Not too long ago, I printed an “oddly sized” photo with my printer that left me with top and side borders and a slightly larger bottom border.  Instead of trimming the borders, I  kept them and wrote a description and date at the bottom.  It reminded me of Polaroid prints. The nostalgic moment compelled me to purchase a set of vintage photo reproduction postcards from Amazon for pennies–literally.

“The Impossible Spectrum”

The collection is called The Impossible Spectrum Collection: 100 Instant-Film Postcards.  The postcards, as you can see from the image above, are simple and elegant, reminiscent of times long gone. The box sits on my desk and I look at the postcards almost daily.  There are two of each design in the box and I have been having a hard time sending any of them just yet.

Because of my recent obsession with vintage photos, I’ve been playing around with my own photos in various apps, adding vintage effects, and searching for an app that would make my photos look like Polaroid photos, frame and all.  Of course, no matter how much I try to “replicate” a vintage photo, there’s little I can do to fully capture the experience of what is now vintage photography.

My friend Cy, on the other hand, can.  She has this cool Argus 75 her grandmother gave to her many years ago. Before I even saw the camera, I decided I would feature it in a postcard design. So when she brought it to campus for a quick visit last week, I had a only few seconds between student conferences and classes to take some shots.  Jasmin, my student and mentee, was killing time in my office and kindly agreed to be my model.

The camera is the cutest! I captured at least 15 shots of it and then edited it in various apps.  Here are a couple of the ones I like best:

Discovery: The Argus 75

I wanted the image to have a vintage feel, so I edited it in Snapseed using the retrolux effect.   This one (below) uses a different retrolux effect.

Discovery: The Argus 75

Of course, I had to create a landscape postcard with a different quote. I edited this one in Pixlr.

Vision: The Argus 75

Jasmin and Courtney (one of my other students) weren’t impressed with the “vintage look.” They prefer little to no tampering with the original photo, so this was their pick:

Vision with Diamonds: The Argus 75

I don’t know much about vintage cameras, but I love the look and feel of them.  In my search to learn more about the Argus 75, I found a detailed blog post on the camera that featured some images shot with it.  If you, like me, are curious about the Argus 75, you can see the post here: Random Camera Blog: The Argus 75–Toy or Tool.  Or, if you just want to see shots captured with the camera, go to Argus 75 1958-1964 (also referenced on Random Camera Blog).

I’m seriously considering putting this camera on my Christmas wish list! 😉