This is another Viewfinders story about what we do when a camera is out of commission. I always dread being forced to take a break from things I use regularly, such as when a storm knocks out my electricity or internet or when the tools I use almost daily break down, such as my car, my kitchen appliances, my phone, or my camera, and yet when it happens, I often find myself grateful for having been pushed outside of my comfort zone. My main digital camera has needed repairs for a while and for the last few weeks it’s been at the repair shop. When it first broke I started to panic, but I’ve found the silver lining.

My pinhole camera project was partially thanks to my broken camera and so are my solid plans to shoot more film and learn to develop it myself. As I was going through my film camera possibilities, I came across several packs of Instax Mini Instant Film that I had forgotten about. I’ve had them for years and they haven’t been refrigerated, so they needed to be used. I have a Lomo’Instant Automat instant camera that I haven’t used it much because I have struggled to get the hang of its exposure and focus, and it’s hard to spend the time getting comfortable when I’m worried about the price of film. Sort of a catch 22. So when I found all those old film packs, my next steps were obvious to me: go out and shoot a lot of film! So that’s what I did!

I used through several packs of films and tried a lot of things, some more successful than others. Here are a few of my favorites:

I tried a lot of double exposures and liked these:

I also devloted a lot of film to playing with collages, and again I was happy with two:

After shooting several packs of film, I am feeling a lot more comfortable with exposure and composing landscapes in my Lomo’Instant Automat, but I’m still struggling with composing images when the subject is closer to me. I don’t get the results I see in the viewfinder, and pointing the lens directly at my subject isn’t working either. I tried to center these, the same structure from opposite sides, but didn’t get there:

After many tries, I got a little closer with this sumac, but still didn’t manage what I saw in my mind’s eye:

I think I will play some more with close-ups with this camera (what a luxury to have the film to do it!) and make myself a cheat sheet. Do you have a Lomo’Instant Automat? If so, do you have composition tips?

Also, do you digitize instant or other prints? If so, what’s your technique? I have been using phone apps and am not always happy with the results. For example, the photo of the tractor under the tree is one of my favorites, and no phone photo is doing it justice.

Ironically my digital camera was delivered back home just as I sat down to write this. As always after a break from something that’s such a big part of my life, I’m thinking about how I can incorporate it back into my life in a way that’s more mindful than how I used it previously.

~Deirdre