09 February 2010

Trudging through the snow and slush in my 1964 Pac's


A few weeks ago I spent the weekend in Tahoe trudging through the snow and slush (to take a few photos) in my Sorel 1964 Pac boots. They were a much needed and welcomed Christmas present this last year. I'm hoping that they last as long as everyone elses - and that I will still be trudging through the snow with them in 2030.

Polaroids taken with Artistic TZ film (from polapremium) and my favirote Polaroid SX-70.

08 February 2010

Polaroid Land Photography: Yosemite








Finally, I have a chance to share all of the Polaroids I shot several weeks back in Yosemite with my Land Automatic. Shooting the land is quite a different experience than that of integral film. I pulled it off by using my car as a "home base". I would take the camera out on short walks/hikes, take one shot, head back to the car, and develop inside where the temperatures were still much warmer than the winter chill outside. By doing this, I was also able to control all of the extra waste created by shooting peel apart film. I wish I had taken a photo of the inside of my car during all of this - I had processed Polaroids laying all over the place while waiting for them to all dry out and set.
All images shot with a Land Automatic 210 and Fuji FP100C

On Friday, I came an ebay listing for an Ansel Adams book that I had no idea even existed. I was able to find several copies on Half.com, at great prices, if anyone else is interested in picking up a copy for themselves.

05 February 2010

This Land:



Yosemite National Park.
Polaroid SX70 & Artistic TZ film
Polaroid Land Automatic 210 & Fuji FP100C

04 February 2010

What I've been working on:

When it comes to websites I think we can all agree that they are constantly a work in progress. There is always something new and better on the horizon.... and just as soon as you launch it's time for an update (or sometimes, an overhaul). I have been working on my website for almost a year now and it has gone through at least 5-10 design ideas and phases. I have battled simplification vs. extravagance, finally settling on a clean/simplified layout to my site. Anyways, without further adieu, here it is (at least for now):

www.saraheregnier.com


"Snap"
(intro to saraheregnier.com)

03 February 2010

Kirkwood

My absolute FAVORITE place to snowboard!
SX-70 & Artistic TZ film.

02 February 2010

Jackson


I took these two shots from a gas station while we were fueling up in Jackson, Calif. just after coming down the mountain from Kirkwood (and leaving all the beautiful snow behind).

Polaroid SX-70 & Artistic TZ film.

01 February 2010

60 mph

I have been wanting to shoot these trees along Highway 88 in the foothills just out of Stockton for YEARS now. Unfortunately, on this portion of the highway there is absolutely no shoulder to pull out onto. On the drive home from Tahoe yesterday, I finally decided to just roll down the passenger window and take a shot.

Polaroid SX-70 & Artistic TZ film from Polapremium.

29 January 2010

"It's a Polaroid Thing....."

Thanks to Angie Harris of pinkiestyle for featuring my Polaroid "Amy's Owl" in her Etsy Treasury listing "It's a Polaroid Thing...."

Click on the image above or here to view all of the incredible Polaroids in the listing!
Also be sure to check out Angie's fantastic photography here!

Missin' the Corvair



Here she is, in all her glory, parked in my garage. We had to move the Corvair out of the shop and into my garage at home so a few other big projects could come into the shop. The engine restoration phase of the Corvair is almost complete (just needs some carb tuning & valve timing adjustments, a new exhaust and most likely a new battery after all the sitting). I'm getting antsy to get back in the drivers seat!

While there was a break in the rain the other morning I took the Polaroid Land Automatic 210 out and snapped a few photos of the Corvair sitting in the garage. I've been having quite a bit of fun with that camera now that I have it figured out. I wasn't expecting to enjoy the B&W Fuji FP-100B film as much as I have been (I'm always such a sucker for color). At some point I plan on picking up a few more boxes of the 100B but next on my list is testing out that chocolate film on Polapremium!

28 January 2010

“I'm always mentally photographing everything as practice” - Minor White


I love the weather we've been having over the last two weeks. Keep it up old man winter!
Polaroid SX-70 & Artistic TZ film.

27 January 2010

"Photography takes an instant out of time, altering life by holding it still" - Dorothea Lange

South Lake Tahoe:







I shot these images just as a huge winter storm was moving into South Lake Tahoe two weeks ago. I'm sure it looks much different up there now that they've received several feet of snow!

Polaroid SX-70 & Artistic TZ film

26 January 2010

first polaroid:

I came across this shot the other night while scanning some old photos - it is my first Polaroid taken with a SX-70 (and time-zero film) back in 2004. This was the first time I experienced that dreaded moment with a SX-70 when one waits and wonders when the shutter will go back down after pressing the release button.

