Freaky Dolls at The Gilded Flea

My friend Dwayne Brooke, guitarist and creative genius, owns a fun antique shop in Harpers Ferry, West Virginia, called The Gilded Flea. (Click Here) to check them out.

 

I recently stopped in, while my Mom was in town. Of course, Mom found some treasures. But what intrigued me were these two uber-creepy dolls.

 

Cracked, by Reed A. George

Nikon Df, Nikkor Pre-AI 55mm f1.2 Lens

iso 400, f1.2, 1/60 sec.

 

Mom tells me the doll below has "sleep eyes." I'd say it looks more like out of body experience or possessed eyes, but that's just me.

 

Sleep Eyes, by Reed A. George

Nikon Df, Nikkor Pre-AI 55mm f1.2 Lens

iso 400, f1.2, 1/60 sec.

 

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The Zenith - From the Days of Radio

Zenith, by Reed A. George

Nikon Df, Nikkor AF 28mm f2.8 Lens

iso 100, 1/2 sec., f11

 

Who knows the last time this old tuner was powered up? I'd love to know what programs were listened to by its owners.

 

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Why Are These Old Cameras So Much Fun?

I recently picked up a Brownie Reflex Synchro model camera in an antique shop. I paid $10, which is about $6 more than it originally cost.

 

It is a TLR design, but with fixed focusing only. So that really only means that it has a waist level finder. Anything >5 feet away will be in focus.

 

The camera was extremely dirty, but was easy to disassemble and clean; now it looks great. Another challenge: it shoots 127 film. Nearly extinct, 127 film can still be purchased at Frugal Photographer. (Click Here) to go to their website. It's pretty expensive, but at least it's available. You can get 127 film processed at The Darkroom.

 

I am guessing the fixed shutter speed to be about 1/50-1/100 second, and the aperture to be about f8. That means that iso 100 film should work in daylight situations. I have shot 10/12 frames of my first roll of Efke black and white 100 film. I look forward to seeing and sharing the results.

 

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Final Round of Found Prints from The Gilded Flea

I've made two posts already of found prints and an internegative that I recovered from my friend's antique shop "The Gilded Flea" in Harpers Ferry, West Virginia. (Click Here) to go to their website; they have tons of amazing stuff.

 

Here are some more prints that I picked up on my visit. I selected them just because they interested me.

 

Can anyone guess why I liked this one? The lady with the Polaroid, of course. She's even got her flash bulb pointed to the ceiling for bounced flash. I bet her shot came out great.

And who can argue with "Rockley Music Co.?" Apparently, they also sell Frigidaire appliances.

 

On the back of this print, it says "It's running fine now."

 

And finally, this one. Hey, honey, come sit in this tree so I can take your picture!

 

Thus ends a round of found prints from the past. I hope you enjoy seeing them as much as I did.

 

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Found Prints - Two Shots of a Soldier at Home, and the Concept of Association

Following on my post two days ago of old pictures I found in my friend's antique shop The Gilded Flea in Harpers Ferry, WV, here are a couple more that drew my interest.

 

Of course, any picture of someone with a camera from back in the day interests me:

 

Soldier With His Camera

 

I believe that's probably a Kodak Duaflex, but can't be sure.

 

Here's another picture of the same young soldier:

 

Heading Out

 

I sure hope his little sister in the background got to see him again.

 

One thing that strikes me about both these pictures and the ones I posted two days ago is association. I have a close friend who's a Paleontologist. I learned from him the value of finding multiple fossils that are known to have come from the same organism, or sometimes multiple organisms interacting. That's called an association. I submit that association in old photographs is equally important.

 

These pictures would make great starting material for a fictional story. Maybe I'll write one.

 

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Old Polaroids - and a Surprise

I love to look at old photographs. A couple of weeks back, I visited my buddy's unique antique shop, The Gilded Flea, in Harpers Ferry, West Virginia.

(Click Here) to check out The Gilded Flea.

Anyway, as you can guess, I found some interesting old pictures there. Here are two that were close together in the box. I was pretty sure they belonged together, but not sure.

 

 

Two Polaroids

 

That looks like one mighty proud fisherman, and a nice trout, too!

 

Further down in the box, I found a single 4x5 negative - the same two images, together!. This is what it looks like, scanned on my Epson V750:

Scanned 4x5 Image of the Polaroids

 

I suppose it may not have been unusual to use a 4x5 camera to make an internegative of Polaroids, so that you could reprint them and send them to your friends. I thought it was pretty cool to find this along with the originals.

 

Finally, I got to looking at the picture on the left and noticed the calendar. Scanning the Polaroid at high resolution, I was able to see this:

 

I'm pretty sure it indicates that the picture was taken in 1954 (possibly '64?). Certainly in April.

 

It's really fun and thought-provoking to look at old images like this. I can imagine so many alternative stories that led the people to these images.

 

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Low Tech Wonders - Converted Polaroid 103 Images

 

I wrote a little about my Polaroid 103 camera, rescued from a dusty shelf in an antique shop, some time back. (Click Here) to read about how I got it going again.

