Earlier this year I purchased a Lomography Sprocket Rocket.
(Image from Lomography's Sprocket Rocket website)
The Sprocket Rocket is a film camera that takes wide panoramic images - the equivalent of two frames in a single exposure - on 35mm film.
The camera also gives you the option of exposing images onto the sprocket holes that run along the top and bottom of the film, or to keep your exposures only within the usual boundaries.
Including the sprocket holes is the most natural thing to do though - it's implied in the name of the camera itself!
I used this image to promote my GO WIDE exhibit. It also appeared on the title wall of my exhibit.
I was preparing for an exhibit in October called GO WIDE: Wide Angle Views of Toronto - a show which shared some of my favourite panoramic images that I've created over the past ten years or so - and the Sprocket Rocket seemed like a great way to create some fun new images for the exhibit.
This triptych of waterfront images also appeared on the title wall of my GO WIDE exhibit.
I was also inspired by a very fun podcast called I Dream of Cameras, whose co-host Jeff Greenstein has been sharing panoramic images created with his X-Pan cameras. You can find links to his images via the I Dream of Cameras Instagram account.
So for this blog post I am sharing some of my favourites from the four rolls of film that I put through this camera! I hope you enjoy the wide views!
Break the Rules
Many thanks to PhotoEd Magazine for including the above image, taken with my Sprocket Rocket, in a recent edition.
PhotoEd is a wonderful Canadian magazine that celebrates unique photography. I highly recommend becoming a subscriber.
Take Me Out to the Ballgame
Sprocket Rocket cameras are fun to use almost anywhere!
Top Cash
Money
One of the challenges of the Sprocket Rocket is that it only has two shutter speeds - 1/100 ("N") or Bulb ("B"). It is very easy to bump the lever and accidentally move the setting to Bulb, which allows you to do a long exposure, for as long as you hold the shutter down.
The below image, of my sons jumping off the end of a dock in the Muskoka region, is one of several that I accidentally captured in the Bulb setting.
Summer Joy
I shot a roll of Black and White film (Kodak Tri-X 400)...
No More Towers
Before You Cross
Walking Pape
Hats
A few scenes from the Scarborough Bluffs...
A very curious scene on the Dufferin Bridge...
I called City of Toronto's 311 to put in a request that Animal Services help this poor possum, which seemed stuck on the fence above the tracks. A few passersby also helped place something near the fence so that it might have something to use to climb down.
A view of the Japanese Canadian Centennial Temple Bell at Ontario Place. People who care about the bell, which has been moved and is now in storage, have set up an Instagram account worth following. I also highly recommend following Ontario Place For All.
I think my roll of Portra 800 film delivered the best results from this camera. Here are my favourites, several from the CNE...
Here is a good place to close, with a message from Glendale Lazaro, who submitted this message to the Talking Fences project at Downsview Park...
We definitely need more kindness in our world.
Here are other blog posts featuring Lomography film:
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Thanks for looking!