sllɐqǝʎǝʎzznɟ

It has a been a while since the last ‘About Someone’ entry, where I’ll feature someone whose work I really love in this blog. So I dropped Jenni an email and was delighted that she agreed to do it.

Jenni Callard is from Delaware, USA. She loves lo-fi photography and is pretty good at it!

I fell in love with some of Jenni’s ‘foul weather’ photos and thought maybe I could get her to answer some simple questions as well as share with us some of her favourite photos …

Before we get into questions about your cool works, how about letting us know a bit more about yourself?

I have 3 children (two girls 10 and 8 years old and a boy 3 years old) a fantastic husband and I work as an intensive care RN in a local hospital. In addition to photography I’m also an accomplished musician and can play enough instruments to be my own band. When not hunting down interesting but ordinary objects to photograph I love surfing, going to the beach, exercising or playing a good game of tag with the kids.

Let’s dive straight into the photo set that I love lots. ‘Foul weather’. What inspired you to do them?

Last autumn was extremely wet here in the Mid-Atlantic region of the States. Since I shoot film mainly with toy cameras it was becoming really difficult to find enough light to get decent shots. I swear it rained 3 months straight!! Never one to back down from a challenge I decided to take my Holga, Polaroid 600 series camera and Fed 2 out one foggy, rainy morning. I figured if this was the weather I had to work with I needed to figure out how to get some decent shots–thus the foul weather series was born. I experimented with different exposure times with the Holga and Polaroid using my light meter and trying to guess how long to hold the shutter button down for, say 1/32, then snapping the picture. For the Fed 2 I had a bit more control and could actually set the aperture and shutter speeds. As if those results weren’t interesting enough when I developed the 35mm film it was loaded on a crappy reel, causing some bubbling and artifact that added to the mysterious and creepy mood. It was an experiment that came out way better than I expected!

So what do you shoot when the weather is good?

When the weather is in my favor I love to take pictures of rusty, crusty things. My husband thinks if anyone ever looked at my portfolio that would be the overriding theme. I also love taking macro shots of ordinary objects and twisting the subject on it’s head through cross processing color film or using unusual angles. My family is very tolerant of my habit of stopping to take pictures of overturned carts, brick walls, empty benches and funny signs. Nature, especially the beach, is also a favorite theme as are my three kids. I have plenty of embarrassing shots all lined up and ready to show to potential dates!

What are your favourite ‘tools’ (cameras)?

By far my Holga is my favorite! Point-and-shoot, no thinking, light, portable and consistently inconsistent, it’s my go-to camera. I love my Vivitar Ultra Wide and Slim but I don’t like 35mm film as much as 120: It seems to take FOREVER to get through a roll of 24 shots let alone 36. My Diana F+ is great for macro shots. I have the wide and close angle lens kit and love the results I’ve been getting from it, although it’s a bit under the weather at the moment. Finally, my Lubitel 166B is my favorite vintage Russian camera. It’s not as heavy as my Kiev 88 and I have control over aperture and shutter speed that can give me more freedom. Plus, using a macro diopter gives me some crazy macro shots that look other-wordly!

Please share with us 3 of your personal favourites (photos)

I really love this shot of the Bait Shack that is right up the road from my house. It was on the very first roll I ran through my Holga and is simple and very retro looking at the same time. I love that it’s hard to tell what era that shot was taken in.

Second would have to be my macro shot of a yellow leaf on a crepe myrtle tree. I was goofing around with a +10 macro diopter with my Lubitel which can yield interesting results. I truly never know what I’m going to get because to use it you place the diopter over the ‘seeing’ lens, move the camera until the subject is in focus, mover the diopter to the ‘picture taking lens’ and at the same time move the camera up a few inches to make sure you’re aiming at whatever you were focusing on. Then hold your breath, say a prayer to the photo gods and take the shot. It was a beautiful fall afternoon with rosy-orangey sunlight hitting these bright yellow leaves and through the magic of Fuji Velvia–processed normally– I got these crazy colors. There are 4 shots in this series and they’re among my favorites.

Third is another Holga shot. My family took a trip to NYC to visit some friends and relatives and while there we visited the Museum of Natural History. Once again I was confronted with a challenging lighting situation. I decided to experiment a bit to see how correctly I could guess the shutter speed. I was right most of the time but, having no tripod with me, a lot of my shots have the ‘shakes’. I loved this one of my daughters ‘shaking hands’ with this skeletal dinosaur appendage. I like the movement that the shakiness gives it. It kind of reminds me of an off-beat ‘David Touching the Hand of God’, only plastic, cheap and modern.

If one fine day, all the film in the world disappears … what will you do?

It will be a sad, sad day when film disappears. After a substantial mourning period I’d first  go globetrotting to find the last remaining vintages of Ilford and Fuji Velvia Then, having been a do-it-yourself kind of gal most of my life, I’d have to come up with my own version of film. Digital just doesn’t have the same allure. I could always invest in a lensbaby kit but for that price, I could buy quite a few Holgas, couldn’t I?

To view more great photos, check out Jenni’s blog or Flickr.