Kickstarter: See, Think, Do cards

Eddie Soloway is holding a Kickstarter to print his See, Think, Do cards. Each card has a photo on one side and an inspirational idea on the other for landscape photographers. Like a walkabout in your pocket, the cards can help push one to make that magical shot. Eddie has been teaching a landscape photography for 20 years in a workshop called "A Natural Eye", and for over half a dozen years he led National Geographic seminars on "The Art of Nature Photography." He had designed the cards for a workshop, and had demand for even more once he handed them out. The cards on Kickstarter flow out of these first set of cards.

The Kickstarter is fully funded, and will end on January 31, 2017. Like all Kickstarters, there is risk, so buyer beware.

Project Apollo Images

The Project Apollo Archive contains thousands of shots made on specially modified Hasselblads. On the Apollo 11 mission a Reseau plate was installed between the film magazine and the camera, giving the precision cross-hairs seen in the photos. The NASA history site describes the following films used on the missions:

"Each film magazine would typically yield 160 color and 200 black and white pictures on special film. Kodak was asked by NASA to develop thin new films with special emulsions. On Apollo 8, three magazines were loaded with 70 mm wide, perforated Kodak Panatomic-X fine-grained, 80 ASA, b/w film, two with Kodak Ektachrome SO-168, one with Kodak Ektachrome SO-121, and one with super light-sensitive Kodak 2485, 16,000 ASA film. There were 1100 color, black and white, and filtered photographs returned from the Apollo 8 mission." -- NASA

The project started in 2009, on the 40th anniversary of the Apollo missions. The film had been stored for 40 years in freezers at zero Fahrenheit (-18 Celsius). After carefully bringing the film to room temperature, a Leica scanner was used to obtain 5 micron level of detail (around 5,080 ppi).

Browsing the photos on Flickr are much lower resolution, but the high resolution scans are available for downloading or sharing. LIke almost all works by the US Federal government, as enshrined in the Constitution, the photos are public domain.

A nice shot of home from the lunar base:

#BIFscale17

Believe in Film, the film photography news blog, is celebrating Redscale Film for the month of February to banish the blues! Try some ready-made redscale film, or make your own (just re-roll the film with the emulsion facing out). Post your images on tumblr with the hashtag #BIFscale17 .

Suggested themes are Fill Your Bucket List and Geometric Shapes. Try something different, just to see how it will turn out. Submit your results by March 15, 2017 for a chance to win eternal glory!

Phoblographer: Interview with Florian ``Doc'' Kaps

Our friends at Phoblobrapher did a short interview with the lead at Impossible instant film. He reveals the true inventor of instant film, his projects with New55 for replacement pack film and why he got into instant film.

* Impossible Project
* Save Pack Film
* THIS Interviews Impossible
* Impossible Introduces 8x10 Colour Instant Film

ILFORD Inspires!

Ilford Photo by Harman Technology presents ILFORD Inspires, a series of global events to encourage people to use traditional film photography. The featured photographers and artists demonstrate the use of film to inspire and demonstrate the art of the analog medium through their unique talents. The concept is to present a well known figure whom you want to listen to present how they use film. A YouTube channel has been created to show case the presentation. One exciting fact that is revealed in the Introduction to the series, is that sales of Ilford film have increased in 2016!

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CES: Kodak Ektachrome

As has been reported widely, Kodak Alaris (the company that makes Kodak film and is independent from Kodak since 2013), has re-introduced Ektachrome colour transparency film at CES 2017. The film will be available in Super 8 movie film format and 135-36 still format.

This is a boon for Kodak Super 8 motion picture filmmakers, whom have had to either use colour negative films or Tri-X B&W reversal film. Now a direct from camera to silver screen workflow can be used. Still photographers can gain from the return of an iconic film stock that has been discontinued since 2012.

Kodak is also unveiling a Limited Edition Super 8 camera to be introduced in the Spring this year, with a consumer variant available later in the year. The camera has been developed in conjunction with filmmakers, directors and amateurs and is claimed to capture incredibly high quality images on Super 8 film.