Category Archives: creative

test rolls 3 Comments

Maiden Voyage of the Olympus XA

  

Got these scans from Snapfish on Tuesday, five days after the film was postmarked. I have no complaints about their service, FYI, except that I wish they processed medium format. 😛

About the Olympus XA: OMG, a rangefinder! I’ve never owned one before. See, you look through the viewfinder, and there’s a ghosted image of your subject superimposed on your little view of the scene. When the subject is in focus, the two images become one, giving you the focusing feedback that normal point-and-shoots lack. I like the fact that this will help train my eye regarding distance and focusing.

This is not a shoot-from-the-hip camera like the Lomo. This is a photographer’s compact camera. The user sets the film speed (ISO) and the desired aperture, and the camera’s light meter reads the scene and displays its calculated shutter speed in the viewfinder. This is a good feature, don’t get me wrong, but I do like the Lomo’s ability to do automatic exposure, as well. With the XA, there is no such option.

There are also several features you wouldn’t expect on a compact camera, including backlight compensation, a self-timer… even the light meter is nice to have on such a tiny axe. The lens appears sharp and doesn’t seem to require cleaning, which is good.

The test images were taken around the same time as the Argoflex pics: late September. For a camera comparison, compare the photo of the telephone poles (left) to the photo taken with the Argoflex, and compare the photo of the bench (right) to the Lomo version. (The Lomo version is a much better composition, though, IMO.)

Overall, I’d say I like my XA. It’s all I was hoping for… except no auto mode. That’s a small price to pay for a decent-quality compact camera, though.

test rolls 2 Comments

Maiden Voyages of the Argoflex & the Brownie

My turnaround time from Dwayne’s Photo was much better this time around: 8 days total. Verra nice.

So, the maiden voyage of the Argoflex 75 was back at the end of September — around the 26th or so. I loaded it up and took it to work in my purse, and took a test roll of the path I like to walk during my lunch break. Same old photos, nothing overly original (which, IMO, is good for testing a new-to-me camera, as I know what the images “should” look like).

I noticed that there was some fogging and light leaks, although that could be from the 120 film spooling up on a 620 spool. The two spools have different diameters, so the paper backing and the film itself don’t quite meet up correctly at the end, leaving a bulged and loosely-wound roll of film after exposure.

I also noticed a desaturation of color — as this didn’t happen with my Holga pics, and I used the very same film type, I’m deducing that it’s related to the Argoflex’s lens. I’m actually OK with the saturation level, though, as it adds a certain mood and character to the prints. (Some of the brighter photos are of almost “normal” saturation, though, so it could even be a combination of the lens and the lighting conditions.)

I think I may also have smudged the lens once or twice, as the few out-of-focus spots on the images aren’t always in the same place. 😉 I forgot that I’d taken some long exposures with the “time” feature — looks like the wind was blowing the tree around during the five-second exposure of my street (right).

After seeing the results of the test roll, I think the Argoflex will get a decent amount of use. More so than the Holga, possibly, since the Argoflex is smaller and less bulky, and doesn’t cramp my style when I carry it.

The Brownie’s maiden voyage didn’t go nearly as well. The vintage 127 film I bought off of eBay was pretty much only good for display purposes, as 50-year-old masking tape tends to come loose, resulting in a resounding CRACK when the paper backing pries loose from the film within the camera. So, no vintage-looking 127 photos of the annual Apple Butter Festival, and no Brownie test roll. Yet.

The good news is that J & C Photography sells brand new 127 film (and several otherwise discontinued sizes), so I ordered myself a roll of 127 and a roll of 620 for the Argoflex. I’ve found a couple of places that seem to process 127 film, so we’ll see how this goes.

sewing 4 Comments

Cosplayus Interruptus

I was doing so well. I fabricated a pattern for my skirt. I cut out six flared panels from my blue skirt fabric. I set up the Singer Tiny Serger, serged the six panels together, and serged the waist and hem edges. After that, of course, I needed to sew a straight stitch next to my serging, especially since my cutting wasn’t the straightest, and some of the serging didn’t go through both pieces of fabric. o.O

Seam #1: no problem. Seam #2: no problem.

Seam #3: Houston, we have a problem. The damn machine kept jamming up. Tried a different seam — jammed up again. Opened up the little cubbyhole where the bobbin lives, untangled all the thread therein, and tried again. Still no dice. Finally, I ended up taking apart the little bobbin cubbie… and couldn’t get it back together.

OMG, all momentum had come to a grinding halt. And I had been doing so well.

So, I put the Sheryl Special on the floor and fired up the Schnuth Singer. I hadn’t used it before, so had no idea how to thread, how to wind a bobbin, nada. Jury-rigged some sort of threading that looked reasonable, got some test fabric—

And the same goddamn thing happened.

So, all my momentum’s shot for tonight. I have a skirt that’s pretty much put together, almost, and I have the hard part of sewing pleats still ahead of me. Once I can get one of the sewing machines to work.

This is annoying as fuck. I just need to chill out and clean up my mess and wait for another day.

At least I’ve gotten this far.

Update, Next Day, 7:20pm: I just located a diagram of how to thread the next model up, and I had indeed threaded it incorrectly. Now the tension spring is doing its job, and all is right with the world. Party on.

sewing 2 Comments

Futari no HAATO BARANSU…

Ritsuko Every time I walk into JoAnn Fabrics, I get the feeling that I’m a little out of my element. However… I believe now I have all the necessary fabrics and notions to create Ritsuko’s skirt (see right). I’ll tackle the helmet later.

I think I have a reasonable pattern-plan for making a huge-ass flared pleated skirt. Being a very beginning sewer (er… one who sews? Not a drainage system, kthx), I couldn’t really come up with it myself. So, I combined a tutorial for making a pleated skirt with a tutorial for making a flared skirt… and voila! — a reasonable-sounding (looking?) plan.

However, I am determined to do this right, especially as I only have 4½ yards of medium blue cotton/poly fabric, so I can’t screw this up. My determination not to screw up was only bolstered by the fact that I just spent freaking $42 on my cosplay supplies — and that’s before making the helmet.

One question for those who sew, or who have textile-related ideas: The nice lady at JoAnn’s convinced me that felt was the way to go for the white stripe of trim on the skirt. I can’t really use ribbon, since the pattern will need to be curved to allow for the flare, and any white fabric I found wasn’t thick enough to prevent the blue from showing through when held over it. After buying three yards of white felt, though, I’m having second thoughts. I don’t think the texture of the felt will be appropriate to match with the cotton/poly skirt. I was thinking of something more fake-satiny, or the same cotton/poly as the rest of the skirt, but it’s all so thin it shows the blue through from underneath.

Any solutions to my conundrum? You have a few days to comment, as I plan to wash my blue fabric before sewing, like I’m supposed to. Strict determination to do it right, after all.