Derek’s Garden

Impossible Project PX100 test film, box stamped 11*11, found tucked in my instant film box.

17 April 2012     Photos    

Test Bug

Impossible Project PX100 Silver Shade test film, box stamped 11*11, found tucked in my instant film box. I need to check that sucker more often.

16 April 2012     Photos    

Flowering plum in Buena Vista

You can see two more plum photos over here at Lytro.

29 February 2012     Photos    

Valentine Flower

Impossible Project’s PX 70 Color Shade Pioneer Edition Beta test film, Polaroid XS 70

21 February 2012     Photos    

Impossible Project Colour Film — an incomplete illustrated history

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Top row: 08/2010, PX 70 Color Shade, First Flush, Polaroid SX 70.
Middle row: 03/2011, PX 680 Color Shade ß-1 test film, Polaroid 680 SLR.
Bottom row: 02/2012, PX 70 Color Shade Pioneer Edition Beta test film, Polaroid XS 70.

Not to be melodramatic, but my heart broke just a little with Polaroid’s announcement that they were ceasing production of their instant film back in 2008. I stockpiled as much of the 600 film as I could afford. It was a crazy times. Rumours abounded with where and for how much and the internet would descend, or at least the passionate few who saw the end times of instant film. I still have a few packs of 600 left. Would it be too weird to be buried with one? I’ll have to note that in my will.

From there, everyone seemed to take great pleasure in telling me that they weren’t going to be making “that” film anymore. Even this gentleman:

Me: “May i take your photo?”
Mim: “Sure….. You know, they’re not going to make film for that camera anymore.”

Well, he and everyone else was wrong. The Impossible Project picked up the torch and ran with it. Here’s Anne’s photo of “The lovely men of the factory”, and a few more of where the current film is being made taken last week.

The latest colour film (bottom row) for the SX 70 is simply gorgeous. You should definitely hang onto that Polaroid 600, SX 70 or Spectra camera. Then again, if you don’t want it, you can send it to me.

5 February 2012     Photos, Words    

What January looked like

A glimpse of my 2012 365 tarot project. Otherwise, I’ve started to collect decks. If you happen to have a Victorian Romantic Tarot just laying around, I’d be happy to take it off your hands. ($250+ on ebay!)

4 February 2012     Photos, Words    

Smitten Kitten

Valentine’s Day has become so loaded with crazy that I decided last year to pull it back and make it more meaningful for me. I created a small edition of “smitten” cards and mailed them to women who had inspired me over the previous year. I’m working another smitten project for this year, though I’m a wee bit behind. I’ll share the results of my labour.

My challenge to you: it’s never too late to celebrate the women who inspire you. Buy (or craft) a few cards and make their day.

Silver metallic “starburst” with magenta and red type. I <3 Gocco.

30 January 2012     Photos, Words    

Viva Viva

Just popped my last pack of Polaroid Viva into the Zip. A gift from the ever fabulous Anne Bowermann, I’m taking the time to smell the chemistry of each photo. If it wasn’t so caustic, I’d dap in on my pulse points. There’s nothing like the aroma of Polaroid peel apart film.

29 January 2012     Photos    

February 2012: a month of letters

I stumbled across Mary Robinette Kowal’s post about a month of letters a couple of days ago and haven’t been able to ignore the lure of such a lovely project.

In this day and age of digital tyranny, who doesn’t love receiving something in the mail that isn’t a circular or a pile of coupons for places you’ve never heard of?

Send me a letter before the end of February and I’ll send you something back:

Heather Champ
912 Cole Street #215
San Francisco CA 94117

Here’s the project page if you’d like to participate.

26 January 2012     Words    

I’m still alive

For someone who used to almost break out in hives if I didn’t update my site daily, I’m not sure how it came to be that four months has passed since I last posted here on hchamp.com. It’s not like I haven’t been sharing bits and pieces. I upload photos to Flickr almost daily, blethered on Twitter with some regularity and most recently have fallen in love with Path. But the place that used to be my heart and soul online? Nada. It used to be that our home pages were the one place we had to express ourselves. Now, we’re torn hither and yon across the internet.

I do want to do a better job at documenting some of the projects that I’ve been working on. We’ll see how that works on.

26 January 2012     Photos, Words