Mike's Arty Crap: March 2011

Friday, March 4, 2011

I got a new camera last week - a Sprocket Rocket from my favorite camera store, Lomography. As you'll see, this camera is a panoramic cam that exposes the entire frame, including the sprockets. It gives the shots a kind of built-in framing and a little bit of vignette that looks FUCKING AWESOME.

I love the Lomo cameras, I've bought six of them and given four of them away so far, because they're so user-friendly that anyone can throw in a roll of 35mm and get cool photos.

Despite their protestations, analog is definitely not the future. Of course, that's no concern of mine. I'm in it for the art, and Lomo analog cameras make good art.

They had a short workshop on the Sprocket Rocket cameras last Sunday, a real basic how-to taught by one of their very sincere shopkeepers. These are from the first couple rolls I shot on the camera, I'm really happy with them. A few were underexposed, but this is fantastic results for my first go.

Teacher Man

Vespa

Flip Side

Tower

Smoker

G-d's Piano 1

G-d's Piano 2

G-d's Piano 3

Jeebus

Pedestrians

Fixie

Grown Ass Man

Guard Dog

Walking Dog

Victory Arch

Disappearing Victory Arch

Biker

Crooked NY

Classmate

Brownstone

Artificial Sun Spots

Rally To Restore Sanity

I went to the Rally To Restore Sanity in Washington, DC. A good time was had by all.

I shot my first roll of Black & White film ever at the rally. A few of the pictures turned out okay, but that's because somebody else mastered the process of combining sunlight and emulsion chemicals, not because I did anything particularly brilliant.

I have a lot of work to do to understand Black & White, but overall I'm not disappointed in the outcome. Black & White photos should have a depth and kind of thickness to them that these don't. The next step is figuring out how to make that happen.