Last weekend (10/23) the photo team had only one goal:  a 1600 mile trip to NYC and back plus coverage of a major exhibit all in the span of 60 hours.  Our destination is the the Jacob Javits Center. Our mission is to bring you some news from the huge expo floor where hundreds of exhibitors and thousands of new products will stay from 10/22-24.  And of course, to spread the good name of SHEI.

Our epic journey of laughs, food and singalong will be divided in to a three part epic here at sheimagazine.com.

-Part I- Instax mini got our back.

The reason for this crazy road trip was simple, to check out the Photo District News expo and have a kick ass time in NY. But before we can do that, there is 800 miles between Ann Arbor and the big apple. So our tale start with 4 people, an old friend and alot of kick ass songs.

For anyone who has never driven to NY, the trip from Ann Arbor spans through Ohio, Pennsylvania New Jersey to end in The City.  To our delight, fall colors ere in full bloom and weather was fine (on the trip back anyway, but these are mere details). On this crazy road trip was Winnie, Ying Da, Jason and myself, three photobugs from photo and a food enthusiast. So who is our old friend? The instax mini.

For us, the electronic generation, there are a two things that we rarely come across: Film and Polaroid. While I would love to talk extensively about film, our focus will be on a “cousin” of Polaroid. Polaroid is going through a restructuring and won’t be back until 2010.  Instead, Fiji film has brought us the instax mini, and it is a breath of fresh air in our current war of mega pixels and low light super cameras. The instax mini can be found in the shop area of photo jo jo , from Fiji and ofcause on ebay. Our head assistant Winnie pick up an Instax 210 from ebay and it became our “go to” camera when we are in the car. To be serious i didn’t even take out my digital once.

Back before the digital time, film takes a while to develop, and there is no instant viewing. Then come Polaroid, a slightly expensive but instantly gratifying film experience.  I have always been a fan of film: the rich color, the feel and the amount of work just for one photo. So i am not the best judge for the Instax, but our assitant, Ying Da (Daniel) just don’t see the point of film. He makes a good point that we do scan it in the end, so why not start and end in digital? I have tried to convert him to film with my medium formats, but it was like talking to a wall. But it changed when he pick up the Instax, that purple and green pudgy camera. There were no complicated controls, no light meter to worry about, no shutter speed, there is not even a screen! With just one button for focus and one button for the shutter. We were just messing around with pictures of each other then waiting as if we were about the explode for the film to develop and marvel at the picture. It was not what we used to, with all of our work with SHEI; but it was great and above all fun. There is just a magic with instant film, the strong color, the mood. And the end result of a physical picture was icing on the cake. It was as if we all picked up a camera for the first time. There is something that 1s and 0s (digital) can’t replace, and for now we proudly call it the Instax.

The road trip was the usual fare, fast food at pits stops, me sleeping with my mouth open, tons of sing-a-longs and marvel at the beautiful full colors. We arrive at Ny at 1am, tired an ready. check out the gallery from our trip, and look for part II, our experience on the show room floor.