This image is from a log cabin in Troy Historic Village in Troy, Michigan. I had a great shoot with amazing model/actress Nicole Guibord. Even with a fire going in the fireplace, and a space heater, it was a chilly room, but the natural light from the windows was amazing. The only issue was that it got a bit smoky towards the end, so I had to boost the contrast in post. For this image, I used my “Baby” Speed Graphic, with a roll film adapter, on a tripod.
The next couple of days will be very busy as I do my final preparations for my first photography display/sale ever:
Beginning on January 3rd (and continuing through the month of January), selections from my 2011 Photography project “Women and Cameras” will on display/sale at the Wild Oat Bakery and Cafe, 817 Bank Street in Ottawa.
This project features images captured using traditional film cameras, and printed on hand coated paper using two antique printing processes” Cyanotype and Van Dyke Brown. The subject of each image is a portrait of a woman, with an antique/classic film camera, like in the example below:
On Wednesday, January 4th at 7 pm at the Wild Oat I will be giving a presentation on my project, and the two processes I used to create these images.
If you are in the Ottawa area I’d love to see you there!
This picture is certainly unremarkable at first glance, but there is a story behind it: it was taken with a Detrola E camera (made between 1938-1940). This camera took film in the 127 film format which rather difficult/expensive to get today, but the roll I shot expired in 1965! I would not have been too surprised if the roll did not turn out at all, but apart from low contrast (easily fixed) the pictures were fine, and also much sharper than I expected!
Yet another image in my Women and Cameras series, but with an interesting story. When I got to the shoot and pulled out my trusty Mamiya, I realized I had brought the wrong finder (the part you look through; the Mamiya is a modular camera and has a number of options). Instead of bringing the eye-level finder I had brought the so-called waist -level finder, that you look down into. The biggest trick with the waist level finder is that the image you focus on is laterally inverted (backwards like a mirror) and this takes some getting use to; when you move to the left, in the finder it looks like you are moving to the right and vice-versa. Also, doing portrait orientation shots is very difficult; turn the camera on its side. and the image you see becomes upside down. I don’t use the waist level finder much, but I got through it somehow, and was very happy with the results I got of model Erikka, holding the Voigtlander Vito B, my father’s old camera, and the first “good” camera I got to learn on.
Don’t get me wrong, I loved being in My Fair Lady, but it was eating into my photography time. With the show now just a very pleasant memory, time to get back to my first love, so this past Saturday I was able to join up with a few other film lovers/APUG members for a photo-walk in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. The image below was captured using my trusty Mamiya M645J medium format camera, on Ilford Delta 400 film, processed in Xtol 1:1.
Every now and then, I want to talk about gear, instead of the photo, and today I want to talk about the Universal Mercury II 35mm half-frame camera from 1945:
Some people have described this camera (and its predecessor) as the ugliest camera ever made, and while I am not sure I’d call it that, its look is certainly unique. Today, with so many cameras looking so similar, it is fun to look at a single example from an era where so many cameras had distinctive designs and looks.
The most distinctive feature is the large semi-circle, which contains the unusual shutter, which operates in a circular fashion. Multiple knobs, dials, DOF charts etc. makes this camera reek of the essence “gadget.”
My Third Eye 