Alternative Underwater Photography

Photo Majors,

A good friend of mine sent me this link today and I think you all will be interested. It involves a Holga camera and a home made underwater casing. Take a look at the images that this photographer has made with his underwater Holga! Quite amazing!

http://www.freestylephoto.biz/traditional-processes-holga

Pay special attention to his prints, although we will not be printing Palladium, it is a similar process to Van Dyke and Cyanotype. He also utilizes digital negatives which is something we will explore a little later this year.

My Surveillance Images

Dear Class,

I wanted to share some of my own images as a part of the surveillance project. Below this post are photos that I have reposted from my Flickr account that I have taken during the past year with my Holga camera during my travels. I hope it will give you some inspiration when you are out spying on the world around you.

Think outside of the box when you are doing this project. Surveillance usually implies that you are watching someone or something, but does that all it mean? Perhaps the area that you are surveying does not have any human movement and is deserted? Does that not make for an interesting image? For example, office buildings will have surveillance around the clock, but who (or what) are they watching out for in an empty building?

Tempus fugit.

FuXin Station

FuXin Station, originally uploaded by HRH Ken.

Other times you could be spying on a crowded transit station and the camera shake creates confusion and tension. Perhaps this is how you feel when you know you are being watched?

Car Park

Car Park, originally uploaded by HRH Ken.

Sometimes your surveillance images can be as empty as this garage.

Ferris Wheel

Ferris Wheel, originally uploaded by HRH Ken.

Class Critique

Choose one of the photos from the Surveillance blog with a group and answer the following questions:

1. Read the story or theme in the image.
2. What visual cues in the images shape the story/theme? From the subject? Observe the background?
3. How does this image make you feel? Explain.
4. Describe the atmosphere as if you were there- what would you smell, hear, feel? What would be just outside of the frame?
5. What happened just before and just after this image was taken?
6. How is this an example of surveillance photography?

Once you have answered an image with your group, then select one of your own to critique.

Caffenol-C Examples

Majors,

I wanted to show you some results from the early test rolls that I developed with Caffenol. As you can see, sometimes it may stain your film brown and other times it will be completely black and white. The unexpectedness of the development process is what I love about Caffenol and certainly merits more exploration.