Learning Curve for the FP-100B Emulsion Lifts

'Twas a valiant effort for doing the emulsion lift onto the GameBoy Advance SP, but alas. I ran into some decent problems with the process. Well, a few issues, to be honest.

1) It appears that I may need to boil the Black and White emulsions for far longer than I originally thought. As I peeled off the film, I noted white splotches placed near the center of the shot. I am thinking it's due to the glue not being completely loosened and coming along for the ride. It is looking like I'm going to have to boil them completely until the film fully separates from the frame.

2) Getting the emulsion to stay on the surface of the GBA is proving to be problematic. I may actually need to place a thin layer of Mod Podge onto the GBA before I put the emulsion on to give something to grab onto. After that I'll have to put more onto the top. At least, that's what I am thinking at this point. When I started to take off the tape, some of the emulsion came along with it. This could be disheartening, but only time will tell. Perhaps it can be solved with a little pre-treating?

I may want to hold up on working on the GBA just yet. I love that little GBA, so I want to make sure I do my best with it. It wasn't a complete failure, as I've learned a good amount from it all. Always a learning experience.

More experimentation with FP-100B black and white instant film

Okay, I figured out some more when it comes to working with Fuji's instant film with emulsion lifts. I just lifted an emulsion from FP-100B and put it on my dark blue GameBoy Advance SP. I noticed a few things while I was in the process.

A) It appears that the Fuji emulsion does not "spread out" from absorbing all of the water like Polaroid's emulsions do. This could be pretty useful now that I know it. In theory, I could cut the pictures to the exact proportions of what I am laying the emulsion on. With the Polaroids (like on Ad Astra), it was more of a "Hmmm, maybe this will work..." process, and it usually resulted in far too much emulsion in assorted areas. I kind of suspected this after feeling the Fuji's emulsion when I tried it on the empty can of Diet Coke with Splenda, but even still, it's nice to confirm it.

B) The black and white emulsion is relatively the same as the color - it is completely transparent aside from where the dyes are. The black and white emulsion seems to work well for darker base colors. The picture is slightly more subtle on the GBA SP, but it is there and I think it looks pretty nice.

Once I finish EIP-0001, I'll post it on here - if it shows up on a picture well.

FINALLY the thrift stores are becoming my friends again!!!

I've had somewhat of a dry spell when it comes to finding stuff to slap emulsions onto lately. Not a whole lot has really jumped out at me like the Cabbage Patch Kid head or anything for the last couple of weeks...

THANKFULLY, over lunch today I returned to the Thrift store and found an odd translucent hollow bunny statuette wearing a clear blue vest. There's a little recepticle for a tiny light bulb (from what I can tell, probably nothing larger than that for a Christmas Tree) as well. It's not TOO big, but in all honesty, it fascinated me. First, I'm admitedly a manchild when it comes to bunnies. I'm not sure why, but I just love them. Alot. Second, this piece looked intriguing. The biggest problem I had with some of my more translucent pieces was lack of lumiescence. Look at "20 IF 10 = TRUE GOTO 30" - since it was mostly clear, it didn't show up through the glass as well. Now if I had a light to shine through the piece, it could be more impressive.

Anyways, I decided to grab it during lunch - I needed something new to finish up my tests on Fuji, and really, this sounds like the test for the rest of my film. I've already done it on something with a smooth contour (a Diet Coke with Splenda can), so this will be a chance to do something with a good amount of ... well, nooks, crannies, and the like. Also, its texture is slightly more rough than the can, so it will be a good chance to see how well the Fuji emulsion works with textures. I mean, I'm not 100% sure how it works with texture, but just from the scant work I've done with it thus far, I think it will more than suffice when it comes to the whole "taking on the texture of the receptor" deal.

anyways, I should crash. Take care.

