2022: 29 Film Swap / Destruction

July 16, 2022

Last year I participated in a film swap, sponsored by the great folks at Lomography. They connected film shooters from all over the world to collaborate on a film sharing project (you shoot a roll of film and then send it to the assigned person to shoot the roll again in their camera…double exposures!) Last year’s project was so much fun I decided to throw my hat in the ring again this year.

My roll of film arrived this week from Perth, Australia(!) so I was excited to run it through one of my cameras as soon as the grips of Covid released me from being homebound. After shooting and processing, I noticed the doubles didn’t come out as prominently as expected. The iso rating / underexposure approach didn’t yield clear double exposures. Having been granted permission by my shooting partner, I decided to inflict my (soon to be patented) creative destruction approach to the processed film.

Bleach, flame and dirt was inflicted on the negative strips. I took a fairly haphazard approach to this destruction, not really caring if I went too far with it. The results are very much to my liking and my Aussie friend was pleased as well. Some traditional shooters may cringe at this approach, but I find it liberating to succumb to the happenstance of pouring bleach onto of a strip of film. And one thing is assured, this definitely creates one of a kind images.

2021: 30 Lomography Film Swap; Part Three

July 24, 2021

Wow, I shot a roll of color, after it was exposed by Lomo-friend Shaiana in Hong Kong. Really wild, cross-global results.

2021: 29 Lomography Film Swap, Part Deux

July 16, 2021

I took part in another film swap, this time with troch, a great, experimental photographer based in BC. We had to improvise and sandwich two rolls together, but still really pleased with the unexpected complexity and fun to be found in this process.

Here are the results:

2021: 28 Lomography Film Swap

July 10, 2021

I like to tell myself that I’d never join a cult, although the matching outfits does have some appeal. The closest I’ve come to this kind groupthink is in improv, and of course, in my passion for film photography. We film heads are niche dwellers, for sure, and there is a particular sect that I’ve grown extra fond of, the good folks who populate the world of Lomography. I’ve been posting my film-based work on my “LomoHome” for quite some time now, and I genuinely appreciate the audience there. In fact, it’s much more than an audience, it really feels like a community.

A few months ago I answered a call for Lomographers interested in taking part in a film swap. The idea is that one person shoots a roll of film, then sends it on to another person to run the same roll through their camera. After processing, magical, serendipitous double exposures are revealed. Of course, the chances of crystal clear, sensical images are next to nil. Instead, the overlapping images create their own unique look. And when you compound this randomness with the fact that the images are from two very different locations…well, that’s when wonders appear.

I was sent a roll of black and white film with a fellow Lomographer from Germany. Their location was a nice foil for the urban desert shots of my southwest US environs. I am pleasantly surprised by the number of “winners” we achieved on this shared roll. But even more satisfying was the opportunity to collaborate with a another like-minded film shooter, especially since our shared roll is part of a larger group of over fifty film shooters.

Enjoy the gallery below and keep an eye out for more to come.

2021: 21 A Complete Meltdown

May 22, 2021

Shooting film sets its own limitations on the photographer. You don’t work with a “raw” file… a pristine, neutral “capture.” A digital file ready and waiting for its pixels to pushed and pulled in countless directions. Film has boundaries inherent in its manufacture. Light sensitivity in particular, but also more simple restrictions, such as “black and white” or “color.” I recently picked up a couple of rolls from the great folks at Lomography. All were color film, and the one that I was most looking forward to playing with was their Lomochrome Purple offering. Color shifting is inherent in this particular film, with greens shifting to purple, and reds and blues being accentuated in an unpredictable manner. I decided to expose the film on my recent sojourn to the deserts of Arizona. I figured the flora and fauna of springtime would be an excellent opportunity to test the boundaries of this film.

Upon development (at my local film lab) I scanned the resulting negatives. I must be honest, I wasn’t initially pleased with the results. Maybe I just don’t like the color purple (sorry, Prince) but I was underwhelmed by the images, save for a few photos that had more going on from a compositional standpoint. Working in color is always a stretch for me, but this particular exercise was beyond what I would consider a success. I scanned the film, posted a few of my favorites online, and put my negative binder back on the shelf.

…and then this week I took another look at the negatives. This time, I decided that a drastic revisit was in order. In a move now familiar to a few friends (and the handful of readers to this blog) I released my toolkit of scissors, tape, bleach, sandpaper and heat gun onto the unsuspecting strips of film. My dulled Xacto blade was surely striking a dagger into the ghost of Ansel Adams. I’ve been obsessed with Julian Schnabel lately, and the time in my studio, with the scent of burning plastic mixing with the warming New Mexico spring air, was driving me to channel his heroic attitude towards image making to the extreme. I approached the film with reckless abandon, not giving a f*ck about the results. The process of destruction being the act of creation was all that mattered.

As for the results, I am much happier now. Bleach and heat transformed the Lomo-color-shift into another realm. Is it good? Debatable. Is it art? Probably. Is it satisfying? Definitely.

2021: 14 Hey, Lomography!

April 3, 2021

Short and sweet this week, since I actually just emerged from 5 days in the high desert of West Texas… a HUGE thank you to the great folks at Lomography for a featured article on their website and social media platforms that hits today. A nice deep dive into my latest “destruction” series, featuring (tongue in cheek) easy to follow instructions… so you too can make your own mess. All kidding aside, at numerous times in my life, Lomography films and cameras have inspired and reinvigorated my photography. It is indeed an honor to have my work featured by these film renegades.

Check out the full feature here:
https://www.lomography.com/magazine/346051-5-1-mastering-the-art-of-hand-manipulation-with-nick-tauro

Gear Review: Quad-Cam Film Camera

November 18, 2020

Here’s a gift for all the gear junkies out there. I’m jamming out another camera review!

