Polaroid Colorpack II - Retro Goodness

The first shot after I bought the film - Behind Roberts Camera in Indianapolis

I’m a photography podcast fanboy and recently watched a podcast by Chase Javis on his InvitationToHang project in NYC from last year.  The podcast showed the cameras he was using for the project.  Several were old school Polaroid cameras.  As I watched the podcast it was POW…flashback.  I used to shoot Polaroid cameras, and I thought to myself, I bet I still have one.

Anyway one thing led to another and I dug up my old Polaroid, a Polaroid Spectra 2.  It had been collecting dust as I was now a fully committed digital shooter.  Just for giggles, I went to Roberts to see if they had any film for the Spectra and they said nope.  They did however have film for the 600 series and Fujifilm for the ColorPack series. Note, I’ll post another blog on the Spectra as I did get some film online from the ImpossibleProject.

Anyway since I didn’t find any film for my Spectra camera, I went on a personal mission to find a ColorPack or 600 series Polaroid camera.  I wanted to get one as cheaply as possible. Guess what – SUCCESS.  I went to a local Goodwill Outlet and I found this beauty.

Polaroid Colorpack II instant camera in good working order

I grabbed it and the final price, only $1.  I thought to myself, even if it didn’t work, come on Steve, it’s only a buck.  I brought the dusty beast home and cleaned the outside & the corrosion in the battery area.  The next day I went back to Roberts and bought a pack of 100 ISO color Fujifilm and a 3000 ISO black & white Fujifilm.  I loaded the color film, held my breath and guess what, it worked.  Sweet.

Today I went out and shot the full color pack (only 10 photos) and, it’s fun.  This pack was basically just to figure out how to dial in the camera, and figure out how to use it.  At 100 ISO a sunny day means you have some blown out or images pushing the right side of the histogram.  There is a dial on the front that you can dial to darken or lighten and I found outside I needed to turn it to full darken and the images came out fine.  The images below have one shot with "normal" setting, and the second with the dial set to "darken"

I also shot a couple of images inside earlier and the results were no good.  WAY too dark for 100 ISO file.  Looks like I need to find some Flashcubes online.

Ambient light without a flashcube with 100 ISO film - EPIC fail

The fun thing about this camera is that it’s manual focus and that’s about it.  You basically point and shoot.  The lens ring has distance markings on it that you turn to the right distance of your subject.  Since this is NOT a DSLR you are doing lots of guessing to get the focus right.  However, in my first film pack that didn’t seem to be an issue.

The second fun thing about this camera is that once you shoot a photo, you “pull” the film out of the camera and let it develop.  Very old school.

The only drawback to this camera is that the film is somewhat expensive.  A 10-pack is in the $15 range.  Not as expensive as the 600 or Spectra type film, but unlike a digital camera you want each shot to count.

Bottomline, good times and a fun compliment to digital.

Shamless Self Promotion Alert - f/2.8

An Essential For Any Photographer's Car !!

I know you've seen the bumper stickers that say "26.2" on them, right?  I always wondered what they meant. Then one day I learned it was the distance of a marathon (and to think I ran one before, and it hadn't clicked).  Anyway, get it, there is a marathon runner in this car.

I thought it would be fun for photographers to have an equivalent, so a light popped on.  I'll create my own.  I went online, found a site, and played around with several ideas and found a simple design I liked.  Here you have it, "f/2.8".  Only a photographer will know, that car has a photo enthusiast on board.

The shameless promotion part, I'll sell them, and I put my blog URL on it as well. 

I decided to go ahead and have a bunch of the bumper stickers made up.  I figured I could put one on my car or on my photo notebook.  And, hey, if anyone wanted purchase one to trick-out their car, I'd have a few available.

So, if anyone wants to buy one, shoot me an email at sebrokaw@yahoo.com and we can work out the details.  I'll charge the low price of $3.50, and you can pay me via PayPal.  Operators are standing by!

Be the first one on your block to have a www.brokawimages.com, f/2.8 bumper sticker!  You can thank me later :)

Dirty car not included

Indianapolis XLVI

1.6 seconds, f/10, ISO 200, 12mm using Tokina's 12-24mm f/4

People, it's Super Bowl 46 time in Indianapolis.  You know what that means - photo opportunity! We are talking about tons of people, challenging lighting and LOTS of color and action.  Picture Perfecto. 

