birthday-photo-polaroid-present

at thursday my best friend had birthday. of course I wanted to make an extra special and creative present for her. my idea was, to take the photographs from her last birthday till to today which show both of us together or stuff we did together. to my surprise (i always think i don't see my friends in the south (she lives in munich) as often as i would like to) we saw each other really, really often and spend much time together in the last year (two holidays included!).

so i choose the best pictures (because i liked them all so much, i couldn't get it under 73 pictures ;D) and because i love the polaroid-look so much (also i got an old polaroid camera since about one year now, i unfortunately haven't tried it yet because i never had the time to get a film... it's definitly on one of the first places of my to do list!) i took the polaroid program from polaroid.net and made them all polaroid (this takes quite a while, cause the pictures have to develop like real polaroids which takes a few minutes.. (if you shake them, it goes faster) and after 10 pictures you have to quit and restart the program, because the cartridge is empty.. it makes the whole process feel really analogue :D)

so after i turned them to digital polaroid pictures, i let them develop, and had some nice polaroid-style pictures! (if you let them develop: choose "whole picture", because otherwise, the left and right side of the white frame won't be on the picture)

now i wrote something on the frame, or painted something on the picture with silver and black pens (absolutely without any concept, just what came into my mind in that moment... ). as last "picture" i took one of the polaroids i didn't want to use and cut the picture out, so just the frame was left. and on the frame i wrote: "hopefully the frame will be filled this year with many great moments and pictures of the both of us once again!"

at the end i just punched a hole at the under left corner and put a silver chain (from the hobby-market) through it. 

now i only had to send it (the problem just was.. it was past 8 p.m. and the post was closed. so i sticked four 55 cent stamps on it (to be on the safe side) and put it in the mailbox).

as it is always with me, i was a little late, and the day i put it in the mailbox was actually already her birthday. but it arrived 2 days later safely and she imediately called me, and was so, so happy!

so, all the work was worth it!

here are some pictures:

diy: holga-fignatures

hey guys!
about one year ago, even before i got my wonderful holga, i found this great tutorial!
i always wanted to try this, and after i got my holga, i finally did!

so, this is how it works:

you need:

. your holga (of course!)
. a tiny figure (the ones they use for railroad models) in the size N, mine were 0,8-1 cm tall
. superglue

that's what you do:

take out your holga-film mask, and glue the figure on the bottom (or top, or sides). superglue is really fantastic, you just have to put a little at the feet and press it onto the plastic, and after 2 minutes it's solid. that's all you have to do. put the film mask back in, put a film in (i used a black and white one this time) and start shooting.

i glued the figure for one film with its feet on the bottom, and for the second film with its hands.

then you can experiment... i wanted to create pictures, in which the figure "touches" the object, i wanted to photograph. therefore, you have to guess, where the hands or the head of your figure is. mine was about 1/5th of the total length, and so it was easier to arrange the picture.
but when i got the photographs, none of the pictures looked, like i intended them to be. the figures always were on the opposite side....
i didn't think of this! when the light falls into your camera, it comes on your film upside down. so you always have to remember, to turn your camera upside down!
and on the part where your figure is, it shouldn't be to dark, so that you still can see the black shadow.

so, have a lot of fun experimenting, here are my results and i'd be happy to see yours too!

© holyneonshit.blogspot.com

© holyneonshit.blogspot.com

© holyneonshit.blogspot.com

maria aparicio puentes: WOW

hey guys!

a few days ago i stumbled across an incredibly inspiring picture of a wonderful artist called maria aparicio puentes ! check her other works out... really great pictures! in my eyes, she makes the invisible in photographs visible!

© maria aparicio puentes

it's a wonderful technique to mix photographs with yarn-applications.... 

i wanted to do similar stuff too, but haven't made it yet. instead, i scribbled on some magazin-pages... first in geometric arrangements, then a little more free...

here are some pictures:

i hope, you like them, enjoy your weekend!

custom-shaped aperture

hey ho!

i saw this incredible diy in february on the globetrotter diaries page!

© globetrotterdiaries.com

this is so amazing! karen explains how you create an aperture with a costumized shape.
she did it with a heart, but you can do it with everything.
unfortunately i only have a zoom-lens for my digital camera. so i tried with my old minolta xd-5.
and this is how it looked:

i shot the whole film and already shooting was such a fun!!
i used for my shape the "htw"-logo of the university i applied for using it in my application as well. when i brought my film to a photo-studio to let i process, the employee told me, it was a positive-slide-film (it was an old one i got from my father)... so i was very exited, what happened to my pictures. the result was... the complete film was black, exept for one picture (dia how we call it in germany). so i used this one for my application.
sorry, for the fuzz...

© holyneonshit.blogspot.com

it's a really great idea... and i'm gonna try this some more times for sure!