Below are a week’s worth of photos and some thoughts on how they turned out. To see more photos and read more about our week, join our weekly newsletter!

We spent the holidays in my hometown of Huntsville, AL. Above is a photo of the local water tower from Lowe’s Mill.

This is from a local church and was my post on Christmas day!

While lying around on Christmas day, I spotted this SX-70 camera on the local Facebook market for $20. I picked it up the next day and it works great!

Here is another photo from the 1967 Olympus Quickmatic camera on the expired film from 1983.

Shrooms!

Local signage from our neighborhood. We get the point.

Below are a week’s worth of photos and some thoughts on how they turned out. To see more photos and read more about our week, join our weekly newsletter!

I have really enjoyed shooting black and white on my Polaroid One Step Land Camera. I only had one pack and shot through it very quickly. These photos show the final shots from the pack and I’m ordering more very soon. I have plenty of black and white film for my 600 model. I wonder if they will turn out as great as these have.

I went for a long walk in our neighborhood and this new puppy followed me for quite sometime. I was wearing headphones and therefore did not notice he was following me until he licked my hand while I was walking which scared me at first. I was lucky to have him sit still for a quick shot.

While visiting my hometown for Christmas, I drove past the shopping mall I grew up attending and noticed it had been demolished for a Top Golf. The pillars in the background of this photo are all that is left. What’s crazy is plenty of original signs are still around the property and in pretty bad shape. I grabbed shots of those with another camera and will post later. All things must pass, I suppose.

Below are a week’s worth of photos I took  and some thoughts on how they turned out. To see more photos and read more about our week, join our weekly newsletter!

I finally got around to inserting a pack of black and white film into my Polaroid One Shot Land Camera. I don’t know what took me so long because I immediately fell in love with the way the shots turned out. I took most of the shots around my neighborhood and will definitely keep shooting more black and white moving forward!

During Thanksgiving, I took my sons thrifting and we were looking through cameras when my son handed me this Olympus Quickmatic camera. I didn’t know much about using the camera but research showed me it was a 1967 model that uses 126 film. Thanks to a large lot of cameras I purchased this summer, I actually had a box of 126 film that expired in 1983. I loaded up the camera, inserted new batteries and everything started working as it should.

I took the below photos on the expired film, had the roll developed at The Darkroom and patiently waited for how they turned out. On Friday night they sent me an email with the scans and I was surprised at how they turned out. First, I knew they would have an “expired” look about them but they turned out a darker red than I anticipated. But, as with most expired film shots, they have a certain appeal to them and I was excited to post and show people. The photos were taken on a river bank near our house. The second photo of the cracked river bank looks like a shot from Mars. Enjoy!

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Below are a week’s worth of photos I took with my Polaroid cameras and some thoughts on how each turned out. To see more photos and read more about our week, join our weekly newsletter!

We had to travel back to Cincinnati for the weekend to attend a family funeral. In between events, I tried to snap a few photos, including this one of my wife.

Another photo from Cincinnati, my boys between the trees on the golf course. They always joke my Polaroids look like album covers, something we kept in mind during this shot.

I spotted some fisherman at our neighborhood fishing hole and tried to capture them before leaving. This is with the Polaroid One Step Land Camera that I found at an estate sale because I love the colors it captures.

This is the path we took to the fishing hole. I’m surprised this photo turned out blurry, but I also really love it.

On the way to the fishing hole, the trees were making this moaning sound that was strange. If you looked up you can see where the trees were leaning on each other and when the wind would blow, that rubbing would make for an interesting sound.

My wife found this little radio on Etsy and purchased for me to go with my growing collection at home. This one has a great red casing on the sides which is hard to tell in this photo. I thought I had the radio centered in the view finder but it still came out a little to the left, oh well.

Found this classic 12 inch LP in Florida while on vacation back in October. Love the album cover and thought it would make for a fun shot.