I headed down the day before the formal activities started to try to capture some views before the party begins.  The challenge was that although it's winter the weather is more late fall like.  Cold and rainy, and it had been raining most of the day.  It just so happened as soon as I parked it stopped raining.  That gave me an opportunity to walk around and shoot some images around Monument Circle which is in the core of Indianapolis.

This time I wanted to capture LOTS of the image so I brought my Tokina AT-X 107 AF DX Fisheye – 10-17mm f/3.5-4.5 and a Tokina AF 12-24mm f/4 AT-X Pro DX.  I am a Nikon guy, and prefer to use Nikkor lenses exclusively.  However, I've found that Tokina lenses are as good as my Nikkor lenses.  The only problem is that I don't shoot wide angle that much so I figured this was going to be fun.

2 seconds, f/7, ISO 200, 11.5mm using Tokina's 10-17mm f/3.5-4.5

It was pretty dark outside, and very overcast, so light reflected off the low lying clouds.  This made for some really cool effects when long exposures was done.  For these shoots I simply used my Manfrotto tripod.  I set my Nikon D300s to the lowest ISO so I could minimize as much noise as possible.  Therefore all shots were set at ISO 200.  I also shot all images at F/7 or smaller.  I wanted to get long DOF & light starbursts. 

There were lots of people downtown, but not enough for me to be a bother while standing on the edge of the road with a tripod.  It was fun and the vibe of the city was growing.  You could tell a BIG party was coming. 

I only shot about 50 images, about 50 % with the fisheye and the rest with the wide angle.  Both lens focus smartly and are tack sharp.   The also focus very well in low light, which tends to be a large percentage of my shots.  Bottomline, great lenses.  When I go back out to shoot the event as a run up to the Super Bowl, I will definitely bring these lenses.

0.4 seconds, f/7.1, ISO 200, 10mm using Tokina's 10-17mm f/3.5-4.5

After action comments:

• On weather like this keep a rag or small towel in your bag.  Even though it was not raining buckets it did start to sprinkle, and I didn't have anything handy to clean off my lens.
• Watch out for blowing out portions of the image.  These were fairly long exposures and there was some pretty bright lights.  I had several images that had significant areas blown out.  Post processing can only correct areas of an image if there are pixels.  Check your histogram.
• If you want starbursts keep your aperture at f/9 or higher
• Take advantage of wet pavement.  Try to capture unusual light patterns or shadows. It's pretty cool.

New York City Boy

The day before New Year’s Eve I visited New York City and walked around the streets for about 8 hours.  Big city, people in the street, colors, darkness, camera – you guessed it, I had a blast.  I didn’t go specifically to take photographs, but I did tote my camera and a couple of lenses.  I ended up walking in a 1 mile radius around Time Square shooting while walking.  I simply wanted to capture the hustle and bustle of NYC.

It started out grey and overcast turning dark quickly.  Therefore, during the daylight hours I had a huge softbox.  Shadows were not a problem.  At night the lights of the city were alive with color.  On top of this the number of people in the city was HUGE all day.  It was absolutely no place for a tripod.  I simply set my camera on aperture priority, set the aperture as small as I could for the light (I wanted to get maximum DOF) and the shutter speed ended in the 1/100 range.  As it got dark I had to crank up my ISO from 400 during the daytime to 2500 at night.  I wanted to keep my speed no slower than 1/100 so I took lots of high ISO shots.  I was using my trusty AF-SNikkor 24-70mm f/2.8G ED most of the day, switching out of my AF-S DX Nikkor 18-200mmf/3.5-5.6G ED VR II early in the day.  I sacrificed a wider focal length on the short end for a couple of stops of aperture.  Good choice.

Almost all of my shots were taken while walking or stopping just briefly enough to steady my camera and get off my shot.  I was walking with my two 20+ year old boys so I decided not to stop to chat up people to take more formalized street portraits.  Anyway, in NYC from experience taking street portraits can be hit and miss. 

When I got home and looked through my photos I was very happy but noticed the colors tended to dominate the image.  Therefore in my post processing I converted several to B&W, which I think worked out well.

Next time I plan taking my tripod and going solo, although being with my boys was a blast.  Oh, by the way I did end up hitting B&H Camera as well.  Icing on the cake.

