Snowpocalypse: Now
For those of us living on the mid-Atlantic coast in America, it’s been a cold and snowy winter so far, dumping far more powder on us already than the past three years combined. Some…okay, most people complain about the nightmare the roads become, or the lack of plowed roadways, or shoveling their buried cars, or even simply that there is snow on the ground. While even I myself am not immune to bellyaching about it occasionally, I firmly prefer a white winter than a liquid one, believing that if it’s this cold, it might as well snow. And with snow, especially blizzard snow, there follows a world of great photo opportunities. Some of us are probably sick of looking at the snow, but then again, you don’t see too many photos of a Philadelphian winter wonderland that look like . They were taken using my Holga 120 CFN on 35mm film, the winds and snowfall were in full effect, as captured in these images, I needed to employ a balaclava and goggles to negotiate and photograph the terrain.
I think some of the angles and framing methods, done both through the viewfinder and in post-processing, are inspired by those winter shots I posted about last year, from Vladimir Livkovic, along with trying harder to apply what I’ve learned about the philosophy of the image, and general design sensibilities. I originally intended to shoot these in Black & White film, but decided instead to keep it with color and convert to B&W in post, so I shot with this in mind, knowing that color isn’t really needed in such ubiquitous white and grey. Finally, when working with the curves and levels while post-processing in Ps, I tried to focus on bringing out the contrast between the snow and what it was covering, and the sky or horizon, diluted to the point of blotching out the sunlight. The resulting images communicate the snowfall clearly, the forceful movement or tranquil stagnance, in some cases both, of this beautiful phenomenon of nature all too often taken for granted by us grumbling commuters with too much to do to stop and admire the view. Always remember to take a moment to admire the view.
Posted in Photography Posted by Alex on Feb 18 2010 12:00 pm
4 Responses to “Snowpocalypse: Now”
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on 18 Feb 2010 at 12:55 pm # Leon Barnard
How did you shoot 35mm on your Holga 120? It requires some kind of trickery, right?
on 18 Feb 2010 at 1:10 pm # jeremy
they look great, nicely done
on 18 Feb 2010 at 1:16 pm #
Leon- aye, a little trickery, but it’s surprisingly easy and DIY. You just need some sort of firm, but semi-soft material (ie. some kind of styro-esque foam or a sponge) cut into 2 squares small enough to fit into the film well, they will book-end the 35mm and hold it in place. The film roll should still sit in the center to properly catch the image (which will expose the entire film, including sprockets, good luck finding a way to develop it to show them tho), and you need to tape the film to other spool for winding, some people use rubber bands as guides to keep the film in place (I haven’t needed em yet, but every Holga is unique in its needs). You also need to tape up the red slider thingy that shows how many exposures you have left for 120, as 35mm has no backing and will expose, as well as keep track of your film winding (30-34 clicks should advance the frame, but I’ve had issues with inconsistency even with this method, it’s kind of a crapshoot). Finally, when you’re done shooting, 35mm needs to be manually removed from the camera and re-wound, so do it in a safe, dark environment. There are more materials on google I’m sure, but that should get you set up.
on 19 Feb 2010 at 6:19 am # Leon Barnard
Alex,
Super. Thanks for the info, can’t wait to try it.