Daily Inspiration #334 by Troy Bradford

Steve,

Thanks in advanced for considering this post. After following your site for over 2 years, I still check it daily. Appreciate all that you do to maintain a solid website!

Below is a rare visit that I had while traveling out to California. During most business trips I try to set aside some time to photograph something in the city that I am visiting. Most of the trips involve some type of street photography. I almost always take my Leica M8, but lately I have also been taking one of more Polaroid cameras along. During this visit, I had both my M8 camera and a Polaroid SX-70 camera loaded with Impossible PX100 Silver Shade film.

Robert Schaeffer, the owner of Schaeffer’s Garment Hotel, is the cousin of a co-worker of mine (John Hughes). During one of my recent visits to LA, John and I stopped by so that he could say hi to his cousin. I was absolutely amazed by the space that Robert had created. He has vintage clothing, boots and belts. He repairs jeans and fabricates/sells custom-made denims. On top of all of that (no pun intended) he has a custom hatter, Gunner Foxx, that operates out of the back of his shop. After this visit I just couldn’t quit talking with John about the shop. I asked John to call Robert and ask if I could come back during my next visit and take some photos of the place. A few weeks passed and I returned. Robert was such a gracious host! After I had taken a few instant and digital photos of the shop with my SX-70 and Leica, Robert introduced me to Gunner Fox. They were both cordial enough to let me photograph Gunner in action. One word: AMAZING!

If you’re ever in LA around Sunset Blvd and N Gardner Street, make sure and stop by. You will not be disappointed…

I know most of your viewers are accustomed to seeing Leica images and I only hope that mine live up to the high bar that has been established. However, I must at least say a few words about the latest silver shade instant film that has been created by The Impossible Project. This is by far my favorite instant film! As you can see, the images that are possible with this film are stunning. I know the instant film scans are not for the “pixel peepers”, but the clarity, contrast and unique character of the image is something to behold. In my opinion, instant photography compliments the mentality of using a Leica M camera (as in neither camera excels at rapid-fire photography).

That being said, below are my seven favorites from the M8 and four favorites from the SX-70…

Thanks,

Troy Bradford

 

troybradfordphotos.com

troybradfordstreetphotos.blogspot.com

troybradfordinstantphotos.blogspot.com

 

8 Comments

  1. Interesting how things are moving. I love my M9s but have moved back to film Ms for most my planned monochrome work and also use Instamax for travel handouts. I’m now seriously taken with that new Polaroid film!

    Film sure as heck isn’t dead!

    • Appreciate that! I have processed through ALOT of Impossible film to get to the point of where I am comfortable shooting it and getting fairly consistent results…

  2. LOVE THE PHOTOS! Really great stuff. I love photos like this that look like they’re out of some other time. Can you share a bit of detail on how you PPed the first and second shots? How much of that look is simply Leica, and how much is PP? Would write more, but I’m headed to your site now to dig through more photos. Thanks for posting these!

    • Appreciate the compliments! The shots were processed via the Tonal Contrast preset in NIK Color Efex Pro. Seems to create a depth in the shots. It doesn’t work with all photos. Many times the preset creates terrible artifacts on the skin. The Leica camera/lens gives you an image that has a sharpness that works well with this preset. Hope you enjoyed digging through my other photos!

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