For the Love of Polaroid- Free digital polaroid generator

If you could've met young Michelle and asked her what she wanted more than anything, her first answer probably would've been a Power-wheels jeep; but as her tastes matured, she definitely would've looked you straight in the eye and said without hesitation "one of those cameras that prints pictures."

Why are polaroids so cool? Is it the instant gratification? The dreamy hazy photos? The cool white border? I'm not sure it's even possible to understand the mysterious allure of the polaroid, all I know is that I fell pretty hard for them many years ago.

Fast forward nearly two decades. Michelle is grown up. Michelle has fallen pretty hard for something or someone else. Ben, the coolest guy in the world (I realize that's a pretty bold statement, but it's the truth. For proof, read on). Ben has many endearing and admirable qualities, but cemented his title as the coolest guy in the world, the day he walked in with a Fujifilm Instax 210 polaroid camera.  

Now, this is not just any camera. This is a super camera, that has been on many journeys to new lands, helped spread holiday cheer, and documented many significant milestones over the last few months.

This fall, I realized another dream (it's been a big year). I replaced my Cannon D30 with the mighty Cannon 7D. And although I love, love, love my Cannon 7D, sometimes I will reach for the polaroid before I pull out my 7D. 

You might ask why I would shun a fancy pant HD digital camera for a $60 low resolution throwback from 1985. Well, the answer is simple. 

It hasn't taken a bad photo yet.

But don't take my word for it, see for yourself.

See what I mean? They are so perfectly imperfect that you can't help but love them.

We love them so much, we had to include a gallery hanging by the guestbook at our wedding.

Now for those of you that can't stomach the idea of cheating on your digital camera with a polaroid camera, you can still share in some of the magic by creating digital polaroids with your photos in Photoshop. 

I've played around with a few of my photos and have created some polaroid-like actions in Photoshop that are okay, but a couple weeks ago I found a Free Polaroid Generator on DeviantArt (this generator is a free downloadable package of actions for Photoshop) that has some pretty stellar actions and is super easy to use. So rather than spend time creating my own actions, I use theirs.

These pics are examples of just 4 of the free polaroid actions in the generator but there's plenty more where these came from.

 

 

I feel like I should have something clever to end with, but I'm drawing a blank. I can't successfully wrap up a post about my love of polaroid photography, because there isn't an end in sight. So I'm gonna go ahead and finish with a cliffhanger ending.

-Michelle