Polaroid + Instax Challenge 2015/11

I'm going to echo the entire internet and say "I can't believe we're almost in December" and that I'm sharing my second last challenge photos!!

This month, it was getting down to the wire and feeling a little confused as to what photos to take, I thought I'd make life simple and show off two recent acquisitions. The polaroid photos is, well me, but more importantly my new glasses I got whilst thrifting. I also like this photo because I look bad ass in it, which is really far from my personality but I'm going to roll with that one. That zebra border, from the skins edition film is my favourite border so far, I also like how you don't know which border will be next, making it a random, fun surprise.

I also bought Gremlin a new collar from Rocky and Julio, they are having a huge sale at the moment too, if cat/dog accessories float your boat.

Things I learned this month

* I put my polaroid (636 close-up) onto the brighter setting, which on my camera is just a little slider on the front that you move to the right. I think this photo turned out one of the best in terms of being properly exposed, which I believe is mostly thanks to the flash.  Last time I moved that damn slider (on a different polaroid camera with no flash) it was blur to the max - you can see that image here.  Still contemplating that frog tongue though which may solve all my exposure dramas!

* I also moved the slider to the "close up setting" which seems to just move a piece of plastic in front of the lens. A lot of people said don't even bother as it will just make your photo blurry but my Polaroids are always blurry so I thought it wouldn't hurt. As you can see, not the most crisp photo but from my experience that's what you get anyway with Polaroids. Next time I probably won't bother moving that slider *shrugs* though I'm pretty indifferent on that one. The best advice is to avoid polaroid selfies if you're all about focus and instead get someone else to take the photo for you :P

* Instax on the other hand is all about that crispness which I love but it was a good reminder this month to be careful about backgrounds and to keep the camera at least 60cm away from your subject (the minumum focus distance). I took this photo of Gremlin on his favourite chair which is covered in cat hair and crud and genuinely not a super pretty backdrop and because I was too close to gremlin, I managed to make the chair in focus which was a semi/big/huge fail. I think had I'd taken it on the polaroid it really wouldn't of matter but the Instax is definitely more revealing and thus something to be mindful of.

Next month you know I'm going to go Christmas on you guys!

This post is part of the Polaroid Challenge 2015, you can see my past photos here and read more about getting involved here by the lovely peeps at The Cat you and Us