Polaroid Week - Oct. 20-25, 2019 - Aly’s Vintage Camera Alley

This year was my first time participating in Polaroid Week. It was started on Flickr 13 years ago by a group of photographers who wanted to be able to celebrate instant film. It happens twice a year, spring and fall, and you can share your photos using the hashtags #polaroidWeek or #roidWeek.

This was the perfect opportunity for me to use my Polaroid Spectra that I recently inherited from my great Aunt Frances who is now 94 years young. The camera was recently deemed dead weight by Polaroid Originals when they announced the discontinuation of their Spectra film. In fact I inherited the camera on the day of this sad announcement.

I’ll admit my Spectra did jam, but it was easily remedied by removing the mylar flap from the Polaroid Originals Film, which tells me it is not my camera that is defective, but I could be wrong. This camera also has some focusing issue, probably the Sonar dying from age, but it still takes beautiful pictures, my favorite being with the black and white Spectra film.

My Spectra takes beautiful landscapes in black and white

My Aunt took this camera all around the world with her and her husband before he passed away. Below are some of the pictures she took. This is why this camera is so special to me and why I had to shoot with it. I want to make memories with it myself, so I bough up some Spectra film, and I have it stored in my fridge to hopefully use this holiday season before it goes bad.

I kept busy for Polaroid Week and shot pictures around the house and in my backyard since I am still pretty much homebound from my health issues at the moment. But I did go around the neighborhood one of the days to shoot some fun shots. See my YouTube video for more on that day.

My Video for Polaroid Week 2019

It felt really good to get out even just for a half an hour, to see the neighborhood and be creative. You’d be surprised at all the interesting things you can find to take shots of when you really look, even if you think you live in a boring town.

I also tried to fix my Moms Polaroid Time Zero One Step that she gave me. I tried shooting with it in a previous YouTube video and the shutter button kept getting stuck, ruining an expensive pack of Sx-70 film. I took the front cover off and examined the shutter. I don’t know much about these cameras so I admitidly didn’t know what I was looking at, but after some fidgeting and oil, the shutter stopped sticking, and fingers crossed, will stay unstuck. The Time Zero doesn’t take the best pictures out of the Polaroid Cameras I own, but I got a couple I liked.

My neighbors – Shot with the Time Zero One Step

Across from my house – – Shot with the Time Zero One Step

I also shot pictures with my Close Up and my SX-70. The Close Up I got from A Mail Call From Uncle B, and the SX-70 I purchased from KEH.com. I think the SX-70 is my favorite because of the fact that you can have more control over your exposures than you can with the other cameras. It also is portable with its folding design. The Close Up takes better pictures indoors because of its use of 600 film with a higher ISO than the SX-70 film. This is remedied though, as I demonstrate in the video above, by using 600 film in the SX-70 when placing a Polaroid Originals Neutral Density Filter over the film pack.

Frankie Writing This Blog – Shot with the Polaroid Close Up

Jasmine in Low Light – 600 film with the SX-70

Succulents hanging in my bathroom – taken with the close up

My neighborhood skyline – taken with the SX-70

The Sun Setting behind my house – taken with the SX-70

Frank on Security Duty – taken with the SX-70

My favorite film out of all of them is the black and white film in both Spectra and SX-70 format. I just love how each picture has different characteristics. It also has a very vintage look to it which is just my style.