Instant Back for Lomo LCA

The blurry goodness of the LCA lens has finally converged with the squishy colors of instant film. Behold the instant back for the Loma LCA. Just don't behold too long or you'll strain your eyes.













You turn on the instant back and a blue LED lights up while the film slowly whirrs out. It uses Fuji's Mini Instax film. Nice film but a little small. Then comes the anticipation - what will develop? And will it be any good? It reminds me of the Polaroid I-Zone Pocket Camera which produced stamp size instant photos. Oh, you don't remember that camera? Neither does the rest of America. And that's why Polaroid went bankrupt.













Indulge me for a second while I take a little jag - who are the wizards who run Polaroid? Honestly, I think they are actual wizards with no business experience or sense of pop-culture. Wizards and their stupid pointy hats. I mean honestly, within the last 10 years the Lomographic company made horrible analog cameras hot despite the robotic rise of digital cameras. They carved a niche for themselves among hipsters and lazy photographic enthusiasts who refuse to read the manuals that came with with their cameras (I fall in the latter category). Now Lomographic is worth a bazillion dollars and Polaroid is . . . is uhm, not.













Meanwhile, I watched as Polaroid stopped making one specialty film after another as their fans wept loudly on the interblogs. Now Fuji owns the instant market. Polaroid is trying to make a comeback. But instead of making what people yearn for (instant film), the wizards have partnered with Lady GaGa to produce sunglasses with pictures in them. I guess the partnership makes perfect sense - whether you're looking at Lady GaGa or these new sunglasses you walk away scratching your head thinking "What was that?"

A Dandy Set List

Nearly forgot this.

A Dandy Week

I must have done something right lately because Heather let me see two, that's two Dandy Warhol concerts this week. Then again, she might of resigned herself to the fact that I was going one way or another. They tour so little. Well, they tour as much as any band but that's just not enough for me. I check their blog regularly waiting for the slightest hint that a new album or a new tour will be announced. And then I pounce. You know that guy who waits in line a couple days before tickets go on sale? Well, I'm that guy when the Dandys release anything.



















The top pic was taken at the Belly Up with the Hipstamatic app for the iPhone. The DEC 80 date is Hipstamatic's annoying inside joke for hipsters. "We've dated it 30 years before, cool, huh?" No, not cool. And there's no way to adjust the date - very not cool. Spencer joined me at the Belly Up and we had a good time talking family, work and surf. Bummer he doesn't live any closer to San Diego.

The second pic was taken at new Club Nokia near the Staples Center in Los Angeles. Another good venue, and as you can see, I scored a good spot near the stage again. Lee came along for the two hour show and the two hour drive home. LIvely conversation kept me from dozing off at 2:00 a.m.

I think that makes nine live Dandy shows I've seen. Maybe I'll go to their turf, Portland, for the tenth show.

Here's A Smile

After reading the blog entry below I thought it prudent to show that indeed Juliet can smile for a photo. Just make sure the stars are aligned before you press the shutter button. And act quickly. She's easily distracted.

Someone's Had Enough

I love this photo. Heather dressed the kids in white, dragged them to Ocean Beach, and tried to take a Christmas photo. No easy feat. And don't forget, the kids have to spend an hour in the tub after each jaunt to the beach. So a quick beach photo can easily turn into hours of work. But Heather pressed on. With the sun fading fast she knew she only had a minute or two of good light left before this beach photo turned into a night photo that could have been taken anywhere. Christian and Erika performed like the pros they are but young Juliet just wasn't up to the task. Should've studied her biorhythm charts a little longer I suppose because this was clearly not the time for Juliet to shine. Well, by the time this photo was snapped Juliet had been fussing and uncooperative for a solid five minutes. After trying every trick in the book Heather tried bribery. She pulled a piece of candy from her shirt pocket. But bribery only works against a calculating and corrupt foe. Juliet is neither calculating or corrupt. She's a two year old and when she wants it, she wants it now. She leapt from her sandy seat and made way to the candy. Snap! By the looks of it, Christian and Erika decided to check-out rather than add to the turmoil. Heather came back home, bathed the kids, and pieced together a montage of our smiling kids walking through the sand for our Christmas card. I only wish this picture would have been on the reverse side.

