This photo makes me so happy that I'm giving it its own blog post. Taken with a plastic Holga camera loaded with 35mm film and developed in caffenol-c, it shows Piazza del Popolo's quasi-twin churches. I couldn't get enough of this square... there will be more photos of it to come! And if it wasn't before, the Holga is definitely a favorite now. 
So I broke out the Olympus again, this time loading it with C-41 black and white film from the local pharmacy. With all the beautiful trees around here, it didn't take me long to finish the roll. And voila, the coffee and vitamin c home brew did the trick!
The images are a bit more grainy, and they turned out a different shade of color than the first batch. But I like it.
My favorite tree. Caffeinated.
Coffee and vitamin C. Good for a burst of energy and good health. But who knew that these two ingredients could also be used to develop film? It may sound a bit like science fiction, but surprisingly enough, it really works.
Developing film in a coffee mixture called caffenol can be done right at home. And it actually wasn't too complicated. A daylight developing tank, a roll of film, the coffee and vitamin C, plus some water, sodium carbonate, and dish soap is all it took. It's cheaper than having film developed, and it's more rewarding, too.
Not to mention completely thrilling. I felt a bit like an alchemist, and my good friend/film-developing partner in crime and I couldn't wait to check the film once all the solutions had been run through the tank and the film was rinsed.
We opened the developing tanks and felt like kids on Christmas morning - there were images on the film. Yess!
Most of my photos look best and brightest along the edges, where they're also a pleasant shade of coffee brown. The middle of many images is darker and a bit more blue-grayish, I'm guessing because the developing solution didn't flow over those areas as freely. I'll have to experiment with how much I agitate the tank while developing.
I'm hooked on developing film with caffenol — I didn't think I would have that much fun with it, but I really enjoyed it!
I used my Olympus Stylus camera to take these photos. I found the camera in a box at Christmas, together with photos and various college mementos. I haven't thought much about the camera in the past 10 years, but now that I've rediscovered it, I plan on using it much more.
Lynnhaven Marina
This was round 1 with caffenol. I'm sure there will be more to come!
A Russian plastic camera with a plastic lens in a faded cloth case. Mixed Roman and Cyrillic lettering on the camera case. And a set of neatly folded, somewhat yellowed operating instructions, with the serial number of the camera and the production year (1972) hand-written on it. When I picked up the Lomo Smena 35, I didn't know anything about it. But I knew that I found a thrift store gem.
The camera is fully manual: focus, aperture, and shutter speed, conveniently labeled in numbers on the bottom of the lens and corresponding weather icons on the top of the lens. And the shutter and film winding mechanisms are independent of each other, meaning that it'll do double exposures as well as endlessly overlapping panoramas. What more can you ask for?
Detailed instructions explain exactly how to operate all the controls... just not always in perfect English. For example: "With stopping down the lens, the near limit of field depth will approach the camera while the far limit will run away." Although I intuitively understood the meaning of this sentence (small aperture = greater depth of field), it took me reading it several times before I could wrap my mind around the words. But there's something so amusing about imagining the depth of field literally running away from my camera! Just reading the instructions felt like a little adventure.
And I was ready to go! An afternoon at First Landing State Park provided ample opportunities to try this fun and funky camera, film, and filter combination. 
Through the lens of the Smena: looking up in First Landing State Park. I'm still loving all the bare trees.
...but the sunshine can be deceptive.
It wasn't easy to get the entire facade into one frame, but I'm happy with how this photo turned out. I was glad to be there in winter, with the bare trees allowing the rose window to show through a little bit.
My favorite part of the cathedral was the labyrinth of chapels, corridors, and art exhibits in the space below the main basilica. Above: the Chapel of Joseph of Arimathea, photographed with a Polaroid Spectra camera and Impossible Project Silver Shade film.
From Washington National Cathedral, I walked up Wisconsin Avenue. In the above photo, I'm looking down Wisconsin Avenue back toward the National Cathedral, whose bell towers are visible in the distance.
