Vintage Camera Box Promo Images

I love old, vintage, product boxes.

Old advertising, old boxes, old packaging - I love it.  I love the simplistic design.  So elegant.

Someone sent me this old Polaroid box in the mail because I wanted to scan it in and print it out to hang on my wall.  Then I started toying with the idea of taking the design elements and making them into business promo's for my photography.  It seemed like a fun idea to try, so I spent an afternoon scanning old camera-related boxes and turning them as closely as I could into promo pieces that I could use to mail to companies and places I'd like to work with.  A kind of elbow-in-the-ribs private in-joke to those who see it.  Maybe some will get it and laugh.  Maybe some won't understand.

Fujifilm box

Kodak film box

Impossible Project box.  Yeah, this one isn't vintage, but I love the nod to the Polaroid colors it uses.  and I love that SCP font; all nice and thin and long.

I don't know if I'll actually print these and send them out, but I thought they came out pretty cool.  Definitely fun.  And that is the most important thing.  Fun.  Humor.  Good times.

Portraits of the Camera Family (The Cam Fam)

Professor Hasselblad • Very popular with his students, Professor Hasselblad seems to be able to do everything and with fabulous results.  He remains very adaptable at almost any situation.  He prides himself on the Cult following that he has.  Very smart, elegant and well designed.

I created a small portrait series a few months ago.  I decided to take portraits of some of the cameras that inhabit my studio and that I work with.  I imagined what their family hierarchy would be like, what job each of them would have.  What their personalities would be like.  What they would dress like.

This was a fun little project I did that didn't take nearly as long as I hoped it would, and seeing these images makes me laugh.

Modern Mr. Canon • Mr. Canon seems to be always taking pictures.  He loves being a tourist.  He's the first one to start shooting while on vacation.  Oddly, he has reached an almost obsessive-level with pixel size.  He can be found frequenting many establishments with others of his kind arguing about megapixels, dynamic range and how some of his like-minded kind obviously have too much crammed into their sensor.

Diana (a.k.a. The Hipster) • She loves Joan Jett, Lita Ford and Riot Grrls.  She takes images that look other-worldly, dream-like and she does it with little effort.  She doesn't have to try, because that's simply the way she was made.  She's a bit of a rebel.  She wouldn't be caught dead being seen with the rest of the family.  She keeps it simply but makes images like a million bucks.

Mrs. Pinhole • A naturalist at heart.  She loves landscapes and things untouched by man.  Handmade.  She can be extremely detailed and prides herself on it.  While everyone else fidgets with gears and switches and sensors and lenses and mechanisms, she believes all you really need is a light tight box and the prick of a pin to do the job with elegance.

SX-70 • Always spitting things out of his mouth with a loud "*Bleauuuuugh!*".  You can never shut him up.  Always the first one to show everyone exactly what he's saying.  Instant gratification.  Recently became a rap star.  You may have heard his most famous rap: "Bad Ass Pitchas".  Can also become very Hipster when he gets too much attention.

Doctor Toyo • Toyo is the family's grandfather.  He endlessly rants and raves about how things "used to be", about respect for the craft, about all these new silly gadgets and digital and .....!  Despite his angst and bitterness, he can still produce a gorgeous image, and he enjoys all this "free-lensing" that people to trying to imitate him.  He also refuses to acknowledge that silly lens known as the "lensbaby".

Doctor Land • While not as old as Dr. Toyo, Doctor Land is close.  He is SX-70's much older brother.  So old that you have to question their age difference.   Dr. Land does one thing and does it elegantly, and despite being so old, he's beginning to make a little bit of a comeback, embracing attention from the Hipster crowd ;)  He likes to dress all in black.  Kinda like Steve Jobs.

mike and todd, pittsburgh nh

Mike

Todd

I've known Mike and Todd since we were in middle school.  Growing up, I had two groups of friends who I cherished equally; these guys were the kids that I made low budget music videos with and went 4-wheeling and played CB Tag with.  So much of who I am was formed with these guys.

Todd and Mike own a camp up in Pittsburg NH (12 miles from the Canadian border) and during Labor Day weekend last year we all went up with our spouses and had a billion laughs and just spent quality time hanging out, telling stories and basically doing *nothing*, but the kind of nothing that is worth its weight in gold.  The kind of nothing you cherish because it is spent with dear friends who have thirty years of history together.