Below are a week’s worth of photos I took with my Polaroid cameras and some thoughts on how each turned out (plus my most recent camera find!).

Our house has these wooden clothes line posts in the backyard. We never use them and they aren’t in the best shape. I wanted to see if I could capture both posts in the same shot appropriately.

An evening of listening serendipitously fell these classic LPs into place.

Whoever planted these trees did an excellent job lining them up.

My black Friday order of SX-70 film arrived and I tried to take this shot of my wife walking the dogs in the front yard. They are the blurry spots just to the left of the house, ha.

Classic Tascam BR-20 reel to reel.

Just a fun photo of my wife sitting in the car.

We were back at my wife’s parent’s house this weekend and I saw a carrying case hiding under some other items. I didn’t expect for it to be a SX-70 Land Camera!

It’s not in the best shape. The film latch doesn’t stay shut and overall it doesn’t open and close well. It feels like it’s going to break each time I open the camera. I am researching vendors who can service and repair. I can’t wait to start shooting with it.

Below are a week’s worth of photos I took with my Polaroid cameras and some thoughts on how each turned out.

The above photos are of my wife and I testing out the Polaroid Land Camera I  recently found an estate sale. I wanted to update the Instagram profile pic for This Instant Life and thought it would be fun to take photos which each camera. It’s interesting to see how different we framed our shots. Her shot is with the Land Camera while mine of her is from the Spirit 600.

There is an entrance to a lake within walking distance of our house. In the two years we have lived there, we have yet to notice the above street sign on the tree for “Wagon Trail”. Has it always been there? Have we overlooked it? By the looks of the shape of the sign in person, it looks almost brand new. If that’s the case, why did someone hang it up there? Is it nailed into the tree or just wedged behind that branch? I decided to snap a photo and was amused that it turned out a bit creepy, hence my Instagram caption of “I’m not sure I want to find out what’s down Wagon Trail”.

The other day I was waiting at a stop light, looked to my left and read the local church sign, which usually has some corny saying. But this time I read it twice and was surprised to see, “Maury is not the only place to find your father.”! Where do they come up with these sayings? This one seemed to be an interesting mix of pop culture and Christianity that I couldn’t pass up again without taking a photo.

This is another shot using the Polaroid Land Camera which captures the blue sky much better than my Spirit 600. This tree is in our backyard and I was curious how the sky would turn out behind the tree now that all the leaves are gone. I love the way the blue looks in this shot.

This was taken on Thanksgiving day in Cincinnati while vising my wife’s family. My boys were walking my in-laws blind, diabetic dog and I told them, “Let’s see what a jumping photo looks like on my Polaroid camera”. They were quick to oblige.

This photo is of the house my wife grew up in. The film has a few light marks coming through that gives the photo an interesting texture.

While in Cincinnati, we had to hit up a favorite record store of mine, Plaid Room Records on black Friday. Our GPS decided to take us a very strange way on several neighborhood back roads and out of nowhere this giant sign appeared to make sure we turned right. I quickly glanced in my rear view mirror and noticed the car following us was a very long distance away so I slowed down to almost a complete stop, rolled down the window and snapped this photo. I was surprised it didn’t turn out more blurry.

A little bonus this week included my son finding this Olympus Quicktime EEM camera that dates back to 1967 in a thrift store for just $5. Obviously this isn’t an instant camera, but instead a simple point and shoot that uses 126 film. I decided to take a chance and buy without really being able to test her out on site.

My first step was to find film and it turns out that I had a box of 126 film in a pile of camera supplies that I purchased at an auction in our neighborhood this summer. The box says it expired in 1983! I inserted two double A batteries and the camera came quickly to life. When I put the film inside it immediately wound it properly and I began shooting. I have 20 exposures on the roll and I’m very curious to see how they turn out. There are only three focus settings, one is a just the upper torso of a body, the other is a family of three setting and the last is just a mountain. I can’t wait to see how those photos turn out and will post them here after I finish the roll.

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