Vol. 1, Issue 28 - Pokémon Photography: A Game Boy Camera Project
Exploring the wonders of photography and Pokémon, with the limitations of the Game Boy Camera. Plus, the latest Pokémon news and more from the Johto Times mailbag!
For issue 28, I bring together three of my passions: video games, photography, and Pokémon. Over the past year, I have been experimenting with my Game Boy Camera and enjoying the results I can get from something so limited, using Pokémon as my subject. In this feature, I will be sharing those results. I hope you will like them!
News
Last weekend, The Pokémon World Championships 2023 took place in Yokohama Japan, crowning new champions for Pokémon Unite, the Pokémon Trading Card Game, Pokémon GO and Pokémon Scarlet & Violet. Unfortunately, there have been reports of players being disqualified from the Scarlet & Violet tournament, failing the strict checks that organisers have in place to check for Pokémon that have been hacked. According to the replies for one individual that got disqualified, it seems there is a lack of sympathy from the community.
Source: @vgccorner, @TrainerRobVGC
During the closing ceremony of The Pokémon World Championships 2023, TPC President Tsunekazu Ishihara took to the stage to make several announcements. In Pokémon Unite, three additional Pokémon will be added to the roster from September 14th, starting with Blaziken, with Mimikyu and Meowscarada coming at a later date. New details on the second part of Pokémon Scarlet & Violet's DLC, The Hidden Treasure of Area Zero, were also announced. You will be able to catch first partner Pokémon (starters) from the previous eight generations of games. Additionally, a new Tera Type was announced that appeared to be connected to Terapagos, although nothing further was confirmed.
In the Trading Card Game, Paradox Pokémon will be coming to the TCG later this year in the fall of 2023 as Ancient and Future Pokémon. Six cards were shown featuring Scream Tail, Brute Bonnet, Roaring Moon EX, Iron Bundle, Iron Moth and Iron Valiant EX. Ace Spec cards are also making a return in 2024, a classification of trading card that was first introduced with the Boundaries Crossed expansion in 2012 during the Black & White era.
Finally, it was announced that next year’s Pokémon World Championships in 2024 will be taking place in Honolulu, Hawai’i. For full details on all the announcements, check out the source below.
Source: Games Press
Feature: Pokémon Photography: A Game Boy Camera Project
One of my non-Pokémon hobbies that I enjoy is photography. I have always loved taking a camera with me to the places I visit and capturing the moment. It allows us to look back at some great events in our lives so we can remember them or share them with others. In March 2022, I joined a community on Discord called the Game Boy Camera Club and got inspired by the amazing things the community was creating. I’ve owned a Game Boy Camera for many years, but since it only took low-quality black and white photographs, it wasn’t really something I felt compelled to use for modern day photography. However, one of the things I saw from this community was colour Game Boy Camera photographs, something which surprised me. I was inspired by the limitations of the hardware, and I decided that I wanted to try to make my own, featuring Pokémon!
In order to achieve a colour photograph with a GB Camera, three different pictures of the subject are required, with the camera held securely in place. Each of these pictures are taken using a red, green or blue filter respectively, held up against the lens. They are then extracted from the device, imported into some image editing software, and superimposed, with the end result producing a colour photograph. I came across some great videos by Matt Gray and Sean Duran, who demonstrate the process well.
For my project, the only items I purchased were some filters, which included the colours required for this to work. I already owned a product called GBxCart and some included software called FlashGBX, which allowed me to extract photos, along with the Game Boy Color, Camera, and tripod, so I could get started right away.
Since this was a feature for Johto Times, I used a variety of Pokémon-themed items and devices as the subjects for my photography. The first item I attempted to capture was my Purple Game Boy Color, the console I first started playing Pokémon on. I used a second Game Boy Color (Teal) to take the photo. Once I combined the photos together, however, I noticed that it wasn’t as vibrant as I had hoped it would be.
I shared my results with the Game Boy Camera Club on Discord, who suggested that because I attempted this during the day, it was likely that it wasn’t as vibrant as it could have been due to not using an IR-cut filter. The infrared light, found during daytime hours, distorts the colour of photographs, which explained the washed-out look in my GBC photo. It was recommended that I attempt the same shot again in a completely dark room using only LED lighting. I closed my curtains, attempted to cut out as much outside light as I could, and tried again.
The result this time was an improvement over the first attempt, although it still didn’t have the same vibrancy as I had seen from other photographs in the community. However, I was able to accidentally create a rainbow in my photo, caused by light reflecting off of the screen. This gave me hope that I was heading in the right direction, and that I could achieve something nice using only LED lighting. I decided to wait until night for my next attempt, under the cover of darkness…
My next attempts didn’t yield much of an improvement, even with LED lighting. I was starting to worry that I wasn’t going to get the desired result. I decided to adjust the brightness and contrast on the GB Camera itself, and adjusted my lighting a little. After some trial and error, I began to notice a significant difference. I took a variety of photographs over two or three different evenings, and some worked out better than others. Overall, I was impressed with what I had achieved.
I also utilised a tool called the Game Boy Camera Gallery, created by Andreas Hahn. It allows you to edit your exported images from the GB Camera, make colour adjustments, add frames, and utilise other tools to enhance your captures. I used the web app and was surprised by how accessible it was to a novice like myself. I was able to combine my three images together, add colour, and then explore any adjustments I wanted to make. Once I was happy, I exported the pictures to my computer.
I know that with a few more tweaks here and there, I could get even better results out of the GB Camera on that tiny 128x112 pixel display. I hope to purchase an IR-cut filter in the future and a new tripod to take some photographs outside and capture nature. All in all, I am very proud of what I was able to make, and I hope to continue taking these kinds of photographs, in addition to my regular photography, for the foreseeable future.
If anyone is interested in giving this a try for themselves, I highly recommend the Game Boy Camera Club on Discord, who were very kind, accommodating and patient with me while I got my head around the basics.
Mailbag
Want to be a part of our newsletter? You’re welcome to submit content including (but not limited to) questions, fanart, short stories, your cherished memories, photographs of your collection, and anything else you think you want us to see. This week we have received more artwork from Poké Trainer Theo, who originally shared his art with us in Issue 21. This time around, the piece is dedicated to Pokémon Legends Arceus, featuring Volo and Giratina!
That Volo and Giratina artwork is such a big spoiler but finding out the big plot twist actually made me inspired to make [this] piece
Poké Trainer Theo, Philippines
It’s great to be featuring your art once again, Theo! I loved this reveal in Pokémon Legends Arceus so much, and you did a great job on capturing Volo’s crazed expression. Keep up the good work!
A Neil Young album cover was taken with a Game Boy camera:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silver_%26_Gold_(Neil_Young_album)
Very interesting about the Gameboy camera, loved the fantastic photos!