Articles in “Random Photographs”

These photos are the result of my belated discovery of the “colour accent” feature on my camera, which allows me to accent a specific colour in an otherwise black-and-white photograph.

With this function, I hope to one day make my fortune producing Hallmark cards.

I present them in honour (also belated) of the first book of Jasper Fforde’s new Shades of Grey series, which I hope to be able to wallow in at some point in the not-too-distant future.

Remember when I was having fun with Hipstamatic the other day? (Oh, and again here?)

Well, this is more of the same, but now I’ve paired Hipstamatic with the equally awesome Swankolab, which allows you to develop your photos—both from Hipstamatic and just from your phone camera—in a variety of developing fluids.

(Even more fun? You can agitate the developing print in the fluid by shaking your camera. I will never become bored with that.)

Here’s the original image (of my gorgeous clock, which I love like a brother), taken with the Helga Viking lens on Ina ’69 film:

And here’s the exact same print, run through the various developing fluids that Swankolab offers as pre-made formulas:

Imagine how much fun I’ll have once I get around to mixing my own preparation of virtual chemicals!

DUNGEON MASTER: You look through the door and see a scene torn from the abyss. Stone platforms rise from a lake of blood.
PARTY OF ADVENTURERS: Ewww!

Then I fell in the lake of blood. Hands up who saw that coming?

At least, if I had travelled back in time, bought a Polaroid camera, photographed my home (which, for the purposes of this argument, is furnished exactly the same way in the 1960s as it is in the twenty-first century), and then left the Polaroids in an album for forty years, I imagine they’d look quite like this now.

Especially if the album got damp at some point.

In fact, I was just playing with Hipstamatic on the iPhone, but you have to admit the original story was much more interesting than the truth.