NYC Resistor

In celebration of Lady Ada day, a day to celebrate women in technology, here’s a spotlight on the ladies of Resistor!

Kellbot – Tinysaur champion and creator of a glowing pacman cupcake.

Pip – She’s the lab in the word Buglabs pictured here with a twitchie baby.

Diana – Fashion nerd pictured here with a fibonacci scarf.

Max – Server wrangler and practicing safety with style.

Yarnivore – Sociological analyst and crafter.

Edith – Breathing life into books with arduinos and seen here making monolithic white boxes!

You should also pop over to my friend Limor’s, aka Lady Ada’s site to check out the sale she’s having today on her electronics kits!

When I was a teenager I wanted a “real camera” so so much — I built a pinhole camera from the instructions in a 4-H booklet, and I shot rolls of 110 with it and also a crappy little camera I bought at a department store with money from my library job. What I really wanted was a 35mm camera, though — a Real Camera. 

I never got that real camera, although over the years I shot plenty of rolls of 35mm film in various random point-and-shoots. I always found it kind of dissatisfying, though. But five or six years ago I got a digital point-and-shoot and it was wonderful! I took so many pictures, and learned so much, and last year I jumped in with both feet and bought a Nikon D70 and a couple of lenses — in my heart, this was my first Real Camera. 

Tenzing! cc-licensed by yarnivore

This month, though, I’ve made a 180-degree turn. Instead of pursuing fancier and more expensive digital technology, I’m exploring 35mm film rangefinder photography. In 2009!

Yashica Electro 35 G - photo by Suviko - cc-licensed

I’ve been thrilled to discover that there are so many wonderful people, all over the web, still using these cameras. Better yet, they not only post their photos, but belong to super-active communities where they discuss the gory technical details. The didactic generosity I’ve seen already is wonderful — people really take the time to share their knowledge.

Electro 35 test shot - cc-licensed by Geopelia

I’ve cleaned up my new/old Electro 35 G (it’s got a 45mm f/1.7 Yashinon lens) as well as an Agfa Silette (Apotar 45mm f/3.5 in a Prontor-S shutter). I’m in the middle of shooting my test rolls, and I can’t wait to see the shots! 

Turns out I’m not the only person at the Resistor who likes cameras and film — so we’re going to be playing with developing here. Of course, there are groups on Flickr for that, too.

It’s taken over 20 years for me to get back to the idea of shooting 35mm (and soon, 120) film. I’m perfectly happy with how this has turned out, though. If Malcom Gladwell is right, and you really do need 10,000 hours of practice to succeed, then I’ve just been putting in my time, shooting lots of frames and getting more comfortable with my tools.

Marisa Olsen pointed me to this interesting panel. I won’t be in the country, but I hope someone can go and report back as to how it went!

Craft Hackers is a panel discussion among artists who use crafting techniques to explore high-tech culture and the relationship between needlework and computer programming. Panelists include Cat Mazza, who translates moving images into stills knit in yarn; Christy Matson, who uses Jacquard Looms (some of the earliest computers) to knit landscape images from computer games; Ben Fino-Radin, whose witty needlepoint sculptures translate the World Wide Web into yarn and plastic, one pixel at a time; and Cody Trepte, whose embroidery of retired computer punch cards rekindles an old-fashioned love affair with the hand of the artist.

Link

A couple of weeks ago Bre posted about digital pinhole photography, and I’ve been thinking about it ever since. Last night I spent about 30 minutes playing around at NYCR, following Bre’s instructions, and here’s the first image I was happy with:

pinhole image of Club-Mate bottle, by yarnivore

Today I spent an hour or so in the garden fooling around, and I’m already thrilled.

black-eyed Susans and echinacea, by yarnivore

There are tons of resources all over the web (just for starters, here’s a Digital Pinhole Photography discussion group on Flickr), but I encourage you to make a lens and start shooting before you read a lot — it’s easy to get started, and you don’t want to waste valuable daylight shooting hours inside on the web.

Thanks, Bre!