The 52 Project, Week 25: PDN PPE in NYC with the FPP!

Duane explaining the Hasselblad NPC Polaroid back.

The acronyms, make them stop! >__<

Seriously now, this first week of my little trip out east was pretty freaking awesome. There were a lot of photos taken, and whole hell of a lot to scan; most of which are still being scanned, by the way. So all the following weeks you’re about to see will be completely in order of awesome and in no sense of chronological order. Enjoy.

FPP Hosts Mike Raso & Duane Polcou

First up is the main reason I made this trip, to go meet the makers of the Film Photography Podcast at Photo Distric News’ Photo Plus Expo 2010 in New York City. (see why I used the acronyms? :P) Before, during, and after my interview with them, I managed to snag some shots of Mike Raso (left) and Duane Polcou (right) at the registration/interview booth outside of the madness of the PPE showroom. Overall, the interview went very well, Mike and Duane were awesome guys who were as, if not more, enthusiastic about film than me. While I was snagging pictures of them, Mike was snagging pictures of me and the whole kit, with a Kodak Pocket Instamatic 110 camera and some Impossible PX 600 black and white.

With FPP’s more recent interest in large format, I’ll have to pay them a visit and let them play around with the 8x10. Good times for sure. ^__^

Impossible Project Space, NYCLater that same afternoon, I made the huge mistake of walking almost four miles from the Jacob Javits Expo Center all the way to the Impossible Project NYC Space. Thankfully, the long haul was worth it! All the way up on the fourth floor of this building, rested one of the last frontiers for instant film in the world! If you haven’t heard of The Impossible Project or tried out their awesome films, be sure to check them out.

Something Good: The scans are pretty clean, with a long tonal scale and chock-full of midtones. TMAX 400 in XTOL 1:1 never seems to go wrong.

Btw, the Pat Sansone show was also awesome!Something Bad: The light in the Javits Center was a tad low for ISO 400, but opening up the aperture and lowering my shutter speed to dangerous handheld levels, 1/15 and 1/30th were necessary for the final image.

Something Learned: The best way to meet new people in photography is to get out there and shoot. And when you’re sick of shooting, go on the internet and put yourself out there some more. Chances are you’ll run into cool guys like the FPP; heck, you might even score some new gear or film!

Next Week: More medium format scans from the trip, still trying to nail down these 8x10’s. >__<

"Live" Interview with Film Photography Podcast

Copyright 2010 Michael Raso, Film Photography Podcast

Part of the reason I haven't been as prolific with the blog lately is because I've been on the road for the past two weeks. I'll be home, up and running by next week. Until then, here's a short little spoiler of the awesome-ness that has been this trip. 

Last Friday, I spent all day in NYC at the Jacob Javits Convention center at the 2010 Photo Plus Expo hosted by Photo District News. While there, I got to meet and talk with the hosts of my now favorite photography podcast, Michael Raso and Duane Polcou. For a little over a year now, both Duane and Mike have been hosting the Film Photography Podcast, a neat little internet radio program about all things analog photography.

Over the past couple of months, I've mentioned them here and there, but at this point and time, I'm hopelessly addicted to the podcast. It's funny, random, not too technical, and just plain enjoyable to listen to while in the car, processing film, or just sitting around trying to come up with a witty blog post. :p In July, a fan letter I wrote made it onto the show, and as of today I'm on the November 5th edition of the podcast. Be sure to check it out:

November 5th Film Photography Podcast  (right click "Save As" to download)

You don't even have to listen that long to hear where I come in, I'm first up. ^__^ If you didn't have a chance to visit PDN, though, the podcast has plenty of coverage of the latest in greatest from PPE (well, as long as you don't care about digital :p).

Make sure to show FPP some love, they're great guys supporting an ever-growing community. Send 'em some film, old cameras, make a quick little Paypal donation, or even shoot an email, it'll definitely be appreciated.

FPP Flickr Group

FPP on Facebook

FPP on Twitter