering of a dark bag, developing tank, C-41 chemicals, and various other supplies (thanks to a performance bonus/award thing from work), and the consequent impending (hopefully) glut of newly-processed negatives, I needed to try this digitizing thingy again.

I took a bunch of pictures of the setup I constructed out of a nice, high quality cardboard box, but I probably won’t end up sharing them. The contraption worked ok, as you can see from the nice sharp picture above, but I found out I could do much better… Continue reading “Digitizing film without a scanner, redux (part 1)”