Polaroid Dreams

They might be about the vastness...


...or claustrophobia of landscape.


Or perhaps the luxurious loneliness of five star hotels...


...which, unlike fleabag motels, look the same at any point in the world...


...from Paris to Bejing.


I used to cover up the flash, and point the camera at sources of light in a darkened room.


I liked the minimalist mystery the pictures proposed.


It may be a hard-boiled detective story...

...or flying saucers.

New Medium

The other day I had a brilliant idea: There should be a photo competition exclusively for iPhone photographs. I turns out it already exists. (Go me.) Then I started thinking about how this is the time of transition when one medium takes over from the other.


In 2008 Polaroid announced that they would stop producing their iconic instant cameras and films.

Polaroid has gone the way of Kinko's, type writer, and carbon paper - its primary cause for existence usurped by the advance of technology. Nowadays you don't even have to have a camera, just a phone to take "instant" photos, and then you can send them to your friends, upload them to the internet, unleash them in the digital alternate universe. The tactile is replaced by the ethereal.

My Polaroid cameras will make nice bookends. One they I'll tell little children that people used to use them to make photographs. They'll be rolling their eyes.

Meanwhile here is the first installment of my iPortfolio. Three categories are presented at this time.

Landscape / Nature



Documentary

Artsy-Fartsy

Fun with Photos

I love these 60's color photos, but sometimes the color shift in them - usually towards magenta - bothers my photographic sensibilities.

I recall my college days, when it took a color photo around 12 minutes to wind its way through the developing machine. Many hours were spent in the photo lab inhaling chemical fumes. Fortunately it's all Photoshop now.


After adjusting the color I also punched up contrast, saturation and sharpened the image a little. It looks more realistic, but to be honest, I prefer the softer middle image.


Some images are so far beyond repair, that you might as well just go nuts with them.

The main feature of this photo the identical green dresses of the girls, so I made them extra saturated, while desaturating the flesh tones.


Here you have it. The leprechaun family got a new home.