After action tips: 

·         Be respectful but don’t be afraid to take candid street shots in a city.  OK, some people will give you the evil eye, but people are moving so fast and in their own little word it passes quickly

·         In a street shoot like this it would have been better with a smaller profile prime lens.  Not only does a D300s Nikon with a batter grip stand out, but add a 20-70mm f/2.8 lens and you have a big camera setup.  I probably would have been better bringing my AF-S Nikkor 50mm f/1.4G prime or my AF-S Nikkor 35mm f/1.8G prime.  Faster glass with smaller profile.

·         If you can avoid it don’t take a backpack.  Note to myself, people don’t like getting hit by a backpack when you turn around suddenly.

·         Be careful shooting in some venues or buildings.  Not surprising very few office buildings and museums let you take photos in their facility.  No worries, that’s when my iPhone 4S came in handy.

·         Take every opportunity to shoot photographs.  In a city of any size there are hundreds of photo opportunities.

Shadow Play

Did a “themed” photoshoot with local model Amanda Veldkamp, and local photographer Faith Blackwell at the Stutz Building in Indianapolis.  Great times!  The theme was Shadows.  The idea was to use low light combined with single or multiple speedlights or monolights to create various shadow effects.

I spent hours researching ideas to shoot, lining up the model, planning the makeup (I know, I know sounds silly for a guy to worry about a model’s makeup, but hey got to get the right effect) and arranging the studio.  All came together smoothly, and we started up on time. 

I brought massive amounts of kit with the idea of covering everything.  Once again, as with other shoots I brought way too much equipment.  Oh well, I used to be a Boy Scout, so I wanted to be prepared.  Here was a condensed version of the kit I brought:

• 2 x Nikon SB-600 speedlights
• 2 x LumiQuest Softbox III
• 2 x Elinchrom D-Lite 400 monolights
• 2 x Elinchrom softboxes
• 1 x RPS Studio Softbox RS-4030
• Elinchrom Universal triggers & receivers
• 2 x Manfrotto 5001B lightstands  with the kit for the speedlights
• Various HonlPhoto snoots & flags for the speedlights
• 3 x DIY gobos for the softboxes
• Lastolite Professional TriGrip Reflector
• Nikon D300s
• AF-S Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8G ED
• AF-S Nikkor 50mm f/1.4G prime
• AF-S Nikkor 35mm f/1.8G prime
• Tokina AF 12-24mm f/4 AT-X Pro DX
• AF Nikkor 85mm f/1.8D
• Assorted accessories

I know, I’m exhausted too.  You guessed it I used only a portion of the kit.  I ended up using the speedlights, the RPS Studio Softbox, the snoots & the Elinchrom triggers.  I used my Nikon D300s and the Nikkor 24-70mm almost exclusively.  Now get this people, I also brought an old school Nikon F50 SLR film camera mounted with the 85mm lens.  I shot a roll of B&W film with it.

All shots with the D300s were taken in manual setting.  I started off at 1/160 of a second shutter speed, ISO 400 and aperture set at F/8.  I also set my exposure compensation + 0.3 – 1.0 throughout the shoot.  I found I adjusted the shutter speed and aperture as needed, but kept the ISO fixed throughout the shoot.  We did 4 series, 3 in the studio and 1 in the hallway.  

The first shoot in studio consisted of 1 speedlight with the RPS softbox mounted and a snooted speedlight projecting a light circle behind Amanda against the background.  The background was made of fashion magazine pages taped to the wall.  We moved the softbox around camera right, front and left to get the shadows we liked.  Directing Amanda the entire time.

The next series was the same setup, only without the snooted speedlight but this time against a plain white background.  I won’t go into the details because the light was too bright (very large windows) and I couldn’t get usable shadowing that appealed.

Final studio setup was against a black background which blocked most of the windows.  I used the speedlight/RPS softbox setup camera left.  Again, no kicker or snooted strobe to add any lighting effects. 

The next setup was to move into the bowels of the building and shoot in a VERY dark, long hallway.  It was very industrial, but my type of place.  We had Amanda switch out of a tee-jeans combination into a black dress.  Good choice since it added to the atmosphere.  Also, I didn’t want a pretty girl look, so I asked Amanda to muss up her hair and give me a bit of attitude.  Jackpot people, she was picture perfecto.

All shots in the hall used either the single speedlight / RPS Studio softbox setup, or a single snooted speedlight.  All lighting was off camera with the speedlights mounted on the Manfrotto lightstands.  In ALL of the shots we manually set the speedlights adjusting the power up or down to taste.  We also moved the lighting around to get the desired effect.

