Film and stuff.
Few things are as satisfying for the LoFi photographer as producing a compelling image using a cardboard box and some leftover instant coffee!
This months online exhibition celebrates hacked cameras, processes and prints.
Click through to the gallery – more work will continue to go up over the month of July.
Hacked Gallery (Click to enter)
Join us in August for Let There Be Light – Part 2.
Featured Image: Through the Dishwasher, Mandy Kerr.
Summer Outings while we maintain social distance will be difficult but in the spirit of LoFi – pack up a cake and coffee and self-guide yourself safely round our suggested routes.
We will set off from the start at 11am, if you want distant company. Please stay 2m apart, bring a mask and hand sanitiser!
Start with a view of the Granton Gas Works off Waterfront Broadway.
Head south to the park entrance.
There is a large Morrisons supermarket if provisions are required.
Forthquarter Park is a newly developed previous industrial site .
Walking west through the park you will see part of the Granton Burn and wildlife at the quarry pond. Granton House stood on this site before it was destroyed by fire in 1954.
Leaving the Park at West Shore road travel north east through the redeveloped land to Caroline Park Avenue and Granton Castle Walled Garden.
North from the garden follow Charles Darwins path by the Firth coast along West Shore Road looking for photographic specimens to collect. The 3 bridges should be visible in the distance.
Continue to the grassy area of Gypsy Brae, the location of Granton Sea Quarry.
At this point you can choose to continue along the Shore to Silverknowes/Cramond or head inland through the tree-d area to West Shore Road and south Marine Drive and the Muirhouse Roundabout where buses to town are available.
Want to know more about the history of Granton and spend more time exploring? Try Curious Edinburgh’s Granton Tour.
Download the route as a PDF –
Please email in photographs from this walk to add to the Summer Sundays gallery.
Meet at the Queensferry Road entrance at 11am.
We will circle through the woods back to the start point. Coffee will be available in Craigleith after.
Public transport – LRT buses 13, 38, 41, 42 and 43 stop nearby.
Please email in photographs from this walk to add to the Summer Sundays gallery.
Meet at Port Seaton Harbour at 11am.
It is Cyanotype day this weekend so we will make some impromptu sea shore images.
TBD
We will continue along the coast to Cockenzie and Prestonpans. Cockenzie house cafe is open. For those wanting to make a day of it Art Walk Porty also has events on – including an outdoor screening at 7pm.
Public Transport – LRT 26, 111, 118, X26.
Please email in photographs from this walk to add to the Summer Sundays gallery.
June’s online exhibition features Cameraless prints including photograms, lumens, chemigrams and alternative processes.
Cameraless Gallery (Click to enter)
New work will be added over the month so please check back to see how the gallery evolves.
An anthotype is an image created using photosensitive material from plants – In 1842 Mrs Mary Somerville created an emulsion from crushed flower petals, which when exposed to direct sunlight bleached the parts not covered by a mask and created an image. Sir John Hershel later presented her letters to the Royal Society sharing her findings with the world. Learn how to create your own at home with simple equipment, sunshine and plant juices in this months virtual photography workshop, run by Brittonie Fletcher.
The workshop will comprise of an overview of the process/ how and what to set up / a demo. Brittonie will then be online a couple of days later to troubleshoot your process and answer questions.
Basic materials:
Please email brittoniefletcher@edinburghlofi.com for full information on materials required, payment details and live workshop link.
Many thanks to everyone who sent work in.
The winner is Graeme Pow! Some book tokens for Beyond Words are winging their way to you.
…reminds me of Lovecraft-ian horror, juxtaposed with childhood innocence… well composed and lit.
The Judge
Honourable mention to Ali Millar .
A portal to another world – a sharp and exciting projection.
The Judge
May’s Online Exhibition features work by Sheila Borthwick, Ali Millar, Chris Osborne, Mandy Kerr, Roddy Shippin and Elaine Robson.
Vintage Polaroids, new OneStep film, Instax Squares, and hybrid images from the Polaroid Lab and Zink instant printers.
Lifts, composites, chemical fogs and other diverse techniques are on display.
