John Bosley Photography - Denver Wedding and Portrait Photographer: The Polaroid Diaries: Part I

Over the past many months, I've been shooting with a variety of Polaroids and films. I've gotten some really good results and some really bad results. Good news: Polaroids rock. Bad news: Polaroid film isn't cheap. I'd much rather get more good results than bad results and I'm sure you would too. So, I'm going to try to document some of my experiences here so we can both learn something.

I'm going to start out with some initial thoughts and then get a little more detailed in the future. Here are the cameras I've been shooting with:

SX-70
635 CL
360 and 230 Packfilm Cameras

And the films I've been using:

Various Impossible Project films (PX 100 Silver Shade UV+, PX 70 Color Shade, PX 70 Push)
Fuji 100C, 100B and 3000B
Polaroid Chocolate and Sepia Type 100 (expired)
Polaroid 600 (expired)
Polaroid 779 (expired)

If you're just getting started with the wonderful world of Polaroid, here are a few tips for you:

- Be ready to spend a bunch of money. No kidding. It's not cheap to buy film. If you're shooting a SX-70 or a 600 camera, be ready to spend anywhere from $2-$3 every time you push the button. The packfilm cameras are cheaper at about $1 per image.

- Be prepared for some disappointing results. Not every photo is going to pop out looking like it's straight out of the 1970s. You're going to get over exposed photos, under exposed photos and blurry photos. For quite a while, you'll get them more often than you get properly exposed and properly focused photos, and that's a promise.

- If you're buying cameras at yard sales, antique shops or Craigslist, be prepared to get some that don't work properly. Also, be prepared to waste some film figuring out that your camera doesn't work. And then there's the camera that you thought worked, but then decides not to work very well when you really want to use it. Seriously.

Fortunately, it's not all doom and gloom in the wold of Polaroid. You can get some great results with a little knowledge and practice! It's also a lot of fun and very addictive.

If you've already got a Polaroid and want to get better photos, we're in this journey together. I'll offer up any tips I know or find out and hope that you'll do the same. Let's help each other. If you're just thinking about getting into Polaroids, maybe this will help you figure out if it's really something you want to mess with or if it's something you can be passionate about and master.

Here's a few images to close things out. You can be sure that you'll be seeing them again in some future blog posts. Also, if you want to stay current on all of my film shooting and personal work, head on over to my Tumblr page.