Let’s do the time warp! I posted a whole slate of photos from St. Patricks Day earlier this year, but hidden in fridge, lost in the the vegetable crisper, biding it’s time, there was one more roll of film from that day; a glorious straggler! And on that roll was this particular image. I’ve stared at it for hours since finally developing it last week. It’s got to be one of my best selections ever, definitely one of my all-time favorites. The action is hot, the guy videotaping it is wonderfully weird, the girls standing around chatting in the background are completing the scene, the skater exiting stage left is too cool, and the row of cars in the back in a gentle lens-distorted arc and long shadows all bear witness to kids seizing the last rays of springtime sun.

I’m so happy right now!

Albany New York
17 March 2012

Lomo Sprocket Rocket
Arista Premium 400
HC-110 Dilution E
Vuescan – 16-bit scan

The results of the Sprocket Rocket Filter Ring mod: Here are some shots with a red 52mm filter. The pickup is white and faded green, and the red filter really increased the contrast. A red filter can even double as an ND filter, of course, as I tried at night as the police tried to take me down. (kidding.) The red glow of police lights turned white in the exposure. I did these in stand development, Rodinal diluted 1:100 for an hour. Now, one important note. Even with a 52mm filter, the filter edge sometimes can be just barely seen in shots when the Rocket is set to the nearest focus setting. This is a slightly disappointing discovery, but one I can work around.

The pic of JK at the Instagram Meetup was with no filter, but I just liked it.

Had some Fuji Velvia with me when we saw these skaters doing their thing on St Patricks day in Albany. I tried it with the Sprocket Rocket. Even threw on the Canolite as a fill flash. Mad scientist! Didn’t think it would amount to much. The kids asked me why I took pictures. I said, just because. They seemed to get it, and went back to their cigarettes. Pushed the DIY C-41 xpro development a little. Got some grain but ayyyy those colors score! (update: except where I converted to b&w)

In our last episode, I found myself taping a green filter to my Lomography Sprocket Rocket. I liked the results very much, but didn’t like the tape job. Also, the Bay-1 filter I used was actually visible in some frames depending on focus. So, it’s time for a mod!

I got a 43mm -> 52mm filter step-up ring. There are two screws on the face of the Rocket, but get this: those are ornamental. I tried to unscrew them but they don’t catch. I think they’re rivets. So the circumference of the area between the “screws” and the lens is perfect for 43mm. I happen to have a bunch of 52mm filters so this works out well. Given the extreme wide field of view I worry that something narrower, say a 48mm filter plus the step up ring, might actually extend out far enough to be visible in the frame. 52mm seems perfect.

I sanded the back edge of the step up ring to remove the anodized black and give my cement a better chance to hold. Then I used contact cement to affix it to the face of the Rocket. The seal feels pretty solid to me.

Now I’m ready to shoot some Tri-X pushed to 1600.. and beyond!

UPDATE: See results here.

And yes, if you missed my custom covering for the Sprocket Rocket, details on that are here.

Sarah and I went on a fantastic five-mile hike around Multnomah Falls yesterday. I’m sure feeling it today in the thighs! I was in the mood to try some mad scientist stuff, so I taped a green filter over the Sprocket Rocket. This should have brought a little extra definition to the green vegetation on a grey rainy day when using black and white film — Arista Premium four-hundred, as it happens. One does not change settings on the Rocket, so the way to compensate for the loss of two-plus stops of light through a filter is to push the developing. I decided to go with stand development with Rodinal at a lean one-to-one-hundred dilution. Stand developing means I don’t really care about how far I’m pushing. Sixteen-hundred, thirty-two hundred. It’s all the same to stand. See? Like I said, some mad scientist shit.

We stopped into the Community of Flags Store & Gift Shop in Brooklyn, Iowa on a day when the wind was ushering in springtime perhaps a little too urgently. A little old lady was keeping score, volunteering at the store to keep busy after thirty years as town clerk. She told me she also volunteered making phone calls for the Iowa Republican Party. I’m sure they appreciated the help. The place was also a bit of a thrift consignment, and while Sarah perused for local jams and whatnot, I took a turn in back. I found a world map from the nineties that celebrated with pins all the far-flung visitors that had been in to visit little Brooklyn. I can only imagine what the travelers from Tehran, Iran must have thought whenever they made the pilgrimage (sic). I also noted that the map was no longer being regularly updated. I found a tacky camera bag with some brutal Minolta inside, but also four rolls of Kodak film. The tag said two dollars so that’s what I paid. We ended up tossing the camera and keeping the film and the 80s vintage bag. Who knows how old it really was, and for sure it had not known refrigeration. And, when I went out for my first sunny bikeride in the city of bridges, Portland, Oregon, I used that old twice-baked Kodak film from a shop in Brooklyn, Iowa in the ol’ Sprocket Rocket.