Hey all you Sony ABc200x shooters! Calling all the Fujifilm fanboys! No, I’m not gonna sway you towards a Ricoh Daido GR5000, or micro 2/3 or 3/4 or 16/18th crop sensor, digital paperweight. I’m talking about a film camera. Not the YouTube, flavor of the month, medium format 6x7, or one of those Hasselblad panos that will cost you your first child. I’m not even drinking the Lomography kool-aid today (though to be fair, that cult saved my life, in the early 00’s, before it was cool to hate on Lomo…) but I digress. I’m going to wax poetic about the craptastic, plastic, 35mm film camera, known to me as the “Quad-Cam.” Damn, they even have one of these gems in the Cooper Hewitt / Smithsonian Design Museum, so you know it’s legit.

I wish I could tell you the technical specs of this wonder of post-modern technology, but the model I own did not come with much details. So instead, I’ll share some info I cribbed from an eBay post (apologies to whomever this is lifted from…)

The camera takes four consecutive pictures on a 24x36mm negative as the shutter spins round like clockwork. With fixed focus and shutter speed (about one second in total, so 1/4 second for each shot) and aperture. Pictures with four images taken after one another can be great fun. It works especially well with frantically moving people or sports. The shutter is a small plastic rotating disc placed behind the lenses. This disc has one small opening and in combination with the four light chambers, it gives four exposures. The Camera has four 26mm f/11 lenses and that everything from 1.2m to infinity is in focus. The shutter speed is set at 1/100s with .22 second intervals between each frame. The film advance is a thumb wheel cog. When loaded with film this also cocks the shutter. The camera has a small frame counter in the bottom that is automatically reset when you open the back. Pictures are composed through a folding frame finder on top.

Yada, yada, yada… all this info kind of goes out the window when you shoot with this camera. The only thing you have control over is 1) choice of film; and 2) where you point this thing. I found (PRO TIP) that ASA 100 film seems to work best, at least in this gorgeous New Mexico daylight. You might want to use ASA 200 or 400 if you live in a less-bright environment. My roll of ASA 400 was horribly overexposed. The sequence of exposures moves pretty quickly, so I would suggest moving the camera while you shoot, if you are shooting a non-moving subject… at least you’ll get four slightly different images on each frame of film. If you are shooting moving subjects, try not to move at all, and let the camera spin its magic. I really wish there was more control over the speed of the four exposures.

So, on to the results. There is something I really like about the grouping of four images on one standard 35mm frame. The image quality is surprisingly better than expected, from a shitty, fixed focus, plastic lens. I got some really nice results shooting directly towards the sun, where a nice blast of lens flare crept into a fe frames. I also enjoyed the reckless abandon of not even trying to frame up my shots. Just point and shoot, like God intended. I also like being able to hack the camera, by placing a finger or two over some of the lenses, resulting in a frame that has one or two images missing from the frame. Scan a few of these frames in a row and you have a geometric study in randomness.

My conclusions, and you may not agree… spend the 5 to 10 bucks on eBay and snag one of these cameras and try it out. Chances are it will probably break sooner than later, but in the meantime, it will free you up of any ideas of control and predictability. It will most likely disappoint you more often than not. It may also blindside you with wonder and surprise… and magical, fleeting joy. Just like life.

Gear Review: Diana Mini 35mm camera (or... how I had a mini stroke)

October 7, 2020

If any of you out there know me, you know I am not a “gear” guy. Yes, I own cameras, lots of cameras, too many cameras, really. But for me they are always a means to an end. I get more satisfaction shooting with the Pentax K1000 that I bought in a thrift store for 13 bucks than I do when I use my Canon 6D. So I guess it’s due to a (pun alert) mini stroke that I’m even doing a proper gear review. Of course, I’m doing it with tongue firmly in cheek, and it all should be taken with a grain of (Sicilian) sea salt.

So the camera I’m about to discuss is the plastic terror from Lomography, the Diana Mini. This little brat takes 35mm film, and looks like the old Diana 120 got left in the clothes dryer for too long and shrank. This thing is tiny, small enough to fit in the weird chest pocket on my Austrian Army jacket. It has minimal aperture control, guesstimated focussing, and well, well, well… a choice between a half-frame 35mm option, or an odd, but lovable square crop. Like a mini Diana should have, amiright? Throw in a roll of 200 or 400 ASA film and hope for the best.

What you lose in control and predictability, you gain in wonderful surprises. Not gonna sell you the Lomo party line of dreaminess here. I like things blurry, soft and grainy… but that’s not a dream for me, that’s more like reality for a film shooter. This camera delivers it in spades. It also delivers a certain degree of frustration, more so than the usual plastic camera experiences I’ve had with a Holga, or other crappy Lomo-esque 35mm cameras.

I’ve struggled with loading film into this camera. Sometimes it just goes in and winds easily, sometimes the advance gears destroy the sprockets and the film jams. I try to be delicate when I load it, but sometimes it just works, and other times it doesn’t. Roll of the dice at best. When it does load correctly, I really have a lot of fun shooting with it. When it doesn’t cooperate, I’ve come close to throwing it in the garbage.

Pros of the Diana Mini are obviously the fact that it takes the more affordable 35mm film. I also love the fact that it shoots in the square format of its big sister. The half frame setting I haven’t used at all, as I leave that task to my wonderful Olympus Pen-EE S, but I might end up playing with that, maybe in combination with the full frame setting, seeing if I can get some overlapping images. The camera seems to like black and white film a bit more than color, as I think there is a bit more exposure latitude there, but what the hell, I’ve got a ton of expired film in the freezer, why not go out and just have some fun with this toy?

Verdict: If you see one for a decent price on Ebay, take the plunge. If you’re not completely satisfied with your purchase… welcome to my world.

Some sample images below.