A few months ago I came across a podcast dedicated to the use of film photography. It turned out that the podcast had been running for well over a year so I started to make my way through their archive of previous shows. For anyone interested in real photography using film (as opposed to digital imaging) I can’t recommend this podcast and their website highly enough. You’ll be hard pressed to find a more enthusiastic bunch of people and as a result they’ve built up quite a following and community worldwide.

From listening to the FPP podcast I learnt about Polaroid Automatic Land Cameras. Their website is a great resource for information including videos of how the cameras work, what to look out for when buying/using them and how to get the best out of these amazing cameras. The more I learnt about them the more I got hooked. A quick search on ebay turned up a bargain and from the first time using it I was instantly hooked. I’ve since acquired a few more of these cameras of different models and this week I took one out on the streets for a quick test. Below is a shot of my most recent purchase, a Polaroid 350 (photographed with my Polaroid 100 and portrait kit) and the two images below that were made with it. Polaroid no longer make the instant pack film but fortunately Fuji still does. There is something magical about producing a print directly from a camera and to think that these cameras date back to the 1960’s. The fact that they still work perfectly today is testament to how well made they are and to say that using one of these is fun and exciting would be an understatement. How many of todays digital cameras will be in use 50 years from now?

Polaroid 350 Automatic Land Camera

Degree robes

Elegant dresses in shop window, Little Clarendon Street, Oxford.