MY OBSESSIVE POLAROID PHOTO FETISH

Those styling old school Polaroid photos really had it all going on.

I’m not a pro photographer and I just take photos using basic Canon digital pocket cameras.

My view on cameras is that for what I want to use my photos for – posting them on websites – the cameras I use make bugger all difference, what matters is always having one in my pocket ready for action, and to be able to use it rapidly without having to look at it.

http://www.frot.co.nz/design/photos/

Up until I saw Instagram I had never really considered editing my photos into 1x1 ratio squares with black and white frames round them. But the more I saw photos edited like that the more I was drawn to them. They stand out like dog’s balls, especially on small screens like tablets and phones.

My Instagram gallery is here: https://www.instagram.com/sift666/

They also sit happily in big galleries, all cleanly defined with their own frame and rounded corners. So they look great on a webpage, especially with a black background. Posted as small thumbnails they look like an album of postage stamps.

http://www.frot.co.nz/design/wordpress/gallery-of-sift666-on-instagram/

But frames are just not fashionable anymore

When Instagram was first really taking off, nearly everybody was doing the Polaroid frame thing. It was popular like tattoos and beards are now, and like wearing pants with your arse down round your knees was 10 years ago.

Occasionally you do still see that Polaroid look on Instagram, even if it’s not so hip anymore, just you still see the odd arse dropper walking the streets. I predict that in 10 years time you will still see a lot of tattoos around, even if they are no longer fashionable. But beards might have all been shaven off by then though so may not be very common.

What were old time Polaroids really like?

The truth is, the photo edits I’m doing using Snapseed, on my Android tablet, are not really the same as original Polaroid photos. They have several differences.

Original Polaroids are not actually square images. There are several different types of Polaroid film but essentially they are not quite squares like my ones. And the white area framing the image is bigger at the bottom than at the sides or above it.

Polaroid images didn’t have rounded corners

And original Polaroids didn’t have dark frame effects round the edges.

But what the hell, I think my Snapseed edits are basically inspired by Polaroids, so I’ll label myself a Polaroid fetishist. (I suspect some pro photographers disapprove of the whole framing thing immensely).