qsysue

I went to a ghost town today that had a couple pioneer cemeteries. In-camera cell phone panorama.

The closest train tracks in Utah to where I live are an hour north in a little modern ghost town called Modena. It's still populated but most of the houses and buildings are pretty run down. There might be more dogs living there than people. These are a mixture of film (old folding camera) and digital (point and shoot) shots.

This is a spot in St George called Pioneer Park. It reminds me a lot of the Valley of Fire, which is one of my favorite places on earth (it's about an hour north of Vegas). For the record, I haven't been to Zions National Park yet. Another in-camera stitched panorama from my cell phone. There's a cavern you can walk right into. Someone carved this face into the rock near the back. You can climb all over the rock formations. It's a really neat place.

I've moved to southern Utah. IOU suggested I start a Utah thread, but I'm sure I'll include stuff from Arizona and Nevada as well. It's crazy here, all the hiking and biking trails everywhere. Lots of rocky cliffs and stuff to explore. I've really only hiked one trail so far, it's called the Anasazi trail because the cliffs it takes you to are covered in ancient rock drawings. I love this stuff. This is a stitched panorama taken with my cell phone. It's almost a 180 degree view. Standing at the curve of a switchback in the trail. This is a cell phone pic, hard to tell in the sun what's in the frame. I climbed down into the rocks on the cliff, figuring if someone made it down there to make the drawings, I could, too. It was easy getting down. Finding my way back up was harder, haha. Wonder what it all means? No one knows for sure. Someone was impressed with himself. Maybe aliens with 14 toes made these drawings? Can't tell it, but there's a small river in the valley below. Easy to imagine families camped down there and their teenagers hiking up the cliff to etch stuff in the rocks...thousands of years ago. Spiral marks the spot. Here's video that shows the view while hiking the trail: http://www.flickr.com/photos/whenigodeaf/8120569178/in/photostream

I'm not a pro but I know this much: Take lots and lots of pictures. Bring extra memory cards and battery packs if at all possible. If they want family group shots, try to make a list beforehand of all the combos (parents with kid, grandparents with kid, parents and grandparents with kid, whatever) and check them off as you go, so none get forgotten. I'm sure you'll get lots more good advice. Congrats on the job!

Much cheaper if you do it yourself! I haven't been shooting much lately, been buried in work. And especially not film. Mostly just my little digital point and shoot. Las Vegas, NV: Modena, UT (modern-day ghost town): This is an in-camera panaroma from my cell phone: Welcome to southern Utah.

I follow lots of people who do the same--they post a bunch of older photos non-cell phone pics. It's all good, I just don't want to do that. For me Instagram is for cell phone pics. I post different stuff on Flickr. I don't necessarily only post stuff I'm doing right that minute. But it was something I was doing at some point, haha.

Am I the only one who thinks it's cheating to post anything on Instagram that isn't taken with your cell phone?

Mercer what's your instagram name? I'll add you. Anyone else who wants to give me their names too. I'm qsysue.

I could do that. It's hard to do this place justice in pictures though!

Camera: Film: Agfa Isopan IIS, expired in 1973 Picture: Location: Modena, UT (a modern ghost town)

Good stuff! I went here today.

What I would like to see are smaller pictures! :P

My latest experiment--a homemade pinhole. Pretty standard. What I started with: a box of birthday candles. I opened up the box completely and colored the interior all black. I also removed the plastic covering over the hole. I got some brass shims from a hardware store--that and the electrical tape were the only things I had to buy. The shims are super thin pieces of brass that I could easily poke a hole in with a sewing pin, and cut with scissors to have it fit inside the box. I taped the pinhole to the center of the box (roughly) and then taped the box up completely with electrical tape. This is the finished camera. I put two slits along the sides of the box for the film to fit through. The box is wide enough that it's hard to get the film to go in one side and out the other, so I used a piece of flat cardboard (like from a paper tablet) to thread the film through the box. (Taped the film to the threader and stuck it through the box.) I used reloadable film cannisters to store the film in, securely taped with electrical tape to the camera to prevent light leaks. I wound it using a little manicure tool that is long, thin, and basically flat. I drew an arrow on it so I'd remember which way the film needed to be wound. Results... This is a wood carving my dad made from a self-portrait I drew when I was small. This was roughly an hour exposure, in very dim light--I think the white spot/line is from a light glare traveling across something as the sun came up? This is a card a friend sent me on my desk. A few minutes exposure. Spongebob in my bathroom--probably about 10-15 minute exposure.

I know this place--closed down Toys R Us. Used to go there to take pictures!

Thanks! It's been pretty rare for me that an expired roll of film doesn't come out at least somewhat useable. Almost all the color film I use is expired. There are often color shifts but that's part of its charm. I've used some super old B&W film that came out really foggy but most of the old B&W I've used has come out pretty decent.

Route 66, San Berdoo. Railside jungle Underneath something My husband admiring the architecture

That's cool. Once I came across some pencil drawings on the back of a grocery store in Santa Ana. It was cool to see.

Thanks guys. And yes, Utah. This is my only consolation: http://www.flickr.com/photos/whenigodeaf/7957712570/in/photostream

Couple of half-frame shots:

I've moved to Utah and I'm pretty housebound by the heat. So I got bored and decided to try making my own macro lens just for fun. I used this web page as a guide: http://www.diyphotography.net/build-your-own-lenses Here are the parts I used: Right to left, basically: I took a 2X tele converter, a Canon body cap that someone gave me to use as a pinhole (but the hole is pretty big, probably more than 1/8th inch wide), two close up macro filters that I put together so they'd be shaped like this (), a polarizer filter was in there too but I don't remember why, haha. Most of it was held together with masking tape (the kind that's not super sticky, like for painting use): Results: The tricky part was getting the subject in focus. I had to move the camera to get it in focus, because I didn't have any way to move the lens closer or further from the camera body. And the viewfinder was kinda dark thanks to the small aperture. But I wanted to not have the glow you see in the examples from the how-to link.

Downtown LA: Inland Empire: Location not given: I have moved to Utah:

Yeah you should! The Holga is great for experimenting. I should add none of these ideas were original, my brother showed me the yarn trick. I think after I move I'm gonna try dry plate photography in the Holga. Should be interesting. I'll either make my own emulsion or buy some, not sure yet.

Keep em coming!