The hall shots worked the best for me.  As you might have guessed from earlier posts I like the darker images.  I got a number of great shots in this series.  Also, for the last 30 minutes or so I asked Amanda to get on the floor and prop her legs up against the metal doors, or sit and do various poses.  The floor was cold, but she was a true pro and worked the set very well.  I really liked the shots on the floor.

All-in-all we ended up spending close to 3 ½ hours and took away approximately 500 images.  My shooting partner, Faith, did an equivalent amount.  The entire day was great fun and I ended up with really nice images.  I will definitely do this again.

My after action report:

·         Plan ahead and don’t bring unnecessary kit.  I knew I was going to move around and take different types of shots so I came prepared.  Honestly I could have left ½ of the kit at home

·         Plan your photo style and what you want in advance, but be very flexible.  I had a general idea what I wanted (I bought sketches and sample photos), but after about the 2^nd series I went off script which worked great.

·         Experiment with light.  We tried all types of shadows and I was surprised how hard it was to get the right look. 

·         Plan out the details with your model in advance including time, fee, makeup, clothes, etc.  I wanted to make sure Amanda was prepared.

·         If you don’t have a Nikkor 24-70 F/2.8, do yourself a favor and go get yourself one.  It will set you back, but you will thank me.

Spark Art Photography Party & Photoshoot

Model Angela - 1/200, f/9, 38mm at ISO 400

What started out as a holiday party turned into a really amazing photoshoot.  I was invited by a local Indianapolis model, Amanda Lynn Veldkamp, that I’ve photographed previously, to the 2^nd Annual Spark Art Holiday Party hosted by Dave Fulton at his Spark Art Photography studio on Indianapolis’ north side.

The party was an opportunity for local photographers, models, make-up artists & media to meet and mingle.  Part party and part advertising.  Dave also provided the additional bonus by allowing the photographers to use his lighting equipment and shoot the models.  Guess what I spent my time doing? - talking, introducing myself and shooting.  There was supposed to be a DJ who flaked so I let Dave use my iPhone that had a Dance & Trance mix I use for photoshoots.  It was the perfect music for the scene.

Model Hayley- 1/200, f/13, 66mm at ISO 400

There were approximately 15-20 models from several agencies & independents.  LModelz in Indianapolis brought 9 of their models and were the most active.  They were great.  There were about 5 photographer’s that took turns photographing the models in about 5 minute sessions.  I ended up shooting about 8 of the models and came home with approximately 700 images.

The lighting setup was fairly straight forward.  I was busy shooting and talking so I didn’t pay tons of attention to the lighting setup (kicking myself), but it consisted of a studio strobe mounted with a large softbox and grid.  This light was camera right.  Camera left was a huge reflector panel.  Above the model was another studio strobe with a strip light and grid.  Finally behind the model camera left and right were bare-bulbed studio lights.  After one series we turned off the lights behind the models as they were unneeded.  All lights were triggered with Pocket Wizards.  Behind the models extending to the floor was a black background mounted on the wall.  The entire setup was approximately 8’ x 8’.  It was perfect.

Model Bri- 1/200, f/8.0, 24mm at ISO 400

Model Ebony - 1/160, f/7.1, 35mm at ISO 400

I shot the entire night in manual mode with either my AF-SNikkor 24-70mm f/2.8G ED or AF-S Nikkor 35mm f/1.8G prime lens.  I used my Nikon D300s.  ISO was set at 400 because of the use of the studio lights.  We didn’t adjust the lighting which were a bit hot, so I kept my f-stop f/7 or higher and my shutter speed in the 1/200 of a second range.  I could have gone higher but was running into some flash synch issues when I went much faster.

I also shot a few images of the make-up artists with my aperture wide open and with ISO at 1600 and my shutter at 1/60^th.  Local make-up artist, Sasha Niles-Carnes “Sasha Star”, was working her magic and let me get into her space.  It was fun watching her work.

Make Up Session - 1/60, f/4, 38mm at ISO 1600

Overall a blast.  Great time meeting up with local artist, friends, photographers, models, and lots of pretty people.

My blog post wouldn’t be complete without some after action comments:

·         Bring plenty of business cards.  I took a handful and ran out almost immediately.  That’s the second time. 

·         If you don’t have business cards, bring a notepad and write down people’s names and contact information.  This was handy.

·         Mingle.  I spent about ½ my time just chatting people up.  I really enjoyed mixing the photography with the social event.

