Friday, August 10, 2007

Lost Phoenix, found...

Had jury duty today and was lucky enough to be let out after only an hour and a half. Since I was downtown, I decided to drive around just south and shoot some pictures. It's an interesting area. Pretty trashy, but it's a mix of barrio, art galleries, railways, industrial complexes, abandoned houses (and houses that look like they should be abandoned but aren't), and lots of dust and palm trees. I like to go down there when I can, but there are some areas I don't think I would walk through. There are a few areas that probably aren't all that safe to drive through, but seem to be less dangerous than some of the areas in south Chicago I've been through...but maybe that's because the sun is always shining. I took my very best camera with me. Well, my very best panoramic camera. Well, my only panoramic camera. It's called...well, it doesn't even have a name. I bought it at Goodwill for a couple bucks. I'm guessing it probably cost less from the Dollar Store it came from originally.




Your basic "Made in China" point-and-shoot. It is fancy enough that you have to have the shutter open or it won't fire. And it is quite sturdy...built better than some cheap-o cameras I've seen. You can see by the back view that all it really does is block off the top and bottom of a 35mm frame, giving you a really tiny, long, grainy shot. I love it. Though I must be stupid, or really out of practice with cameras that don't have a barrel, because my thumb or finger ended up in almost half the shots. I vote for the latter, but I'm sure some think the former. I didn't bother scanning any of those. Enough talk, more pictures!







This part of town is right along the flight path for Sky Harbor, so I shot a bunch of airplane photos. I stuck some of the together. Figured it made them a little less boring. Lotsa flare...though might need more flare.


So that's it! A nice little crappy camera! You can find a pile of these things at most thrift stores. I may pick a few more someday and see if I can pull them apart and do something fun with them.
Heading back up north in a few days...with a bunch of cameras, of course. Need to figure out what I'm going to do, though, so I don't just end up with 100 more shots of the desert and forests. At least it should be cooler!

2 comments:

  1. Anonymous2:43 AM

    Ha! I have this camera and love it.
    It's great for street photography because it's so unobtrusive, there's nothing threatening about it all but the pictures are pretty decent.
    http://www.flickr.com/photos/janeway/27840598/in/set-518510/

    I also keep meaning to pick up more in thrift shops to handout to friends but I haven't seen any for ages now.

    (came across this article via Nicolai's blog btw)

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  2. Anonymous6:41 AM

    And I came across you via Vicky's flickr stream ;-)

    I saw some other photos from this camera at Kuvausta's blog a while ago (http://www.willipikseli.com/kuvausta/), and was enthralled. I put them out of my mind though.

    Then fast forward to seeing Vicky's photos, and the link here. Your b/w ones are great. For such a cheap camera it's a great way to experiment with different aspects. I really like the quadtych(?).

    Hopefully I'll be experimenting myself soon too ;-)

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