Behind The Scenes

It’s been nice knowing you Polaroid. I’ll miss you. With the advent of digital photography, boxes of Polaroid are collecting dust on photographer’s studio shelves. I never had a use for light meters because shooting with Polaroid was golden. I knew exactly what my film would look like after seeing what Polaroid saw first. But, there was this one time Polaroid failed me, or rather, I failed it.

During my first year in business, I had a 4×5 still life ad shoot on the ice of a hockey arena. Now I’m all excited because it paid good money and the ad agency was one of the best. The shoot was easy for me. Nothing to worry about until my Polaroids weren’t processing. The cold air on the ice was something I never considered. Panic struck. Frozen droplets of sweat hung to my brow. Not really, but what happened next was the beginning of a life-long habit.

I needed to warm up my Polaroid before and after I exposed it to light. So with my hands in prayer position, I placed the Polaroid between my palms. The warmth of my hands offsets the cold around me and gives me a better read on the Polaroid. It worked then and I’ve been pulling Polaroids and praying ever since. Until digital came along.

Sometimes Polaroid gave back. This was the case when I shot with a Hasselblad. After exhausting the allotted medium format Polaroids from the black cartridge they come in, it leaves a kind of picture frame. Reconfigure the black cartridge, slip in the exposed Polaroid and you have an instant piece of framed art to bring home. Very popular with out-takes which I will miss you the most.