·         Watch your histogram.  At first the lights were way too hot (due to the previously mentioned forward facing lights).  If I hadn’t looked at my histogram I would have ended up the entire night with blown out pictures.

·         In a setting like this be courteous to the other photographers.  I worked hard to get in and shoot about 20-30 shots of a model and then hand off to the next shooter.  It would have been a real drag if one of the photographers hogged the set.

·         Watch the angles.  Almost all of the models in their heels were taller than me at 5’9”.  Although this is generally a more flattering angle for the models I did get several shots that needed to be at a higher perspective.

·         Send the models several processed images.  They were doing this for free so show them some love.

·         I’m old school, so I sent the host a hand written Thank You note because I had a great time and he went out of his way to do a good job.  I think this has a better impact than an email, but hey, as I mentioned, old school.

·         Watch your kit. I brought a full camera bag and ended up putting it in the corner. The place was literally shoulder to shoulder with people and it would have been easy, although unlikely, that someone could have walked out with some of my kit.  I ended up putting my bag in my car.  Anyway, I didn’t want anyone to trip over my stuff.

Tribute To A Photographer



A Young Photographer, Husband, Micro Biologist, Man of Faith, Fireman & Family Man

My father passed away this week after 84 great years.  While it’s been a difficult week for the family it’s also been an opportunity to celebrate his life.  One of my Dad’s legacies he passed down to me was his love of photography and technology.  I would have never picked up my passion for photography if it weren’t for him.

My dad always had a camera around his neck capturing life’s moments.  He weaved photography into everything he did from his professional work as a microbiologist, church activities, vacations, as a volunteer fireman, family get-togethers, photos of all of us kids & our children, and much more.  Not only did he photograph everyday events but he also did photography for the art.  I was looking at some of his photographs today and am amazed at how good they are.  I’m convinced he was a photojournalist at heart.

Always had a smile on his face, and a camera around his neck

Getting ready to process some photos he shot

I remember constantly waiting for him to take “one more picture” of us kids.  I found I did the same thing with my kids.  I remember him using vacations as an opportunity to shoot photos.  I find I do the same thing.  I remember to this day the first SLR film camera I purchased with his help, a Canon TX with a Canon 50mm f/1.8mm lens.  All of my friends were in awe of my cutting edge camera.  I still have that camera today.  

Although I don’t remember all the cameras my dad had, I know he had some great ones.  Not only that we had our own DARKROOM!  He built it in a spare bathroom in one of our houses.  My brothers, dad and I spent many hours developing, dodging and burning and processing photos.  

When digital started to overtake film he jumped onboard.  He had a digital camera way before most people did.  He also loved computers and was an original Apple fanboy.  He loved the fact he could combine his love of photography into his passion for computers.  Although based on most of our standards he used pretty basic digital processing software, it suited his purpose.  He loved creating photo cards, award certificates, photo collages, and presentations.  He created his own personal line of photo cards / certificates called Brokards, get it, Brokaw Cards…. He would celebrate all of our kid’s accomplishments with a Brokard, like the cleanest closest award. 

For a guy at his age, although physically he wasn’t able to do as much photography recently, he still talked about photography with me all the time.  I’m sure most of my Flickr views were from him.  He religiously read my blog posts and would comment on what I was doing.  Although I tend to shoot more on the darker side of life he always gave me very constructive comments.  He really enjoyed sharing his views on my images and wanted to know how they were taken.  He was dazzled by my kit and always wanted to see my latest purchase.  I would regularly bring over my equipment and show him how it worked.  He always wanted to know what I was planning to shoot next.

Technology was starting to get ahead of him, but he was not afraid of it.  Just last week I upgraded his laptop computer to a bigger Apple desktop my brother had purchased.  He loved it.  He was even talking about trying out Aperture.  People; please understand he was 84 years old!

I think one of his true passions was being a photographer during his years as a volunteer fireman and shooting everyday objects very artistically.  I was going through a box of his photos today, many I had never seen.  Some of his photographs documenting crash scenes, fires, and training events are amazing.  Some of the photos he took of my mom or everyday objects were great.  He was no noobie when it came to DOF or composition. 

From inside of a firetruck arriving at a motorcycle crash scene

Burning barn at night

 

From inside a firetruck arriving at an overturned truck fire

I am richer in all ways because of my Dad.  The world is a better place because of my Dad.  I am a passionate photographer because of my Dad.  I’ll miss him.