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TWiP: Instant Gratification

This Week in Pictures, Week 30, 2021

It’s been a little over two years since I bought my first instant camera, and in that time, I’ve taken a few photos that I love, and a whole lot of photos that are kind of terrible 😬

I don’t know what keeps me plunking down my hard-earned cash on yet another pack of film, or worse, a whole new camera to love/hate, but here we are. As of this week, I’ve got four instant cameras and two and a half photo albums full of evidence of my misadventures.

I do think, though, that I may have finally turned a corner with my latest purchase, a Polaroid OneStep+. My previous Polaroid purchase was a vintage OneStep that disappointed me terribly almost every time I pressed the shutter. I could probably have blamed the finickiness of the Polaroid Originals film (and believe me, I did, often), but I was pretty sure that the camera also played a part in my lack of success.

So, I spent the last of my birthday money on this new camera, and what a great decision that was! I mean it. No sarcasm here.

This camera connects to your phone via bluetooth, and has an app that lets you control all kinds of things, including shooting with manual settings. That, it turns out, has been key to finding more success. (And I’m sure the higher ISO of the film that this camera takes doesn’t hurt.)

Anyway, you will see from my images and video this week that I’ve been having fun playing around, and I finally feel like I am on the road to achieving the vintagey artsy vibe I’m looking for.

Does this mean I am done buying cameras? I thought so, but then I saw this a few days ago, and I’ve been thinking about what that camera can do for my Instax Wide photos, and I just had to put it on my wish list 😁

I think I’m developing a little addiction, LOL!

So, what is This Week in Pictures?

It’s a roundup of the little (and big!) moments I have captured all week. Some of these images are posted on Instagram, but many aren’t posted anywhere but here. Some days there may be no photos, and other days there may be multiples. It’s more laid back than the Project 365s of previous years. You can learn more here 🙂

Photos taken with 📷 (Canon EOS 80D) or 📱 (Samsung Galaxy S9).

TWiP Clips

Here’s a very short video, featuring 1.5-second moments from the week:

Saturday

This week’s color is RED, and the reviews are in:
“Fun!” – me
“Too much.” – my 18yo
😆
My mom grows some really interesting lilies.

Sunday

My new toy has arrived

Monday

My quest to not stink at instant photography continues, with this accidentally artsy print. I have given up on the vintage One Step I had, and today I treated myself to this brand new one, which is either going to prove once and for all that Polaroid film and I are a bad match, or it’s going to show that the vintage model I got was a dud. I’m hoping for the latter. Anyway, one of the cool things about this model is a portrait lens that lets you take pictures from as close as a foot away. So I did. Only, I forgot to actually engage the portrait lens, so everything in the frame is blurry, except for the image of the camera itself that I had aimed the mirror at. It turns out, that’s pretty damn artistic looking, so how about we pretend that I meant to do that, and that I am awesome at this instant film thing?
The setup for the instant photo.
A scan of the instant photo.

Thursday

When your wholly unhealthy breakfast matches your pajama pants

Friday

If there is anything I am learning by playing with my #polaroidonestepplus in manual mode, it’s that there is not as much light in my room as I think there is. I actually really love the morning work-from-home mood of this photo, so I got lucky, but I was surprised it was so dark.
I call this double exposure “Stuck behind a Desk on a Friday Afternoon” 😁

Thanks for helping me celebrate the week! If you want to see this stuff as it happens, please feel free to follow me on Instagram ♥

Same Week Previous Years (2014-2020)

This Week in Pictures, Week 30, 2014 This Week in Pictures, Week 30, 2015 This Week in Pictures, Week 30, 2016 This Week in Pictures, Week 30, 2017 This Week in Pictures, Week 30, 2018 This Week in Pictures, Week 30, 2019 This Week in Pictures, Week 30, 2020

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