We’ve made it four weeks! I’ve come to terms with the fact that with instant film no shot will be absolutely perfect. It does drive me a bit nuts at times because I like for everything to line up perfectly, but without a true and accurate viewfinder, that will seldom be the case. I’ve grown to appreciate things being off center a bit more too because, for whatever reason, it just seems more real that way. As always, below is each day’s photo and a brief little bit about it.
Day 22 (1/22/19)
I had to take this photo blind. I was shooting up towards a pendant light that was hanging over a bar height counter. In order to get the entire light in the frame, I had to lay the camera on the counter and just line up the lens with the light by eye. It sounds easy until you think of it like a crane claw prize game. You line up the claw and check around the corner to adjust the other axis only to return and see that you threw off your original position. I’m pretty happy that I was able to get it in and not cut anything off. It would have really been embarrassing to show up with a picture of only half of the light. I like the harsh shadow that was casted on the ceiling from the light, and the softer shadows on the different facets of the light itself.
Day 23 (1/23/19)
Central Florida never really sees true winter. Even when it is cold outside, everything still looks bright and green. That’s why when I look at this picture, I really like it. The sky was a light blue color and the light on the branches makes them almost look white. It looks like it was taken in winter!
Day 24 (1/24/19)
I scan in every instax mini, that way I can have a digital copy, and so I can add the pictures into the blog and instagram as well. Side note: if you haven’t checked out my instagram be sure to do so so you can see all of the Instax365 Challenge photos each day and some more behind the scenes. Anyways, back to the story, so I scan in each image with an app on my phone. I’ve found this to be the fastest way. For whatever reason, the app did not want to scan this image. Thanks to that hiccup, I only have this blurry digital copy of the photo. I promise the real copy is not blurry. This was taken on the Kilimanjaro Safari ride at Disney’s Animal Kingdom by Amanda. She was able to make it out to the park with some industry friends and snapped this picture.
Day 25 (1/25/19)
I still love my instagram caption for this photo: “Eat your heart out! Andy Warhol.” Amanda and I were out grocery shopping, and while passing the soup aisle, I was struck with the idea of this picture. It came out exactly as I envisioned it, and I was really pleased with myself for my stupid caption.
Day 26 (1/26/19)
Amanda and I were out exploring Winter Park with the boys. There was a little alley that had shops down it that fed back into a service alley. The service alley had this light on during the middle of the day, and I knew that would be my picture. The gas light was fairly high off the ground, and I consider myself short. I tried framing it from further back, but I really like the look of it up close. To account for my height (or lack thereof) I had to hold my Instax over my head and just approximate the shot. Unfortunately, I was still too short and I cut off the very tip of the light, but I think I still captured the essence of what I was going for.
Day 27 (1/27/19)
RENT: Live on Fox premiered this night. RENT is really important to Amanda and me, as seeing it live on stage was our first date. We planned our day around being settled in on the couch with the kids down to bed to watch this event and just have a stay in date. Unfortunately, one of the cast members injured himself, so the majority of the show was a broadcast of the previous night’s performance. In honor of our small date night, I pulled out Amanda’s RENT song book to take a picture. It almost looks like it is a movie poster.
Day 28 (1/28/19)
This was an abstract picture. I asked on Instagram and Facebook (where I post each image on the day I take the picture) what everyone thought it was. It ranged from iced window to beehives. The final answer is: it is the lid of a candle. I think the hammered texture was pretty cool and I wanted to get in close to and take the picture. I helped light the top the candle lid, but the flash still fired on the camera. This lit up a small part of the lid and while washing out my other light source. It also bounced light in a pretty unique way because of the hammered texture. I’m going to try to find some more opportunities for mystery photos.
Favorite photo of the week:
That is a hard question this week. I like a lot of the photos. If Day 25 were a larger picture I think that one would take the cake, but because it is a smaller format it gets runner up. My favorite photo of the week is Day 23. It just is a really clean and simple picture and I like that. It’s relaxing in a way.
If you want to see our Instax 365 Challenge as the pictures are published, check out my Instagram at @Miguel.Mejias.FloraBloom. I post each day’s Instax photo there first as well as other behind the scenes of our photography there. If you want to see more of our photography check our Instagram @FloraBloomPhotography. We publish a weekly recap of our Instax 365 Challenge here on the blog. Leave a comment below and let us know what you think.
