8 Dollars : 2 Pictures. #'s 4 & 5

Took two polaroids today. Numbers four and five. I found myself in the North suburbs of Chicago, near Northbrook, and came across Techny Towers on my way to a field to take pictures. I parked my car and walked about 100 yards away from the entrance, crouched down, and snapped this shot.

 

The second shot was taken about thirty minutes later at the entrance to Chippilee woods in Northbrook, Illinois, at the corners of Grant and Lee. 

The moon is visible in the upper left hand corner of the photo and the tiny snow covered monument in the lower right is an original cornerstone from the civil war era Fort Dearborn, from Chicago.

And It's Official! Updated Today: PolaPremium Becomes Impossible!

PolaPremium Becomes Impossible!

 "As the last quantities of carefully stored original Polaroid films are currently melting like snow in the sun, it is about time to introduce a new chapter of analog Instant Photography. To begin with, please make yourself comfortable at our new Impossible shop and update your bookmarks. In the meantime, we are preparing everything for the Impossible."

-from http://www.the-impossible-project.com

New Upgrades to PolaPremium

PolaPremium and The Impossible Project seemed to have officially merged today. The websites, which were once entirely separate sites, have gone through some upgrades and now are almost one in the same. In fact, when you Google "The Impossible Project" and go to their website they now have a link that takes you to the Impossible Store, which in essence was PolaPremium. When you Google "PolaPremium" it takes you directly to the same site as well, The Impossible Store, which you can find here: The Impossible Store.

But they still haven't restocked their 600 film! I only have 7 photos left!

Though according to them, their warehouses are restocked:

Our US warehouse is now FULLY restocked and the Impossible shop totals will be updated later today. Thanks for your patience! #polaroid about 13 hours ago (via Twitter)

And @ImpossibleUSA is still taking questions. When I asked if they were restocking the 600 soon, which has been out of stock for a while now, they promptly replied,

@thegratefulone we have 5,000 packs in our warehouse :) just waiting for the website to be updated later today. about 14 hours ago

So we're all patiently waiting for our 600 film. Can't complain though; this company and the project is a fantastic endeavour.

New Vintage: Polaroid Photo #3

It was snowing outside earlier tonight. Snowing like mad. I ran outside into the middle of my street, a quiet, wooded side street in a North side neighborhood of Chicago, and snapped a polaroid. I went outside knowing that the street lamps wouldn't provide enough light for the Spirit 600 to capture the snow falling, the lit sky, the bare limbs of crackling trees, but I needed to make sure.

And sure enough. But, as this guy would tell you, there is no such thing as a wasted polaroid. So, here is number three.

Cost: Four dollars 

Location: Lakeview, Chicago 

Time: 6:30pm, 2/22/10

Weather: Heavy, wet snow. 32* F

byproducts of happiness

It's the happy, smiling, funny, awesome people that make http://chatroulette.com so great. The dudes jerking off is just a byproduct of all that happiness.

the grateful one

The grateful one
A bastard son
Lost on a journey
Under the sun

Update on Polapremium

Still haven't restocked their 600 film yet.

According to their twitter account, @ImpossibleUSA, the film got held up at customs but should be in stock soon.

#toogoodtobetrue?

http://www.polapremium.com/shop/film/600

New Polaroid Camera and The Impossible Project

So, a few days ago I found a really cool looking, vintage Polaroid camera, pictured here, on craigslist. I called the woman, she was very nice, she mentioned the camera had been in her closet for twenty years. I drove there, tried it, it worked, paid her, and left.

I get home and go online to find where to buy more film for the camera. It is a Spirit 600 Polaroid Camera, circa 1983, I believe. Much to my chagrin, within minutes of tearing open the film package that came with it and snapping off a couple photos, I find out that Polaroid discontinued production of all classic Polaroid film, including shutting down the factories where the film was made. This happened in 2008.

Apparently, because of this, there was a mad rush on Polaroid film, and when I went to Amazon to search for film, prices ranged from forty dollars to one hundred dollars, and that was for one pack of ten shots.
I look down at my two "test" shots that were still developing in front of me. Five dollars for a picture of my brother on the couch. Five dollars for a picture of our backyard from the sun room. Hmph.

So, like everyone, I went online to rant and vent. On twitter, I complained:

just read that Polaroid stopped making 600 film. so for 1 pack of film, that has 10 shots in it, amazon charges $39.99 (at the lowest) 5:50 PM Feb 15th
4 dollars a photo! 5:52 PM Feb 15th
make every picture count 5:56 PM Feb 15th

One hour later, someone noticed my complaints, and responded:

@ImpossibleUSA to @thegratefulone: we sell 600 film for $21/pack on our retail site (polapremium.com) it'll be fully restocked by the end of the week. 6:56 PM Feb 15th
ImpossibleUSA to @thegratefulone: p.s. we're also making NEW 600 film. B&W will be out in the spring and color in the summer :) 6:57 PM Feb 15th

How awesome. A group called The Impossible Project and a company called PolaPremium had bought almost all of the remaining Polaroid film and were not only selling it much cheaper than people on Amazon and Ebay, but were also in the process of making new film. Amazing.
So, this is all leading up to a point. I am going to start dedicating part of this blog, The Perpetual Log, to infinite awesomeness of Polaroid pictures. Since they still right now cost around four to five dollars a photo, I am backing them up digitally, and will post them as they happen. Probably one a week.

Here are the first two.

Here are a the links to the sites described above:

• http://www.polapremium.com
• http://www.the-impossible-project.com/2009
• http://twitter.com/ImpossibleUSA

Cheers!

Remembering Someone's Name

I read this in a summary of the book, How to Win Friends and Influence People, it is a direct quote from Dale Carnegie that StumbleUpon sent me to, but it resonated, and made me realize I should never forget anothers name,

“Remember that a person’s name is to that person the sweetest and most important sound in any language.”

Just Do Your Best

Just Do Your Best

It's the only way to keep that last bit of sanity
Maybe I don't have to be good but I can try to be
At least a little better than I've been so far

-The Avett Brothers
from the song When I Drink
Listen on Lala.com > http://bit.ly/9Wz7yN

blog!

Being Here Now, And Somewhere Else Later!

I always forget about this blog... there actually was an older blog, carrying the name "Perpetual Log." But that was cut loose from the limbs of the internet, and now resides on a small travel drive in a drawer tucked deep away.

But now we have this blog... oh bloggy blogster. And as of the moment, I really don't have much to say, I was kinda searching for this, knowing I had started a 2nd blog somewhere out there. And when I found it, here on Blogger, I realized it was right where I started the first blog. Never left! Except now there is some mad auto-saving going down. Every minute! Every pause! Saved! For eternity, at least as a Draft.

Publish Post!