25 January 2010

Mirror Lake

Mirror Lake - Yosemite National Park.
Polaroid SX70 and Artistic TZ film.

22 January 2010

A River Runs Through It


Fog and mist lifting over the Merced River at the entrance to Yosemite National Park.
Shot with my Polaroid Land Automatic 210 and Fuji FP-100C.

21 January 2010

The Visitor's Center


I LOVE natural history museums. The visitor's center at Yosemite National Park has a particularly cool museum featuring interactive installations explaining the formation of the granite rocks and the valley floor. I would have to say though, that my favorite part were the little animal statues located at the entrance.

20 January 2010

the calm after the storm:


Yesterday we had some amazing weather which really made me miss living in Arizona. A huge thunderstorm rolled through, knocking out power and trees all over town. I took these two shots just as the sun was setting and the onslaught of rain, hail, thunder and lightning had passed by.

Polaroid SX-70 and Artistic TZ film.

19 January 2010

Awooni

"One learns, that the world though made, is yet being made." - John Muir











Here are some Polaroids from the most recent trip I made to Yosemite a few weeks ago (all shot with my SX70 and Artistic TZ film). This time around, it was considerably warmer outside and there was much less snow on the ground. I just can't get enough of this place - it is absolutely captivating: the granite, sky, trees, streams, rocks, and waterfalls. Every time I leave the park to begin the long drive home all I can think about is turning back around to stay a little longer. This time, I spent the morning exploring the valley floor more extensively and adventured out on two short hikes up to Mirror Lake and the Lower Yosemite Falls. While I was in the valley, I had a Bobcat run across my path - unfortunately at a speed to fast for my old SX70 to catch. At the end of the day, I ventured over to the south eastern exit and explored the Pioneer Center and Wawona Hotel. This area of the park feels as if one is literally walking through an earlier, more simple, part of the century. I also shot my Land Automatic while I was in the park and will share those images in a separate post as they have a completely different feel than my sx70 shots.

All images made possible by Polapremium and their amazing supply of discontinued Polaroid films. Thanks!

18 January 2010

A little farther down the road....

Yosemite National Park
Polaroid SX70 with Artistic TZ film from Polapremium

15 January 2010

About A Boy

When I was in Yosemite this past weekend, I ventured into the pioneer cemetery located across from the Museum. As I was walking through the very ancient gravestones (dating back to the mid to late 1800's) I realized that many of the gravestones belonged to many of the famous faces of Yosemite's past. After just finishing the Ken Burns Documentary on the National Parks, it was really special to be able to pay my respects to those who made the idea of Yosemite possible.

While I was walking through the graveyard, I came across a gravestone belonging to "A Boy". I spent the rest of the day wondering about who "the boy" was and what happened to him. Upon some quick internet research at home, I came across the "Guide to the Pioneer Cemetery" written by Lloyd W. Brubaker, Laurence V. Degnan and Richard R Jackson in 1959.

"The identity of 'A Boy' has been lost. The Mariposa Free Press carried on June 24, 1870 the story of the drowning of a boy, John Morgan Bennett, son of Captain R. H. Bennett, while attempting to cross a branch of the Merced River in Yosemite Valley on a mule. Jack Leidig says that the boy was the first person to be buried in the cemetery. Why this site was chosen we do not know."

14 January 2010

Point of the Pines






Saturday I stopped by a really interesting historical site on the Central Coast - the Point Pinos Lighthouse in Pacific Grove, Calif. The lighthouse has been guiding ships away from the rocky shoreline since 1855. Along with being a fully functioning lighthouse, the building is also a pretty neat little museum to visit.

13 January 2010

these old tires

I found this old chevy truck sitting in the parking lot of a general store at Yosemite and couldn't resist taking a shot with my sx-70. Seeing the truck generated some excitement for spring to arrive so I can start photographing all the classic cars that will once again emerge from their owners garages (including my Corvair!).

12 January 2010

Ghost Tree


Sunday I took another road trip up to Yosemite. On the early morning drive, there was an intense amount of tooley fog. I shot these two images with my SX-70 just as the sun was rising, and I was emerging from the fog, outside of Cathey's Valley, Calif.

11 January 2010

"Three Decades on, Reunited With a High School Sweetheart" - The New York Times

For all of you Corvair fans out there - today there is a great article about a '64 Corvair Monza and it's long lost owner in The New York Times.
Click here to read the article
Click here to view the slideshow

Photo: George Waldman for The New York Times

The Donkey from Dakar:

I found this small donkey a few weeks ago while digging through some storage boxes from my old apartment in Arizona. This is the only souvenir that I brought back from my trip to West Africa several years ago - I purchased it in the Dakar airport on our way home. At that time, I was desperate to pick something up before leaving as a memento. Shopping while in Africa was extremely difficult and I had major space constraints due to all the camera equipment I was carrying in just one small day pack.

