TexasGirl Photography

Every year, I make my rounds of the neighborhood to photograph Halloween decorations. Mostly this is because I want to get into the spirit without having to drive anywhere, plus something in me likes to have a new batch of photographs to share. This past weekend, a series of events led to my annual foray combining a few things that I had been working on.

Several weeks ago, I used fingernail clippers to trim the edges of a roll of 120 Tri-X so it would “fit” in my Kodak Brownie (which I procured from my Dad’s collection many years ago). When I tried to advance to the first shot, it was such a tight bit of business that when I attempted forcing the knob to turn the film shocked me by snapping in two. A few days later, after I had calmed down, in the darkroom I discovered that it was only the paper that had torn. I taped the paper, since it was right at the beginning of the roll anyway, and tried loading it into my Diana. . . . . with the exact same result.

Above you can see a photographic representation of my feelings about this entire endeavor. I tossed the Diana into a box and did my best to put the whole thing out of my mind. . . . until Saturday. At this point, I had recently watched a video about how to respool medium format film. Thus enlightened, I figured it was worth messing with that errant roll again. I pulled the whole thing out of the Diana, taped the paper again, carefully experimented with advancing the film both with and without the back on the camera. It didn’t take me long to realize this was just not going to work at all, so I switched off the lights, re-rolled the entire thing onto a new spool that wasn’t cut with nail clippers, then I trimmed the mangled mess off the end of the paper, cut it so it would fit into a take-up spool, and loaded the Diana. PRESTO SUCCESS!

I knew there were light leaks on the roll, so I used it to photograph local decorations, going with the flow for the vibe. Above and below you can see the first couple of shots, which were the most affected.

For me, when it comes to spooky photos, plastic cameras are the way to go. I love the fact that the added distress of the camera experience adds so much moody goodness to every moment. I made mostly double exposures because I’ve noticed that no matter how I set the Diana it seems to be permanently set on F22 and barely lets any light in. It’s far more guilty of this phenomenon than any of my Holgas.

I just watched The Birds again, and I also read the original short story, so for me this photo was creepy in its own way. I would have photographed a flock flying if there had been any around, but there weren’t. .. . . hmmmmm where were they lurking?

I also very much hoped I would run into one of the many neighborhood cats, but alas they were all sleeping somewhere and not wandering, so I settled for these guys.

Thank you for looking at these, and I hope you have a Happy Halloween! All the photos are from that one roll. Hopefully before too long I will have some werewolf and graveyard photos for you, too.