In An Instant Gallery (Click to enter)
June’s virtual exhibition will be Cameraless
From writing with light to writing with chemicals, the chemigram uses photosensitive material, chemical solutions and resist materials to form a unique print directly on the paper surface.
This fun workshop, run by Brittonie Fletcher, will add a lockdown twist to the process by using everyday long expired items found while cleaning out cupboards to show you how to produce your own “coronagrams”.
Basic materials:
Please email brittoniefletcher@edinburghlofi.com for full information on materials required, payment details and live workshop link.
Chemigram image: Cthutlu flies through time and space by Brittonie Fletcher.
We can all measure this day as a win already – because it is NOT SNOWING! (In Edinburgh at least.)
Here is a roundup of some of the challenges we have discussed over the last few meetings – take part in any or all today –
– Make a pinhole photo by any methods possible – for those without access to chemicals LoFi relaxes the rules, for one day only, to use digital.
– Virtual photo walk – make a pinhole photo and a take regular snap of your new favourite lockdown place to have a walk. Send in the photos and the GPS co-ordinates (or address) and we will put them on a virtual map for people to take an armchair wander. [ …and after the lock down rules are relaxed visit these spots in person.]
– process and develop at home – try some DIY developer. There are many recipes for Caffenol out there but if possible try beer-ol – recipe below (https://www.caffenol.org/)
– Most inventive pinhole still life ( there will be a prize – SC will judge ) Deadline for submissions 3rd May.
– Turn a room into a Camera Obscura
– The Cannister Club theme this month is “Home”
Don’t forget to email your images in to be included in the online exhibition and to submit work to our gallery group on pinholeday.org. Work must be submitted to them by 31st May to be included in the 2020 on-line exhibition. (Select Edinburgh LoFi in the gallery group option.)
Coffee on Skype at 10:30 today, and then a catch-up for afternoon tea at 4.30pm.
Next regular meeting this Wednesday morning from 10:30 and the first week of May will be the “Instant” on-line exhibition.
Coronagram workshop – possible date this Wednesday 29th – TBC Early evening.
We are not sure where the phrase Lockdown Lumens started but there are plenty being made at the moment given everyones confinement and nice sunny weather here in Scotland.
B&W photographic paper is exposed to UV or artificial light, masked with objects or a negative until the paper turns a pleasing colour. The print is then scanned or fixed to retain the image. No developer is used.
As with photograms the composition is probably more important than the chemistry! Inventive uses for household objects can take these beyond the everyday and into the narrative or abstract. Saying that, plant matter produces delicate and beautiful results and negatives of all sizes work well too.
As more intense light is allowed to fall on the paper, over a prolonged exposure period, coloured areas form. This is caused by silver atoms clumping on the silver halide particles and reflecting different wavelengths. As more free silver is liberated by the light energy reaction the ‘print out’ on the paper becomes coloured. First appearing yellow, pink, then sepia, then red-brown and finally as a purple slate gray shade as the clump particle size increases.
The lumen will be fugitive after exposure. Many people scan the lumen to preserve the fresh colours. The lumen can be fixed using an alkaline fixer (such as 10g sodium thiosulphate / 1g sodium carbonate/ 100ml distilled water) but this will cause some bleaching of the colours.
At a previous LoFi meet we discussed “Loomens” – that is using a very long water wash to remove as much of the reactive chemicals as possible. The only dark tank with changing water we could think of was the toilet cistern – pop the print in the back, out of the way of the flush mechanism, and leave it for a month!
Try Anthrotypes if you enjoy the UV aspect and make your own photosensitive materials. Liquid light can allow for lumens on all sorts of surfaces. Try coating the B&W paper with cyanotype fluid first to make cyanolumens!
Email in your results or tag us on social media for repost – we would love to see the results.
Check out work by Olive Dean and Mandy Kerr – they have lots of example works available through the links in their galleries.
Day 17 – Back in 2011/12 when LoFi was just getting started we did a group project called Time Place Light based in Dunbar using various lens-less photographic techniques including pinhole and solargraphs. The results can still be seen on the project blog.
THE GALLERY IS OPEN (Click to enter)
