Showing posts with label William Henry Fox Talbot. Show all posts
Showing posts with label William Henry Fox Talbot. Show all posts

Saturday, September 14, 2013

Homage of sorts to William Henry Fox Talbot

A while back I took one of my old cameras, a Kodak duoflex and attached a "shooting chute" of sorts. The idea is that you use an old camera and shoot a digital image through the lens, so you're getting a picture that doesn't look like what you would normally get from a digital camera (or from the original, film camera either). The set up looks like this:
It's pretty ugly and wonky to shoot through. I had originally made it a pinhole camera by removing the lower lens, which is why it looks more like an "unoflex"than a duoflex.

Anyhow, I shot some photos through this contraption, using the Canon G9. Here is an example of one of the shots:

I decided that this reminded me a bit of a William Henry Fox Talbot photograph. This one:
"The Open Door" - William Henry Fox Talbot, 1844
Honestly, it's just that both photographs have a lone broom as the subject that makes the association for me. I decided to try to imitate the tonal qualities of the Talbot original. Here is the result:
"The Neglected Deck" - Leslie Levenson, 2013
Way more greenish than the original. But it's fun to try to mimic photos. I'm always amazed at how I overestimate my own skills when I try to do something like this. I know soooo little. It's good to keep trying though.