The photographer is looking for generalized feedback about the aesthetic and technical qualities of their image.
Description
I was uninspired at the beginning of the year, so I went out on a limb and picked up a cheap plastic Lomography 35mm film camera with a panoramic 3:1 aspect ratio (72mmx24mm). This camera can also include the film sprockets in the final image, so the image size becomes 72mmx33mm. Some panoramic urban landscapes had inspired me, so I decided to try this little camera out.
This camera is super super basic: just two apertures, two shutter speeds. Turns out this camera and weird red-toned film was just what the doctor ordered. It is a lot of fun to shoot, and the sprockets make me smile.
On top of this pano-sprocket look, I used some weird color film. This particular film (Karmir 160) “…emphasizes reds while keeping other colors natural-looking, with a tendency to cool in the highlights and warm up in the shadows.” (from Karmir’s website).
Specific Feedback
I am really enjoying the wide panoramic format, and this tree’s shape seems made to order! I like these sprockets, and also the red-tone effect of this special film.
Do you think there is a place for sprockets in natural landscape photography, or are your eyes on fire and is your brain about to explode?
Also, I’m ok with the red hues from this film just because this is something different. I know one could do this in the digital darkroom, but I wanted to do it on film. It probably doesn’t appeal to most, but I’d like to hear your opinion nonetheless!
This is pretty cool, Mark. The sprocket holes make it just scream “I’m Film” which is part of the fun. The wide pano aspect ration is interesting and your subject fits it well. I may need to look into one of these critters.
You know, Mark, it seems to me that you are attempting to do something here that feels worth doing. But I think you ought to think of this in terms of a project. One picture like this feels like an outlier, an interesting, even intriguing oddity but I’m trying to imagine you using this camera and this film to tell particular “story” or narrative that this camera and film’s peculiarities make possible rather than seeing them as some kind of drawback or difference for difference sake, if you get my meaning. In the context of a project, the sprockets, the colour cast, and the aspect ratio could ultimately inform what you’re doing and enhance a very particular “story” you’re trying tell. I’d love to see where this might take you.
Thanks very much for your feedback @Dennis_Plank and @Kerry_Gordon. I’m glad this attracted your interest!
Dennis, this particular camera was only about $80USD. There are others, some way way more expensive (e.g. Hasselblad xPan), but this looked like a good way to start. Definitely big on the “fun” factor
Kerry, thanks so much for your wonderful idea of doing a project. You’ve given me a lot to think about. It is one thing to shoot six pano images with sprockets and some fun film. I do have six such mages with a different color-shifted film, sharing a common theme, and I’m tempted to post it under the “project” category. However, I wasn’t thinking “project” when I took those six images.
It is another thing, a challenge even, to shoot six images where the panoramic aspect ratio, the sprockets, and/or the film somehow become part of and/or add to the story. What do these technical aspects mean to me? I think of panoramic as “wide” and “expansive”…so a subject maybe to fit that. I think of sprockets as “old-time”. I also see sprockets as adding a graphic element to what is already a graphic subject. Finally, for me color-shifted film changes what is seen into something very different, as if we are seeing a different layer or meaning to a subject. Maybe “other-worldly” or “abstract” even. So, now the challenge is to go out and shoot with these ideas in mind.
