Does anyone remember carrying the Kodak Instamatic around? Or perhaps remember your parents (or grandparents) snapping shots with this? I certainly do. What great memories. The ultimate simple box camera. And what about the cool cube flashes that sat on top? While I certainly love the new digital cameras of today with all the bells and whistles, I sometimes miss the simplicity of point and click. Just find your subject and take a photo – that was it. And not only was it practical, it was popular. By 1976, Kodak had sold over 60 million of them.
For today, at the beginning, my goal was just to take a quick shot with minimal processing as sort of as an homage to the old 124. Well, while the processing was relatively simple (compared to the work I normally put into an image), the shooting was a bit more involved that I had originally planned. “Why not try a bit of light painting?”, I thought to myself. So this final, sepia-toned, dark, vintage-looking image is actually a combination of 8 shots. Not so simple, right?
I used a small Maglite flashlight (not the best choice for light painting, by the way) to light a different section of the camera in each of the images. Then I combined the 8 shots in Photoshop. After that, it was just some exposure and curve adjustments, some Nik effects, and a tiny bit of Topaz Impression.
Day 322 of my 365 photo a day project.
Are you looking for art for your home or office or something to spice up your digital desktop? This image and most of the others from this project are available as prints and digital downloads. You can also check out the rest of my portfolio here. And don’t forget to subscribe to the blog so you don’t miss anything!