Shot with an SX-70 & Artistic TZ film.

08 January 2010

Amy's Owl

SX-70 with Artistic TZ

Polaroid Spectra film and camera

For Christmas this year I decided it was finally time to give fine art prints of my photography as gifts (strangely it's something I've never done before). To put an exciting twist on the idea, I decided to shoot something specific for each person instead of just pulling something from my archives. My good friend Amy LOVES owls so I experimented a little and took the two above shots.

07 January 2010

my adventures with polaroid land automatics:

The Salinas Train Station.
Polaroid Land Automatic 210 and Polaroid 665 peel apart film.


I have a little explaining to do about my adventures with peel apart film and Polaroid Land Automatic cameras:

Last May: while up in Shaver Lake for a little vacation, I discovered an old Polaroid Land Automatic 103 at the antique store attached to the cabins we were staying in. At the time, I actually had no idea that film was still even made for it, let alone if I could find batteries, or even if the old looking dinosaur that it was still worked. I couldn't even figure out how to open the darn thing up while we were in the store. I let it sit in the back of my mind the few days while we stayed up there. On our way out of town, I requested that we stop at the antique store so that I could pick the camera up (along with a really rad vintage cowboy scene of the wild west that reminded me of Arizona). After a little research on the camera at home, I realized that maybe I had made a wise investment - and that I could possibly be shooting the old dinosaur within the matter of a week.

The last 7 months: after ruining a few packs on Fuji peel apart film on the 103 - and acquiring another yet another Land Automatic (a 335 I believe), I still have only been able to get two somewhat legible images to appear - but I do have at least 20 very black photos if anyone's interested! Anyways, figuring out what my problem is has just been baffling - did batteriesinaflash send me bad batteries? No we tested those and they are definitely producing some sort of voltage. Is it the shutter? I have no idea, it sounds like it's working. Is is the corroded battery compartment that each camera has? No idea, but the corrosion's not that bad. Am I bad at determining the temperature and thus the timing of development? This is very possible.

Before Christmas: days before Christmas, I jumped onto Ebay to see if there was anything interesting for sale in the SX-70 world. There was absolutely nothing except a VERY beat up and filthy Polaroid Land Automatic 210 for $0.99 and very cheap shipping. Another Land Automatic? And not to mention a less desirable model? Wasn't really interested except for the great deal, that is if no one else bid on it. Generally (and knocking on wood as I say this) I have had very good luck on ebay buying incredibly beat up cameras from someone who knows nothing about them - that always end up working after a little (or a lot) of elbow grease. Anyways, no one else bid on the camera so I decided I could at least display it on the shelf, and hey, maybe this one would actually work. The 210 literally arrived in the mail the next day and I got to work on cleaning it up. There was even some old expired Polaroid 665 film left in the camera (6 or 7 shots!). I tested out the film the next day and the first shot was of course, black, and the emulsion was very expired.

Fast forward to Sunday: After getting back from Yosemite I decided I was going to MAKE one of those cameras WORK, afterall I now owned 3. Late in the afternoon, took both the 103 and the newly cleaned 210 out. First tried the 103, as usual no luck. I was going to waste the 665 and replace it with a new Fuji pack since the emultion seemed to be completely dried out on the 665 - but decided to give it one more shot before doing so - FINALLY SUCCESS!


06 January 2010

The Passport


Amy's 1981 Honda Passport (original owner).
Polaroid SX-70 with Artistic TZ film.

04 January 2010

"The mountains are calling and I must go" - John Muir

Polaroids of Yosemite:





This year I decided to do something a little different and instead of focusing on making New Year's resolutions I would make "end of the year resolutions" in which I did things that had been on my 2009 list of New Year's resolutions. One of those items included visiting Yosemite to explore and take photographs (although technically I had already visited Yosemite on New Year's 2009 to snowboard at Badger Pass). It was supposed to snow up there every day last week so we threw the snow tires on the Subaru and headed east - to the crisp winter air, some amazing partly cloudy skies and the most magnificent granite mountains.

Shot with my trusty SX-70 and Artistic TZ film from Polapremium.

28 December 2009

Highway 88:

Just got back from spending 2 awesome days in Tahoe snowboarding up at Kirkwood. Woke up yesterday morning to several inches of new snow from a small storm! We're headed to Yosemite tomorrow for some sledding and back up to Kirkwood again on Wednesday for another day of boarding.
Shot with an SX-70 and Artistic TZ film.

