"lampost"                                         ©2005 Paul Posadas

i drove out to "freestyle photosupplies" on sunset blvd. in hollywood sunday morning to look for a flash unit for my lomo lubitel 166 and my zorki fed-2. nothing expensive of course considering i paid $30 for the lubitel back in 1997 at freestyle when they were very much available (they are now discontinued) and $10 for the fed-2 from this dude who needed gas money for his truck. the holga flash was only $14.99 but  with a guide number of 22. didn't really mind the GN of 22 and the price is a "steal", but the thing was as big as the cameras it will be going on to. there was this "colorsplash by LOMO" that is dedicated for the Lomo Kompakt  Automat 35mm camera, which caught my fancy though it was $35. Being a sucker for stuff with remarkably artsy packaging, guess what?  yep, i've decided to add this one to the check out list. the cashier -- claire had asked if i already have a holga or a woca, because they are on sale - 50% off. guess what? i couldn't pass up the $10 SOMETHING OFFER (w/o the built-in flash of course) for a "little sharper image taking holga" since it's got glass optics compared to plastic.     now, we're talking "woca" now. some groovy name for a camera. after getting back home, i still had time to mess around with my new toys. i did however notice that the flash unit didn't have a "pc cord" which i very much need to use on the lomo and zorki. i decided to use it on the woca instead. anyway, i did my modifications to the "woca" but instead of using film acetate on the "swinging arm window", i actually decided to cut a small piece of an actual filter gel from my swatch of  "LEE Filters -Cinematographer's Edition". i used 204 FULL C.T. ORANGE which converts daylight to Tungsten 3200 K, mired shift +159.

SEE   PHOTO   ABOVE.

note: please forgive me with my choice of subject when i do a test. just imagine after the modifications i've made i need to "snap" anything then off to the lab up the road so i can figure out what next to do on the camera.

my friday night  "la sur table" purchase.  

boardners

gorky's cafe sign board.                    ©1992 Paul Posadas

at a time of being "mr. mom" and living in valley village (a block north of studio city on whitsett). it was so convenient for me to just stroll with stefani (nickname "stephanie") up to the nearest rite-aid on whitsett and magnolia, to get my film done. estella, the photo section manager, is so knowledgeable and skilled with photofinishing, that to this day because of this, i still go to her for my 35mil portra stuff. estella is true to her printing profession and i clearly see this when she was so kind enough to share with me the idea of shooting with Kodak's Portra which they actually don't carry but they DO Process. i said to myself she's another "Sherrie". Sherrie knew her stuff. Back in the day when Noritsu machines were so popular, i actually knew some one-- Sherrie who managed a "Fox one hour photo" ,  would actually let me print my own stuff as long as i help her run her customer's  film through the c-41 processor and also print them.  fair enough. anything for me having control over the quality of my own stuff.  Valley camera and studio which is a stone throw away from rite-aid, sells Portra. i've been shooting this film now a couple of years and having estella process them because she does quality work. you pay a little more for this film but it's worth it. portra by the way is professional film, that not many places have their equipment programmed for this type of film, only for  the standard consumer ones.  i dropped by to visit estella not to long ago to process this ROLL i found in the side pocket of my domke which had a felt pen marking of "6" and with the film spool leader protruding out of the can. out of curiousity,  i quickly loaded up with this uncertain roll on the 105mil mounted F2 and fired up the rest of the film on stefani ' till the advance lever crank stopped.  while i was picking up the already done photos, Estella asked me if my wife had another baby, i replied "not that i'm aware of" jokingly and looked at her and asked "why?". she say's there's a photo of a baby from the film she printed that i dropped off.

the comparison of the two photos reveals a 2 year gap. i must have taken the film out of the camera so i can immediately  try the Portra film.

whenever you'd find the ONYX CAFE dead on a Friday or Saturday night, it's because
everyone's at DOUG and SALLY'S.