Next Stop: Arlington National Cemetery. I had never been there before and planned to spend some time walking around. And I was prepared for the bone-chilling wind: I had slipped toe warmers into my shoes and hand warmers in my coat pockets to warm my fingers between photos.
I walked around the cemetery for a while, then escaped the cold by ducking into Arlington House. Arlington House and its plantation were associated with the Washington, Custis, and Lee families, and it is now a memorial to Robert E. Lee, whose family lived here for 30 years. The history of Arlington National Cemetery begins in this very spot, as part of the plantation property was used for Civil War military burials.
Back in Hampton Roads, the Canon AE-1 and I went to one of my favorite local spots: New Cape Henry Light...
...and the nearby sand dunes.
Washington DC's cold weather isn't the only cold air the Canon has faced lately. When it snowed earlier this season, I couldn't wait to head outside and take a few snowy photos. The camera did great!
A normal neighborhood, transformed into a winter wonderland.
But not to worry, the camera didn't always have to work outdoors. I also used it to take some through-the-viewfinder photos in the comfort of my home:
Fun!
A little while ago, I received a fun little present... and a challenge. Two identical plastic Photo Master cameras. Thank you, Genevieve!
The adorable Photo Master in all its tiny, lovable plastic glory.
The aftermath.
I carried the camera with me to several places, taking a photo or two in each place over the period of several weeks. I had no way of knowing how far to advance the film, so that was a bit of a guessing game.
Also interesting is the fact that the shape of one end of the film, which I had cut to a point to help me attach it to the film spool, showed up in a photo (see above). I'm wondering if the film didn't neatly travel from one side of the camera body to the other but somehow ended up in the main compartment. I may have to come up with another way to run film through this camera. I love projects like this: the more nontraditional the setup, the more interesting the photos may turn out. If I'm lucky, hehe. We'll see how the next round goes. I'm loving this!
Last Christmas, I received an unexpected treasure: a Rollei 35T. It was a surprise gift from someone very special, and I've had a lot of fun learning how to use it.
When this little 35mm camera is not in use, it's wonderfully sleek and compact. In fact, it's not much larger than modern digital point-and shoot cameras from just a few years ago.
But this Rollei has a trick up its sleeve: its collapsible lens must be pulled out from the body and clicked into place before the aperture can be set and photos taken. In the photo above, the lens is extended toward me. It's a unique system: pull the lens from the body, click it into place, set the aperture, shutter speed, and focus, and press the shutter. Then, in order to return the lens to the storage position, advance the film, press a release button, turn the lens just a tad to release it, and push the lens back into the camera body. Fascinating... I love it.
One day in January, I had some time to myself in San Diego, and I took the opportunity to try out the Rollei at the Mission San Diego de AlcalĂ . This was my first shot: the reconstructed facade of the southernmost California mission.
The camera and I then proceeded to the basilica. I set the camera (which I had mounted on a small tripod) on a little table near the front, then took a few exposures. Since it was a low-light indoor shot, I wasn't able to use the exposure meter at all -- I used the bulb setting, held the camera steady on the table with one hand, and opened and closed the shutter with the other. The exposure time was a guess... several seconds. And I got this result! Yess!
I took the same shot a few more times, increasing the exposure time just a little bit each time. I also gave each photo a slightly different monochrome effect in Lightroom.
I then took the camera to the back of the church, where I set it on the floor and tried a few more shots. Since there was no table back there, the floor was the only place I could set the camera down. I like the low angle... so it was a win-win.
Low angle, from the back of the basilica.
New Cape Henry Light
I then took the wooden walkway over the sand dunes and to the beach. I like this spot on the coast!
I snapped a few more shots, and I again experimented with different monochrome effects using Lightroom software.
I enjoyed photographing the sand dunes and grasses... they make for a beautiful and peaceful beach scene.
Two faux half frames. They're two adjacent photos on the negative, and I framed the crop so that half of each photo would be included. I then added the black lines on the left and right to make it look like the images end there.