22 December 2009

Happy Holidays!


Wishing you all a Very Merry Christmas!
Sarah & Yoda

21 December 2009

Jeff Hutton's Great Polaroid Giveaway




About a month ago I received a little package from NYC containing an original Polaroid shot by Jeff Hutton. In return, Jeff has requested that everyone return the favor by re-photographing their new Polaroid for his "Great Polaroid Giveaway" project. I've been carrying around Jeff's Polaroid around for about a month now, brainstorming over the perfect place to take it's picture. Of course the first thing that came to mind was incorporating my 1964 Chevy Corvair Monza (the color scheme of Jeff's Polaroid was perfect match with the Corvair's exterior and interior). The Corvair is still undergoing a mechanical restoration at the shop so I had to work around the confines of shooting my SX-70 inside the dark shop. The last image, which I couldn't resist taking and sharing with you all, was taken at wharf no. 2 in Monterey just a few days after I received Jeff's fantastic Polaroid!

Jeff - Thanks again for the Polaroid and the opportunity to participate in your great project!

18 December 2009

Rainy Day Blues

Had to do a huge car shuffle at the shop last weekend in the rain when the mustang came in. Shot this with the camera on my iphone.

17 December 2009

one very special California Special





Saturday we went up to Gilroy to pick up Bill and Claudia's very rare California Special Mustang and brought it back down to the shop for restoration work. The car is very special, as it is a family heirloom passed through brothers.

16 December 2009

Our Lady

I have been attempting to perfect a shot my two Virgin of Guadalupe figurines to give as a Christmas present. My second attempt is much better than the first - but could still use a little tweaking.
SX-70 w/Artistic TZ.

15 December 2009

Tis Da Season!

SX-70 + Artistic TZ.

I LOVE the holidays!

12 December 2009

let the rain fall


A few rainy day shots taken with my trusty SX-70 over the weekend.
Artistic TZ film from Polapremium.

10 December 2009

Monterey Bay Aquarium

Sardines - The Outer Bay.

Jellyfish - The Outer Bay

Hammerhead - The Outer Bay

The Secret Lives of Seahorses

The Secret Lives of Seahorses

Last weekend we took advantage of the local's day at The Monterey Bay Aquarium - mainly to check out the new seahorse exhibit: "The Secret Lives of Seahorses". Sadly we missed the Great White shark at The Outer Bay exhibit - which had been released back into the wild a few weeks before.

School of Fish

video

A little video I put together with some footage shot on my iphone - which takes surprisingly good video.

06 December 2009

From Peru:

I've been meaning to re-shoot this as it turned out a little darker than I'd like.
SX-70 w/ artistic tz film.

Expired Spectra:



Expired Spectra film.

Sunset over Carmel Valley

SX-70 and Artistic TZ film.

Hollyberries

Taken with some of my "blackfriday" artistic tz film that I purchased from Polapremium.
Shot was taken in the front yard of the foreclosed house next door.

28 November 2009

Next Stop Earth:

video

The progress made on Matt's '68 Newport.

Lowrider Special

This is as low as she goes.
Next stop earth:

video

After months of hard work Matt has finally made some major progress on his '68 Chrysler Newport!

A Little Family History:


Came across a few kodachrome slides of my great grandparents the other day. The first image is of the Regnier's (Xmas 1959 or 1961, I believe). I actually found out over Thanksgiving that my great-great-grandfather Regnier was raised in a box car after his family arrived in America from Belgium. The second slide is of my Great Grandma Sarah Early (whom I was named after). She was a really impressive woman in that she ran a farm entirely by herself (pictured), mothered 9 children, and went through a divorce in the 1920's.

Grandma's first car:

Once again I've been digging through countless kodachrome slides looking for images to scan for xmas presents for the fam. I was really excited to come across this one of my grandmother's first car. The image was taken on the farm in Gill, Colorado. Not quite sure what it is exactly, but now I understand why she was so excited about the color of the Corvair the first time she saw it. She would have been REALLY excited had I purchased that seafoam green Falcon with a white top that Matt and I went and looked at a few years back.

the last time it snowed in salinas:

Jan 1961
Came across this in the archive of kodachrome slides my grandparents have.

San Carlos Borromeo de Monterey


Shot with my Polaroid SX-70 One Step Sonar and Artistic TZ film from Polapremium.
"Founded by Father Junipero Serra on June 3, 1770, on the shores of Monterey Bay"

"One kind word can warm three winter months" - Japanese Proverb

Images from my trusty Polaroid SX-70 Sonar One Step camera shot with Artistic TZ film.

26 November 2009

iphone

iphone shots manipulated with tiltshift.