Art & Adventure with PJ Ortiz Luis
The online portfolio of Pacifico "PJ" Ortiz Luis, a storyteller utilizing different mediums of art including film photography, dance, and performance poetry.
This is from a roll of found film. I don't have the "proper" chemicals to develop this, not did I want to spend money on film that might not even have photos on them...so I developed it in the chemicals I am currently using, resulting in this cherry tint:
I went to an instagram meet-up yesterday....with film cameras. These are the resulting images. The first set of photos were taken with a Canon Canonflex RM, loaded with Fuji Velvia 50F. I self developed the roll the same night, and got the following results: [in reverse chronological order]
This next roll was shot on a roll of film I started in September 2012 on a different camera....I took the film out in a changing bag and then put it into a Minolta Weathermatic Dual 35. I currently don't have the chemicals to develop this myself...so I thought "hey I'm running errands near a Walgreens...might as well drop off my film for developing" I only needed the pictures developed, I have a really good scanner at home. But they were a little negligent with my film...as I was paying, they dropped the negatives onto the counter, then the lady comes back and says "Oh heres a sleeve". I HAD TO SLEEVE MY OWN PHOTOS! REALLLLY???? well here's the scratched and grundy results:
I forgot how I heard of it, but I found out about an app in the iOS app store called "Printic" and decided to give it a try. What it is, is an app that lets you create Polaroid-esque prints with your own photos. It's not a bad deal at $0.99 a print. [real polaroids go for ~$3+/print]
...but how does it stack up against an actual Polaroid photo? It definitely captures the look perfectly. The "feel"...notsomuch, as it is printed on regular photo paper, instead of the thick chemical-containing card stock that Polaroid film is made of. The photo on the left is from expired Polaroid Spectra film, which is wider than the average photo...and due to its age, the colors are a bit on the red-side.
The real question is....would I recommend this app to people? Yes...definitely. It's a good alternative for people who don't have access to a Polaroid camera, or want to spend alot of money on the high price of film for those cameras. The prints definitely look good, and I can see them looking great displayed on people's walls, scrapbooks, and picture frames.
i sometimes feel that mobile phone photographers take for granted the "retro" filters provided to them. in reality, most of the filters are not retro at all...but are traits characteristic of toy cameras. toy cameras have weird like leaks and bokeh effects...and are thought to be "old school" mainly because they use film.
the "X-Pro filter...refers to "Cross Processed"...a method where film is developed in the incorrect chemicals. slide film and color print take different chemicals....e-6 and c-41 respectively....developing slide film in c-41 is cross processing...resulting in color distortion.
Here are examples of photos put through the "X-Pro" filter in instagram:
Here are examples of slide film cross-processed in c-41 chemicals:
I was hanging out with a group of strangers the other day, when the topic of instagram came up. I hid the fact that I'm "instafamous"[not my description of myself], because I was curious about what they thought of the platform. It turns out, to them...using non-phone cameras is a form of cheating, because the point is to post as life happens. I can definitely see their point. I personally try to post as close as I can with my film photos, and generally post right away when it comes to phone photos. [I don't believe in over-editing...which is another topic]
But that brings me to the point of the post....I don't think its cheating. I know tons of extremely talented phone photographers, and even more people that own DSLRs that seem to mainly use it to photograph their food. Below I have posted examples of bad and good photos I've taken throughout the years. Not all my film photos are magnificient...the moral being anybody can use a camera....but it really takes somebody with a good eye to take a good photo, regardless of what they are using to take it with. Mannn....I've even seen good photographers take good photos with reeally reeeally bad cameras...
top row: "eh" film photos
middle row: unedited iPhone 4S photos [yes, even the blue horse]
bottom row: Hipstamatic photos on a 3GS or iPod Touch 4G [with less than 1mpx resolution!]
