Hollyhocks! I have a few coming up, but not like these. There is a garden in our neighborhood which is one of my faves to visit when out on a walk. I spoke with the lady of the house about it one day, and she said, “I just throw extra seeds over the fence.” Well, she might, but whatever she does, it works!
Taken with a Trip 35 and Fuji Superia 200. And finally developed.
Before I got the idea of having the DH print a flash cover for the Instax Wide 300, I took a picture of the studio. With flash, everything in the foreground was visible and the picture was rubbish. It had that classic flash-look so common in photos of yore. So, I covered the flash with my hand as I took the picture. The evidence of not needing the flash all the time is evident here.
Someone sez I should get the Lomo wide . . . 😉
Another instant photo taken with the Instax Wide 300. More monochrome film (why don’t they just say “black and white”?). No flash, and no flash cover. Instead I judiciously placed the center of the lens – there is a circle you can use to set up your image – on the bright left corner of the couch. Here it is, straight from the camera’s whatever. This one I like.
If you use the Instax Wide 300 by Fuji, you know that it has a flash that won’t be turned off. As a result, flash goes off when you don’t want it and can over expose your picture and waste film. Instax film doesn’t cost an arm and a leg like the Polaroid film does, but it still is annoying to not have control over that darned flash.
Enter Thingiverse, the world of free patterns for 3D printers. My husband has one and makes some really cool things. I looked, sought, and found a cover for the 300 Wide’s flash. You can find it here: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2788611 – and it works really well! From the site, this is what things look like – screen dump of the cover. Notice it has sticky foam tape or something to help keep it on the camera itself. It helps to keep the cover from sliding away from the flash as you move the camera. I don’t have any foam tape, but made sure the flash was covered, and it worked out nicely, as you will see below.
This is how it looks on the camera itself – again, pictures are from the Thingiverse site – click on the picture to enlarge it.
Notes from the Thingiverse site for the flash cover mention that if you make one in black, it shuts out a lot of light; a white one works more as a diffuser. My husband had hot pink set up on his printer, I had black and white film in the Instax, and I think the pink could have acted as a sort of red filter. Dunno. As we have a lot of different colors for the 3D printer, guess who is going to try them all out once they are printed?
Here are the two pictures taken a couple of minutes apart to check out the flash cover. The first one is without the flash cover. I shot this out the studio window around 8:30 this morning, facing east, where the sun comes up. (I always have to say to myself, “And the sun sank slowly in the west” to remember which direction it rises – oh, well!) Pow! The flash went off.
And now, with my hot pink, newly printed flash cover, here is approximately the same image with the diffuser on.
Once more, the flash flashed, but was not flashing all over things. And it produced a rather pleasantly darker picture. Because the film is black and white, I expect the picture is not picking up the finer gradations of color it could. The window is blown out. But does it matter? I don’t think so. I am curious to see what will happen with color film, which I will load up when I finish this black and white.
I cannot say enough good things about Thingiverse. If you have a 3D printer or know someone who will print for you, not only can you find this flash cover, but also other cool photography stuff, like film uptake spools, pinhole cameras for 35mm and 120 (I have one yet to be tested out), 35-to-120 adapters, and who knows what else. Totally cool stuff if you like to play around, which I do, and certainly does Mr. D.
Toys! Toys! Toys!
It has been absolutely perfect weather around here – 72F, clear skies, and just spring-moving-into-summer!
On a day like this, it is silly not to pick up your butt, pick up your camera, and get out of the house. Today I loaded up the Instax Wide 300, and meandered through the neighboring college campus.
It is deserted. Consequently, as with elsewhere, wildlife is taking over.
Birds, squirrels, crows, rattle snakes, bunnies, and even coyotes. Crows were everywhere.
The wilder parts of the campus are overgrown with mustard and fennel.
It was great to feel a bit lost in the wild, but I also kept a sharp eye out for rattlers – not something you want to run into.
Tomorrow I think I’ll head out to the local creek.
Ink, Yarn & Beer 