Tag archive: polaroid

Heat Wave

There are no straight lines in Brooklyn

When I bought my SX-70 for $20 on eBay, I really had no idea that I would be so smitten with the camera and the pictures that I am taking with it. I have found over the last few weeks that I have gotten better at predicting what the “polaroid effect” will do to an image and actively seeking out subjects that will benefit from that touch. I have been so happy with the results that I have created a new gallery in the “Current Work” section of the website. I have also set a goal for myself to take enough of these by the end of the summer to compile a small book, which I will probably make available through Blurb.com or another print-on-demand service.

Nevins Street

Photograph by Dalton Rooney

I am quite happy with the way these Polaroid photographs from the last couple of months have been coming out. The addition of color, compared to the black and white I usually shoot, feels light and easy; the freedom of using a handheld camera again is something else altogether. When I look back to a couple of years ago, taking pictures on these exact same streets, I am pretty amazed. I’ve been taking this same route to work for years now, but I feel like I’m seeing everything just a bit differently these days.

I want to believe

When I was four or five, my grandparents moved into a new house in Joshua Tree, California. Shortly after they moved in, they discovered that the previous owner, who had built the house, had died at home just a year before.

Gowanus in Polaroid

Photograph by Dalton Rooney

The SX-70 gave me a lot of trouble today. Weird mechanical glitches caused a lot of over-exposed and blurry frames. At one point, it jammed and then spat three pieces of film at me all at the same time, all unexposed. I guess that’s what I get for buying a 30 year old camera on eBay for 20 bucks. I’m on the lookout for a spare.