This is a Smena 8. It's an old Russian camera from the Soviet Union era. Good friends of ours, Matt and Angie (One of whom will most certainly correct my Russian above!), gave it to us along with a few other Russian/Soviet chotckes they picked up during their sojourn abroad. Very sweet people...you really must meet them someday!
Anyway, wanted to practice some lighting techniques last night and this nifty little camera became the subject. I went with a skewed angle in the composition and dramatic lighting because, well... the Soviet days were a dramatically skewed time, weren't they? Oh...and I spashed the background with a red gel for pretty obvious reasons.
Hope you all have a fine weekend. Go make some great images!
Cheers.
Молодец, мой друг! (Don't know if the Cyrillic will show up on your browser, but 'Good job, my friend.')
ReplyDeleteIn addition to the skew and lighting, I dig the mood here. It's dark and threatening, like looking down the barrel of a gun. It also conveys that not-quite-gone Soviet paranoia that 'Someone's watching...'
(Or maybe it doesn't convey ANY of those things, and I've just spent too long in Moscow.)
Hey man! Thanks. The cyrillic does show. How does one do that? Is it a program?
ReplyDeleteLove your take on the shot. "down the barrel of the gun," "someone's watching." Not that I originally meant any of that, but now...it seems exactly right.