When I
first heard that... Polaroid would cease manufacturing instant film I was working in England. A friend, and sort of quirky photog genius sent me an E-mail warning me to stock up on the stuff because soon I would be paying an even higher price for those little squares of insta-magic. He was right. For awhile I even gave up on my polaroid scrapbook which was filled with a cast of eccentric, strange and lovely characters I had met during several years of traveling. The single images of faces flooded my brain with memories far more than any of the scenic crap I sometimes shot on a digital cam. Also, I hate digital cameras. I never take the time to read the instructions and I rarely change any settings accept for flash or no flash. I like having an old clunker of a machine, I like the crude lines, the imperfections, I like having only one button to push,and I like the 'instant' satisfaction of a picture in hand. shake, shake, shake et voila! Actually I think they tell you not to shake but I can't help it.
Since then my digital camera broke and I've actually been taking all my pictures on my phone. I literally have two years worth of life documented behind the cracked screen of an Iphone.Recently I had a good friend move back to Poland and I wanted to send him a personalized package with some artsy random pics. I wanted to use Polaroids! So I gave in and bought some film from a site online called the 'impossible project' (www.impossibleproject.com) and 20 euros later ($26??) I received a pack of 8 monochrome instant pictures. The site says "using this film is like shaking Edwin Lands hand." I'll let you know if that's true when I'm ballsy enough to take a $3 picture. So I went back online and tried to figure out how to get the polaroid effect without raping my wallet and that's when I found 'Poladroid' (www.poladroid.net ) the free online downloadable program which polarizes your pic with the simple drag and click of a jpg image. It even develops in front of you on your desktop. Now I'm not pretending that this is even close to as cool as it's real-life counterpart but it did the trick and I kind of liked how they turned out plus you can try as many images as you want. For those more tech savvy people I'm sure there's a way to photoshop this and make it look much better but again I'm lazy and I want it easy-peasy or not at all.