Idea for another piece

Well, I've mulled this idea for a while - I'm thinking of making a new piece. I'll be taking the top shell of a Nintendo Entertainment System and covering it with representations of the Konami Code... As in by a drive through with two up arrows is for the up, up part. Etc. There are only a few problems I can think of with this.

From the prior works I've done, I could fit ~2 pictures lengthwise and ~4 pictures up and down leading to a total maximum of 8 pictures. This could be problematic, as a rough estimate if I use each direction as one picture, I would need 11 pictures, and if I grouped the ups and downs, I could cut that to 9. I think I may be able to go a little further - perhaps combine the B, A... Like in the beginning of "bank" or something?

I really need to get some more Fuji FP-100C. I think that this would work well with the FP-100C. I want to make sure it's color, and I'd like to start off my new prefix with a NES - Sort of fitting, I think. I do need to make a new prefix for the Fuji emulsion lifts - they're markedly different from the Polaroid emulsion lifts. Perhaps "EIP" - "Emulsion Instrumentality Project" fits this next evolution pretty well... That and I have a habit of naming things "* Instrumentality Project" - I can't help it, I'm a nerd.

My latest piece...

I just did this around 2 days ago. I decided to modify the Nintendo DS. I placed emulsion lifts onto the cover of it, and it seems to have worked well.

Recent Acquisitions

I just got these yesterday. On the right is the Brownie Star Flash Camera, manufactured from 1957 to 1965. It uses 127 film as well, so of course I can't quite use it, but again, it's in rather good condition and will look nice.

On the left is the Argus Instant Load 164. This camera I've been having a hard time digging up facts on, but I do know that it uses 127 film as well. Hence I'm not going to be using it often.

The whole camera bag cost me $3.

I also found a Polaroid 215 in a pretty nice case along with flashbulbs and a flash. The Polaroid is in great shape... The cover is in wonderful shape, the rollers looked well, and all in all, it is in great shape. Especially given the price of $3.00, this is probably one of the best buys to date.

Now check out the bulb - if ya look closely you can see the magnesium still in the bulb itself. Sure, there were just 4 bulbs in there, so I can't quite use them too often, but I must admit I'm curious as to how it all works.

Polaroid LandCamera 440

Here's the Polaroid LandCamera 440 that I picked up for $10 at another thrift store. It was manufactured from 1971-1976. As with the other Polaroids, it uses that 4.5 volt battery that's somewhat hard to come by.

While cosmeticly, it was in pretty good shape aside from a "Property of Duneland School District" plate, one could tell it was used by students. The contacts for the battery were rather crusty with corrosion, and the rollers didn't look like they've been cleaned once.

Emulsion Lifts

This is one of the 7 Emulsion Lifts I've done. I worked really hard on these - this is one of my favorites. I could go into working on emulsion lifts, but that's a bit involved. This piece is "Mossfungus" - sort of going into my thoughts about not being able to have kids.

This one has one of the longer titles I've used. "20 IF 10=TRUE GOTO 30"

This piece is titled "Obsolescence." I found the Disc camera at a thrift store.

This one, I found the cabbage patch kid head at a thrift store, and decided I wanted to make this piece as creepy and unsettling as I could. I think I succeeded.

This last one was difficult to make - it took me around 30ish hours to just lay the emulsions on. I titled this one "Ad Astra." The hard part was getting them to lay flat. Good news is that the polaroid emulsions are working out fairly well with being protected from UV. Ultraviolet light tends to fade emulsions really quickly.

Some more of the cameras I've gotten

I bought these two at the flea market, for $5 and $8 respectively. On the left is a Brownie Reflex Synchro. It was in production from 1940 to 1952. Unfortunately, it's a camera I can't use. It uses 127 film, which was discontinued. Also, its insides seem pretty dirty to the point where it would be far too difficult to clean. It does look nice, so I'm pretty happy.



On the right is an Argoflex 75 with a flash gun using bulbs - a pretty nice little twin lens reflex camera. It is in pretty good shape. This one I COULD use. It uses 620 film - similar in most aspects to standard medium format film, 120 film. I'd prolly need to respool the film, but I've wanted to mess with medium format for quite some time.