While up there, I took some shots of Todd and Mike with their ATV's.

the perfect bag for the perfect camera

I'm a bag freak when it comes to camera bags.  I'm like the stereotypical female with shoes when it comes to camera bags.  Over the last few years I've done pretty well with switching over to nothing but Think Tank stuff and I've totally happy with that.

But.

I've been trying to shoot more film the last few years and I've been trying to dust off the Hasselblad and shoot more with it.  But something kept nagging at me about carrying around the Hasselblad in a contemporary camera bag.  It's silly, I know, and totally materialistic, but it's like the Hasselblad was trying to tell me that it wanted something else.  Something special.  And it deserves special.

At first I thought about getting a Domke bag, which all serious camera enthusiasts consider the Rolls Royce of camera bags, but I wanted something else.  I wanted something that not only could be a camera bag, but could also be a day-to-day satchel bag that I could put all my stuff in when I go back and forth to work.  The Domke's are nice and all, but they didn't satisfy my want for something that could double as both, but still have the charm and elegance that my Hasselblad wanted.

Then, one chilly fall day, Sara and I were at King Richard's Faire (which you all should go to at least once to experience it's awesomness).  While we were walking around looking at awesome leather outfits and elf costumes and jousting matches, we stumbled across a leathersmith who made leather satchel bags and leather journal covers.

I was instantly smitten with the bags and dragged out as much time as I could looking at each one and touching them.  Sara was doing the same with the leather purses they were selling.

Instantly, I knew that one of these bags was the bag that the Hasselblad wanted to be carried around in.  I could almost here it speaking to me: "Yes!  You've found it!  Where has this been all my life!"

So Sara bought a leather purse and I bought a leather satchel bag.  I was a little nervous at first because I didn't know if I would be able to find a camera insert that would fit the bag.

When we got back from the faire I went to Amazon and found the Tenba Removable Photo Insert and ordered it with my fingers crossed.  When it arrived, it fit absolutely perfectly.  It was a perfect fit.  It was like it was made to compliment this bag.  It was a match made in heaven.

The bag itself is a beautiful dark leather with multiple pockets inside.  The lining is a deep green boat lining.  When I'm not using it for the Hasselblad, it fits all kinds of stuff and has a few smaller zippered compartments and an outside compartment that buckles close.  That bag itself closes with two straps that buckle down.  I've had it for about six months now, and with daily use the leather is starting to get nice and soft.

The only negative thing I have to say about the bag is really about the seller.  When I bought the bag the seller (Earthbound Leather Journals & Bags out of Mass) said the bags have a guarantee that if any repairs need to be done to the bag, have them done locally and then scan and send the receipt to the seller and they will reimburse what was spent.  A few weeks after owning the bag, one of the seams came undone on one of the internal pockets, and I took it to my local cobbler who repaired it for the low cost of 10 bucks.  I emailed Earthbound anyway just to see if they would reply, and they never did.  They ignored the emails I sent to them, and I recently saw that their website was no longer in existence.  I'm guessing Earthbound doesn't really make the bags themselves, but they order them, perhaps from overseas, and simply sell them.  So while I won't recommend Earthbound to anyone, I will say that if you can find a local bag maker that makes leather bags, to definitely treat yourself to one.

But I'm totally in love with it.  My Hasselblad is totally in love with it.  It makes the perfect rustic, vintage-style bag to carry around my Hasselblad kit (body, lens, light meter, film and a polaroid back) and It looks incredibly classy.

I feel like my Hasselblad and I have come to the same conclusion - we are both in love.

P.S. - Sara loves her leather purse as well.

Edit: It turns out goat leather bags are allllll over places like eBay and Alibaba and Amazon, for a much, much lower cost than what we paid.

I love the bag, but I wouldn’t recommend the seller I purchased these from - compared to where you can get them online, he was 5x the price. Now I know.

And knowing is half the battle.

Amy's back!

It's Amy!!  She needed a few head shots for an upcoming musical she was going to be in, and I'll use any excuse to get together with Ames and hang out and have some laughs.

