Roid Week is a celebration of instant film, on Flickr. See all about it (and other people's photos) here.
This photo was taken on Chippewa Ave. in south St. Louis, not far from my house.
I used a Holga camera with a Polaroid back (affectionately known as a Holgaroid), with Polaroid Type 89 pack film (which is no longer made and past its expiration date by a few years, so I keep my last few remaining packs in the fridge for special occasions, like Roid Week!)
6 days ago
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What a neat idea! - Roid Week! But where does everyone get their Polaroid film? And if not Polaroid - what other INSTANT film exists? Sorry to be so "dense" but I HATE IT when I don't understand totally COOL things! LoL. The sky is SO BLUE in your pic Hilary! Did it really look like that?
ReplyDeleteNot dense at all!
ReplyDeleteWill try to keep this short (but I've warned you about my tendency toward verbosity, plus I'm extra-nerdy about Polaroid!):
Polaroid film was discontinued a few years ago. There is a group of people in Europe, called the Impossible Project, who have tried to revive it, and are making certain types of the films again.
The kind I'm using in these photos is pack film, which comes out of the camera with a negative and a positive, and these are separated after a minute or so, with the positive displaying the photo.
The other main type of Polaroid/instant film (that which would have been available in most discount department/drug/etc. stores a few years back) is integral film. It comes out of the camera in one piece (it's the "shake it like a Polaroid picture" kind.)
The Impossible Project is making integral films again. I haven't purchased any (although I'm very tempted!) because it's a little pricey and something else always seems to come up to spirit away my money.
Evidently integral and pack films were made in very different ways, and the Impossible Project has no way of making the pack film again. I have a few packs of it in my fridge still, from before it was discontinued. I don't get them out too often, because when it's gone, it's gone!
(To further confuse/nerdify matters, last I knew, Fuji still made some pack film, although not the right size for my Holgaroid.)
As far as the blue sky: something about the pack film I'm using (Polaroid type 89) really brings out the intensity of colors, and it loves blue skies, so if it's a sunny day with a very blue sky, that's a good day to haul out the Holgaroid!