Vacation Guy Part 6 - Pix 2.0

Park Trail

So yesterday I wandered around the neighborhood and ran a couple rolls through my Holga. Today I got things together and processed 'em. This one  is from the roll of Ilford Delta 400, processed 8 minutes in stock Adox A49. Scanned on my Epson 4870 with VueScan at default settings, it's unprocessed save for a square crop.

I'd completely forgotten my film loading skills, so getting the film on the reel was a pain. I hope it will come back to me without too much more struggle because I'd forgotten how satisfying it is to handle the film, process it and get that first look at what you accomplished (or didn't). Instant gratification is great, but there's still something to be said for the old ways.

Vacation Guy Part 5: Pix

Eugene Atget, Sceaux, 1925

I've been a sort of amateur photography buff since about 1970 when my mom trusted me with her Minolta SRT-101 on a Junior Classical League trip to Italy. About 12 years ago Will made the same trip (Hurray LATIN!) and Beth and I took the opportunity to visit Paris. There we ran across an exhibition of Eugene Atget's photographs. You can Google up all sorts of details about his life and work - for me his work defines transition from 19th to 20th centuries in Paris. Much of what he photographed would soon be lost to the new urbanism. However, he also spent a good deal of time in the country, photographing trees, lakes, and other natural scenes.

So... since I'm on vacation I thought I'd meander around the neighborhood and make some photographs. Unlike Atget, I don't have a big ol' glass plate view camera (or his talent and skills). But I do have this:

Yep. A Holga. The cheesiest camera ever made. There's a sort of cult following for these suckers and their sister machine, the Russian made Lomo. I'm loading up with some Ilford Delta 400 and Kodak Tri-X that's been in our freezer for years.

We live in an old "first ring" suburb - the border of Philadelphia is about three blocks from here so there's plenty of mature landscaping and interesting buildings within a short walk.

I'll process 'em tomorrow. With a little luck my old Epson 4870 flatbed scanner will work with OS X 10.7...