Family Photoshoot (Part 1)

After some idea generation, I did a quick photoshoot with the prints I have of family photos. I decided to do it all on film, as most of those original photos would have been taken on film. I used my late step-granddad Arthur's jacket as a backdrop on a chair, and layed out various photos on it. I tried to group the photos according to which side of the family they belong to, as well as generational groups. I also included some letters from my grandparents and used these as a background for individual prints. I used my Pentax K1000, Kodak Brownie 127, and borrowed Polaroid camera for this shoot, although I did have a few issues, the first being that the film in my Pentax got stuck, so half of the film came out black, and the other half came out unexposed. This wasn't too much of a setback though, because I shot another roll after that and got what I needed. I also only had 3 shots left on the Polaroid, I still haven't figured out the focus, and the colours came out pretty muddy, which was all pretty disappointing, but they'll be good material for emulsion lifts.

The Brownie has a set focal length, so all of those photos came out blurry. However, I got some nice double-exposure shots with that, as well as some abstract shots. I did accidentally take the camera apart half way through shooting though, meaning I lost about 15 photos.

I used a mixture of freelensing and narrow aperture with the Pentax to create a dream-like/nostalgic feel.

Overall, I got a good 50 or so shots. I decided to shoot on black and white so I could develop the film immediately at home, and I also think this adds a sense of age to the images. I'd like to try colour film for this kind of shoot as well because some of the colours in the photos are really nice, and the jacket I used as a backdrop has a cool colour-shifting effect. I think the jacket made a really interesting texture for the background, and I love how it ties into the project theme. I'd like to find a way to involve it in my final outcome, such as a page background, or similar to this shoot where I can use it as a backdrop for photographing prints.

Here are a couple of photos I took on my phone for documentation:

Here you can see my setup, as well as an effect I noticed while free-lensing. It looked a lot better in person, and I think I could push that idea further.

The light meter on my Pentax is broken, and I forgot about the existence of light meter apps, so I estimated the shutter speed/aperture. I think it turned out okay though, as the light was pretty bright and I'm used to using the camera now so I know what different lighting situations require.

After I ran out of Polaroid film, I tried shooting through the viewfinder with my Pentax and Brownie, but I dont think they came out. I'm visiting campus again on Wednesday, so I'm going to scan in the negs and pick up some more Polaroid film.