She also came through town to Studio 99 with a new band she's putting together with singer/songwriters Danielle Miraglia and Jen Kearney, who I think are naming themselves "Feather Balboa".  Yup.  It's amazing hearing singers with real chops all harmonizing together.  Angelic.

Vermont mini-vacation!

Back at the beginning of May, Sara and I took a mini-vacation up to Vermont for an extended weekend.  Just to get away and recharge a little.  I brought a bag with some film and the Hasselblad and some various Polaroid cameras and took some shots throughout our little weekend trek, just stopping wherever inspiration hit me to stop and take a photograph.

When we travel, I always let Sara make the plans for where we are going to stay, because she finds the most beautiful places.

This time, she booked us at the Grist Mill House Bed and Breakfast in South Woodstock, Vermont.  It is a gorgeous renovated Grist Mill from the late 1700's.  Gorgeous doesn't do it justice - it was amazing and beautiful.  We had access to the main floor and the upstairs which housed our bedroom.  The common room was just a fantastic place to relax and chat.

(Polaroid of Queechee Gorge, Queechee VT)

(random VT road, Hasselblad)

More images from our trip can be seen behind the cut:

(random VT road, Hasselblad)

(Abandoned barn, Queechee VT, Hasselblad)

We are already planning our return to the Grist Mill House.  It was such an awesome place, and the owners were fantastic to chat with.  They have relatives here in Nashua NH.  Small world.

Portrait of the Photographer when young (with Polaroids)

Two things about this picture amaze me.  The first is that my obsession with hats never went away.  The second is that even at an early age, I was making photographs.

I think I am about 5 or 6 when this image was taken.  It is of me and my mother standing in the driveway of the house I grew up in.  I remember my father pulling this camera out of his car and taking an instant picture with it.  It must have been the first time I saw an instant Polaroid, because I remember thinking he was doing magic tricks in our driveway.

I know it can be lame to try to pull the "y'know, I've been taking pictures since I can remember. . ." route; it seems like every photographer's bio says that in some form or fashion.

But, as lame as it might seem, this picture can attest that I've always played with pictures.  It is one of the things that has remained with me since I was a child.

I love photography.

polaroid sx-70: 40th anniversary!

Happy Birthday SX-70! The Polaroid SX-70 turns 40 years old today. This gorgeous piece of technology folds down into a slim, streamlined case and is a very interesting and beautiful instant camera. I received mine as a gift for Christmas by my buddy Martin and he also gave me a pack of Impossible Project film with it, which I still haven't opened up. In celebration of it's birthday today, I set up some lights and took his portrait.

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instant film: having fun with counting

Back when I was shooting film, my LCD screen was a Polaroid that I'd pop after setting up lights or getting a composition set up.  I'd set things up, take a Polaroid, wait the 20 seconds for it to develop, then check my lighting, then adjust to taste.  When people ask "But how did you do things before having an LCD screen to look at?" well, we did it with Polaroids. Anyway, I've been shooting with the Hasselblad and it's Polaroid back lately, trying to work it into my regular shooting, and I'm having so much fun pulling Polaroids and then scanning them into the computer to add to my sessions.

I love the process of Polaroids - taking a shot, counting out the seconds it takes to develop, then magically pulling the paper back and revealing a black & white image, almost instantly!  Instant film is magical in a way that digital can't recreate, and I'm so happy that I've been restocking the studio fridge with Instant film again.

(above: a recent order of Fujifilm packs arrive at the studio.)

Here are some images I've been taking as I've been working with Musician and Band clients:

(above: Myles Moriarty)

(above: A still life shot used as an album-cover mockup)

(above: Triple Shot Factory Funk)

(above: Matt Jackson recording vocals at The Space, Lowell MA)

(above: Mike Loce)

I love shooting loose with Polaroids.  I love the slightly sloppy feel I can get by slightly overexposing.  I love that it looks like film because it IS film.  I love ripping the Polaroid out of the back and hearing the *ziiiiiiiiip* it makes.  I love counting down the seconds until it's ready.  I've missed shooting them.  It was like a cool breeze blowing when I started ripping them again, like an old friend.

I'm sorry that I left my film gear in the cabinets for so long.  It's nice to be able to take them out and have discussions again.