Instax-A-Day, Year in Review

Well, 2011 is done, and so is the first year of Instax-A-Day. I did it! 365 days, 1 instax a day, no do overs. (And no minimal cheating!)  It’s really an interesting thing to take a picture a day. I remember something specific about every single one of the photos—sometimes where we were, sometimes exactly what we were doing, and almost always what emotion I was trying to document. I think I’m going to keep the project going (though it is expensive), but this year there won’t be a specific theme. I’m looking forward to taking pictures of something else, frankly. Should the project fall by the wayside, I will definitely come back to it for the same year of duckling’s life. It’s a good year to document day-by-day.

Anyway, Happy New Year. And for your viewing pleasure—the whole of Instax-A-Day for 2011.

Music: When My Boy Walks Down the Street & Absolutely Cuckoo by The Magnetic Fields

New Year

Is it February yet? No? Oh good. So that means I can still post all the 2010 retrospectives and New Year plans without guilt, right? Right?

I’m not making any resolutions for this year, but I have begun a new (rather ambitious, I think) project for 2011. I present to you: INSTAX-A-DAY. Enjoy.

Travelling Light

Today I put my foot down, and left the D700 (and 24-70mm lens) at the hotel, so I could travel “light”. Let’s be clear: travelling light refers to weight, not bulk. I may have cut down the weight of my bag by at least 50%, but I only left only 1 camera behind. In fact, I had more room for film this way!

Hubby blogged about it, and it made me laugh. Notice I also have a baby strapped to me in this picture (you can see his foot poking out behind my hand).

My bag felt so light I was checking it all day thinking someone had picked something out of it. I may be small, but it looks like I was made to be a pack mule.

Impossible Project

Silver Shade develops to a monochrome sepia tone, but when it comes out of the camera it’s a brilliant royal blue. I just had to snap a picture of this polaroid while it was still in transition.

At least I didn’t tweet it

When my best friend’s sister (sorry, Maya, I know you read this blog) was a baby, her grandmother proudly “saved” her first poo in the potty so her parents could see it when they got home from work. She put the potty out of the way, and covered it (and the poo) with a paper towel. I thought that was gross. And weird. And I guess it was. I mean, I know the first poo in the potty is a huge step in a baby’s life, but wouldn’t a retelling of the momentous occasion suffice? ‘Cause that’s poo laying around your house.

Well people, I normally hate the phrase “as a parent” because I think it’s unfair and completely pretentious to assume someone can’t understand something if they’re not a parent themselves, but seriously what I just did may be something you will only get as a parent. I just took a picture of Samson’s first poo on the potty so that Hubby could see it when he got home. I can’t believe it–I was so proud of the bowel movement my kid made not in his pants that I needed to document it. I was giddy! The phone shook as I took it! And since it’s rather dark in our laundry room, I had to take several–just to get the composition and focus right.

Know what? When Hubby came home he wasn’t grossed out! He cradled the phone, giggling. “But he didn’t actually do this on the potty, did he?” “Yes! He did!” And then he cradled the phone HARDER.

What a wonderful world I live in that I can take a picture of poo and not have to send my film to a lab to scare some poor technician. Technology saved me the trouble of trying to save the poo for Hubby in the potty, cause I’ll tell ya–no paper towel is going to keep my hound away from poo laying around the house.

And you know what I couldn’t help but think as I was snapping that photo? That ’round the world, I’m sure, POLAROID was wasted on poo shots. I thought that for an  instant. And then, so proud of my boy, I thought, it was probably worth it.

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Of Note’s taking a short break, and will be back next week!

Impossible Project (Now Possible)

The Impossible Project of re-inventing instant film for Polaroid cameras is now possible.

From what I can gather Impossible Project is currently selling their new black & white film for SX-70 cameras, and will introduce colour film sometime in the summer. At some point, they will also be making 600 film. Meanwhile, they have a bunch of carefully stored and tested original film for sale as well, packed in limited edition modern sleeves, designed by Paul Giambarba.

 

I cannot stop browsing the site. AND WANT TO BUY EVERYTHING.

I’m most fascinated by the manipulable film. If you think capturing a fleeting moment is hard with regular film, just imagine the possibilities with this:

SX-70 FadeToBlack is an experimental film made from expired time-zero chemicals. These expired chemicals lend the film a constantly mutating color palette, without manipulation the film will turn totally black after 24 hours.

Ordinary Day

You’re taking a nap with your little one; he’s on your chest, breathing deeply, snoring a little bit. You’re out walking your dog, and the forest smells particularly fresh that day. You wake up early, creep out onto the deck, so as not to wake your loved one, have your morning coffee in silence, the air is still a bit moist from the night before, and then as you finish your cup, he comes around behind you and kisses you, right behind your ear. And you think, this, THIS is the moment I want to remember. But you don’t. You remember birthdays and trips and bigger, more documented events.

I pretty much always have a camera attached to me (whether it’s some LATFH incarnation or my D700), so we’re pretty good about catching more ordinary moments, but still there are photos I wish I had just stopped waiting to take until the time was perfect, because I’ve already missed some of those moments, and Samson’s only 5 1/2 months old. I know Bobbi thinks parents are doing their kids a disservice with pics using your camera phone, but I think if you have a decent enough phone, it’s the perfect tool to catch those ordinary, day-to-day occurrences. Combine that with twitter, and suddenly you have a record of your kid’s early life for when you don’t remember anymore. Also, I like to think that Samson and his friends will be nostalgic for those grainy pics, just as we are nostalgic for polaroid and film.

Inspired by Katrina Kenison reading from her book, The Gift of An Ordinary Day (warning: you will cry—the video’s at the bottom of this post), I took some pictures of Samson this week. I didn’t pick a special outfit, I didn’t wipe up his mouth or style anything around him. I stopped hoarding my remaining polaroids and just took some photos when we were hanging out in the kitchen, as we do every day.

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Post-Mortem

Well, it’s March. Craft Month has come to a close. I won’t be dissecting how well it went–that’s boring. Crafting will remain a regular feature here, not to worry. I have a whole ToDo List dedicated to it. In the meantime, I’m glad I’ll be able to post some content not having to do with crafts (guilt free!).

Here are some Polaroids from Saturday’s walk to Cherry Beach.

I really hope the rumours about the Polaroid factory becoming operational are true. I’m getting pretty good at these.