what inspires you? - mosey

mission: MUSE - "what inspires you?"

"muse university" special edition with giveaway

 by muse mosey
a special re-post from mosey along

I am constantly inspired, both by the artistry and spirit of those surrounding me, and sometimes by a moment or a visual that catches my attention during the day.  I specifically went looking for inspiration this past weekend and was not disappointed.

In the middle of San Francisco's first torrential rainstorm of the season, I was lucky enough to take part in a workshop on Through the Viewfinder (TtV), taught by the incredibly talented Andrea of hulaseventy.  She has long been an inspiration to me, capturing exquisite images on Polaroid, digitally, and using the TtV technique.   After some time in the studio we were supposed to be doing a photo walk in the Mission neighbourhood.  Yes, even though it was raining.  With wild wind.  In a downpour.  I think I might have even seen the wicked witch of the west blow through once or twice.

I haven't been able to say this about many things lately... but I
 had FUN.  The workshop included making a cardboard contraption to fit our twin lens reflex cameras, and let me tell you a roomful of grownups with tape and scissors and cardboard channels the glee of craft-time in kindergarten.  Then we spread out through the studio and hallways and stairwells, and ultimately outside, to test our abilities to look down through the lenses of two cameras - our digital camera and the vintage twin lens reflexes.  This was an exercise in patience, since the twin lens reflex reverses the image like a mirror further confusing how to aim at what you're shooting.  You also are not looking FORWARD through a viewfinder, but DOWN.

The technique requires three things - a digital camera, the cardboard contraption, and a vintage twin lens reflex.  Mine is an Argus Seventy Five, which I purchased from Etsy.  Once the cardboard contraption - a rectangular tube - was constructed to fit my Argus, it took great effort to combat my innate clutziness by holding the Argus with my left hand, contraption fitted to the top to block out light, and my digital camera in my right hand shooting down the tube.

A sampling of the images I captured that day.  More here.

It may sound complicated, but it's not as brow furrowing as it sounds.
Russ Morris, who has been influential in developing and popularizing TtV, has a tutorial on making the contraption (I love that word) and getting started.  See his tutorial here.  If you purchase your own vintage twin lens reflex, it does not have to be operational - all we're using are the viewfinder and the lenses.  Your own digital camera captures the actual image through the twin lens reflex.

Look at Muse Tammy's photo to get the idea - although she's not using the contraption (best word ever!) this photo of her son is taken by her DSLR pointing down at the viewfinder of the twin lens reflex.  Get it?  Yay!
 
The day was inspiring, Andrea was inspiring, my fellow photographers were inspiring.  And bonus, it was just good plain FUN.   There is a Flickr group devoted to TtV, and even one on RedBubble.

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To encourage you to give it a try yourself, I'm offering a vintage Argus Seventy Five as a GIVEAWAY today.  And come back and show us your images!

cheers,
mosey