Today, I got another once in a lifetime opportunity, courtesy of Hallmark! I worked with a 20×24” Polaroid camera! There are only six of these cameras in the world and Polaroid is on the verge of discontinuing the film! It was yet another fun and amazing experience!
The only thing I could think of to photograph was my family but the exposures with the view camera are often long and it requires a vast amount of light so it is difficult to photograph small children with. The sheer size of it is enough to intimidate an adult, let alone a child! My children thought it was just as neat as I did and we managed to get two images with all of us looking and smiling! We could feel the heat rush coming at it as the wall of lights went off! We now have a rather unique and very large family portrait that few people in the world have!
One rather amusing tidbit we discovered this afternoon is that my children have no idea what “film” is! They think every camera has a little screen on back to view the image on! It was fun to watch them see the Polaroid process and their delight in seeing the “film” was great! Isn’t it amazing how far the world has come in the past few years? My seven year old does not know what film is and if she has a question she can’t answer, she automatically suggests we google it and find the answer on the internet!
The passing of one era, this beast of a camera will soon become a distant memory in the photography world and I for one find it quite sad. I am hoping this week to get another chance to work with it, only I want to try a still life with it! A two foot pear would be a rather interesting piece of artwork to put in our home!
The 20 x24 inch “portable” view camera:
Jorah stands with the view camera behind her:
The wall of lights used to light our family picture – 3 separate 2400 w/s packs!
My instructors process the Polaroid by matching the negative in the upper chamber with the positive in the lower chamber. Hanging down would be the equivalent of what used to pop out the front of a little Polaroid camera.
The image on the positive, Jorah and Kadin were fascinated by the process!