Process Or Results

I love plastic film cameras. To most people Holga, Lomo, Smena and Diana sound like waiters at a Prague cafe. To me they're the Plastic Fantastic Four. Working with these cameras is about the same as talking to a Prague waiter too. They're tempermental, slow, unreliable and occasionally, just occasionally, bring good results. I'll take a month to shoot a roll of film, wait for it to be processed, pay real money to develop the negatives (when was the last time you did that?), only to realize that 33 out of 36 shots were overexposed. Frustating? Yep. And lest ye forget, these cheap plastic cameras don't come with cheap prices. Oh no. I pay premium European prices for these toys.

Then along came Hipstamatic. For a mere 99 cents I uploaded this app onto my iPhone. For a little more I added different electronic "lenses" and "films." Suddenly, my iPhone is like a dozen toy cameras all rolled into one. No need to rely on plastic lenses, the distortion is built into the programming. The prints come out already scratched and blurry. I love using Hipstamatic in a pinch. The results are to my liking. But they're so much less satisfying than the pics from my plastic cameras.

When it comes to hobbies, I'm a process guy more than a results guy. Examples? - I build my own furniture when I can buy a better product at Ikea for less money. I'm more interested in how movies are made than how entertaining they are. I tinker with the finest magician's apparatus (you call them "tricks") but I don't perform them well.

Sometimes I fool myself into thinking that the right camera, the right tools, or the right equipment will make me happier but "Much of the beauty that arises in art comes from the struggle an artist wages with his limited medium" - Henri Mattisse. For me, it's not the results, it's the attempt. I've also realized that Mattisse's words "limited medium" apply equally to my tools and to my imagination but I still plug along. Luckily, I have a wife who is not bothered by my distractions. She pats me on the head and says, "That's nice."

If you put a thousand Doug Nelson's with a thousand plastic cameras in a room, then maybe, just maybe one truly beautiful picture might arise. I'll let you know when that happens.

PS - The top pic was taken with a Diana Mini, 400 speed Kodak color film, punched-up a little using Picasa. I shot it two months ago and developed it last week. The bottom pic was taken the same day as the top pic using the Hipstamatic app. It "arrived" instantly.

I Promise

I promise this is my last Halloween post. I have more pictures of Halloween than were ever taken of the Grand Canyon. Here's a select few from my church's Trunk of Treat.







Never heard of a Trunk or Treat? Me neither until a few years ago. Each Halloween the local church throws a Chili Cook Off followed by a Trunk or Treat. Individually the chilis are delicious, but combined they can kill a horse. So go easy on the chili or they'll end up on the front of your costume. And the winner this year was . . . I dunno. I ate so much cornbread it clogged my ears.





After the cookoff, the kids hobble to the parking lot in their costumes. The parents decorate their vans, trucks and cars with spiderwebs, pumpkins, and ectoplasm. Some have games, some have spooky music, but the best experience was a Ford pickup with two long card board boxes connected at the end inside the bed of the truck. The kids crawled down the cardboard tube, and then back again. That was it. And they loved it.




These pics were taken by Russ Fill. Don't recognize his name? Well, I guarantee you've seen his camera work on dozens of shows, from Oprah Winfrey to Survivor. I thought it would be nice to make a photo booth where parents could snap pics of their kids' costumes. Fresh from a shoot in, I dunno, Antartica or somewhere Russ took it to the next level by providing a backdrop, a camera, lighting, and a little expertise - all for free.


Heather cut out the background lettering with her Cricut. Yeah, we have a Cricut. Jealous? It was a gift from my legal secretary. This was our first attempt at making lettering. "Its maaahvelous" says Heather.