I found this one at a flea market around a month ago or so. It's the Canon Canonet GIII QL17. It was first on the market in 1972. It's got a 40mm f1.7 lens. It uses a Mercury Oxide batteries, but since those are made anymore. Thankfully there's a Zinc-Air battery available, and it seems to work fairly well. I also like that it has a leaf shutter, so X-Sync doesn't pose any problem. It can sync from 1/4th of a second to 1/500th of a second.

It's got a rather clear, crisy lens. Also its film loading is remarkable. It's really simple to load, just laying the film where you need to, no threading the film through the spool. I've got very good luck with the camera.

Catching up again - more cameras.

I'm going to go as chronologically as I can remember here. I can't remember exact dates, but I know I found this Polaroid LandCamera 210 (circa 1967-1969) at another thrift store. It was $10 for the camera, a case, and a flash bulb attachment.

So far I've really liked this camera - I used it for a decent number of the projects I've been working on. It's pretty dependable, and it is in good working condition. I had to get used to guestimating the distance from my subject for focusing. Unlike the 230, which uses a prism to show two independant images and it's focused when they line up, it uses a focusing aid that assumes your subject is an average sized adult as you measure the head. After getting used to that, the camera works quite well.

I got the Canon AE-1 a bit after this. I ended up spending $25 for the camera, the Canon 50mm f1.4 lens, the Canon 35-70mm f4-5.6, and the little Vivitar Flash there. Again, I checked it to make sure the camera's innards were working fine. Of course, as I was checking the camera, I remembered that this camera actually has the shutter release run off of battery power. Not 100% knowing if it worked or not, I bought it anyway, bought the 4LR44 battery, and to my joy, it worked.

This was my first prime lens I've worked with, and I must say, I am getting spoiled by having a lens that stops down so far. It really opens up what you can do with low light situations. It's about just as useful and helpful as a zoom lens if not more. I rather like this camera - it's got some decent heft to it, it is comfortable, and it has the prism inside of the viewfinder where you line up the top and bottom half as a focusing aid.

Up To Now

I've sort of picked up a new hobby, almost at random. It started a little less than a year ago when I wanted to start doing Polaroid Emulsion Lifts. I started scouring thrift stores and flea markets searching for Polaroid LandCameras from the 100, 200, 300, and 400 series. I ended up finding my cameras, and quite a bit more as well.

Before I found the Polaroid LandCamera 230 (pic unavailable), I was able to find a Pentax K-1000 with a 35-70mm lens and a flash for $8. It did had some superficial damage along the barrel of the off-brand lens, but upon winding the camera, I noted that the shutter tripped just fine. I'd spent some time working in a photo chain, so I got to know what it sounds like when a shutter isn't working right. I bought it and tested it. Everything was working fine, and it still works at this time. At present, it's in a friend's possession. He wanted to learn photography, and I wanted him to learn with a camera that is as bare bones as possible so he doesn't prop himself up using the automatic crutch.

A week or two later, I found the LandCamera 230 at a flea market. They wanted $10 for it. My foolish enthusiasm almost had it cost more. Thankfully for me, it seems that the poor camera was sitting around for a while. They just wanted it gone. I had to get some film and a new battery. I mean, given the thing was made in 1969, the battery was a tad of a pain to locate, but I searched it down. Thankfully the camera worked just fine, and a beast was born. Hungry for old cameras...

So here's the blog. Bear in mind, the pictures of the cameras I've gotten are not going to be the best in the world. I don't quite have a decent set-up for studio lighting in my apartment. Also this blog is for some of the work I've done with emulsion lifts. Thankfully I don't have to stop with the emulsion lifts since Polaroid left the film game to redirect their efforts to their dreadfully subpar digital division. Fujifilm has their pack film, for roughly the same price, and I tend to like their film better.