 

Since then, I've also tweaked the "electronic eye," adding a handmade paper diaphragm (a hole punched in a piece of paper) to reduce the light coming in. I found that it was underexposing, even with the exposure adjustment all the way toward the bright side. The paper aperture fixed it, and it shoots just about right with no exposure offset.

 

So, I bribed the kid - sure, you can have a piece of cake after dinner, if you come outside and let me shoot pictures of you as you eat. Here are the results, scanned on my Epson V750:

Oops, a little motion blur. Here's my favorite from this series:

 

She said "It looks like I'm summoning lightning." I agree.

 

And here's the most artistic shot I've made with the 103 so far:

 

It's actually a very capable camera.

 

One thing that's interesting - there are two types of Fuji pack film that are available and work in the camera (see links below). One is iso 100 color, which you see used in all the images above. The other is iso 3000 (!) black and white. Here's the funny thing. Since the camera is fully automatic, you can't change the exposure. Apparently, it uses a much smaller aperture for the black and white, making it shoot at approximiately the same shutter speed as the iso 100 film. I thought I should be able to make great low light images with iso 3000 black and white film. Not so. Indoors, because the aperture is small, the shutter speed is quite long, even with iso 3000.

 

Anyway, I'm glad my Mom sent me the Polaroid. It is a nice diversion.

 

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Skeletons From The Closet - March Results - Rokkaku-Do Temple in Kyoto Shot With Zeiss Ikonta 521/16

Every year when I visit Japan, I make it a goal to get out early in the mornings for some solitude, thought, and photography. This year, I achieved that on our last day in Kyoto, by visiting Rokkaku-Do, a Buddhist temple from the early Heian period. That means it was like constructed before the year 1000 (otherwise known as Y1K to the computer scientists of the time). Rokkaku-Do is in an urban part of Kyoto, and is immediately adjacent to the headquarters of Ikenobo, the association for Ikebana, Japanese flower arrangement. Apparently, Ikebana was started at Rokkaku-Do temple.

 

(Click Here) to read more about Rokkaku-Do temple.

 

I shot in an interesting way on this morning. I carried my Panasonic Lumix DMC-LX7, a tripod, and my Skeletons From The Closet camera for March, the Zeiss Ikonta 521/16.

 

(Click Here) to read more about my Zeiss Ikonta 521/16.

 

I used the LX7 as my exposure meter and scene test camera. Setting it to the same iso as the film in the Zeiss Ikonta, and selecting square image format, I found the LX7 extremely useful in this way. I also have a nice set of LX7 images to compare to the film shots. I plan to do a post about that in the future.

 

I used my DIY paper card rangefinder to just distance for focusing. (Click Here) to read about that. Scroll down to the bottom of the post for a description and link to a very helpful website for making your own rangefinder card.

 

Here are some of the quiet scenes I experienced that morning, scanned and cropped, but otherwise unedited.

 

Dragon Fountain, by Reed A. George

Zeiss Ikonta 521/16 with Tessar f3.5 Lens

 

 

Swan Pond, by Reed A. George

Zeiss Ikonta 521/16 with Tessar f3.5 Lens

Wooden Stool, by Reed A. George

Zeiss Ikonta 521/16 with Tessar f3.5 Lens

I knew that I liked the shot above as soon as I took it.

Symmetry, by Reed A. George

Zeiss Ikonta 521/16 with Tessar f3.5 Lens

That is the hexagonal main hall roof reflected in the water above. Rokkaku means hexagon in Japanese, and is the source of the temple's popular name.

Traveling Monks and Fallen Blossoms, by Reed A. George

Zeiss Ikonta 521/16 with Tessar f3.5 Lens

 

The best part of my morning was when an elderly Japanese lady came by and said good morning to me. Surprised that I could answer in Japanese, she then began my education about Rokkaku-Do.

 

Kami-Sama, by Reed A. George

Zeiss Ikonta 521/16 with Tessar f3.5 Lens (cropped)

 

She spoke only Japanese, so I must admit that I missed a significant part of the lesson. However, I did understand that the stone gods (kami-sama) above were collected from an important path in the area, I believe a path that led between multiple temples. She also told me that old ladies like her knit the hats and aprons for the kami-sama, because they want to make sure they don't get cold out here.

 

If you notice the little white sculptures lined up in front, they are ceramic doves. When I asked her what they were for, she literally took me by the arm, and walked me up to them, telling me how young couples who are in love come here for a specific purpose. She walked with a spring in her step, like a young girl with her boyfriend. She explained to me that a prospective bride can write down the things she likes about her fiance' on a piece of paper, and also list the things she's not so crazy about, putting an X next to those. The paper is then rolled up and put into a special groove in the bottom of the pigeon statue. The gods will work to make the X'd features of her lover go away. I loved that I was able to understand this part, through a combination of halting language on my part, rapid-fire Japanese on hers, and some hand gestures.

 

She also took me inside one of the buildings to explain that Rokkaku-Do was one of 36 stops on the Kansai Kannon pilgramage, where people visit 36 different spots to worship the god Kannon.

 

(Click Here) to read more about the Kansai Kannon pilgrimage.

 

My only regret was that she was too shy to let me take her picture. She politely gave me a wave of the hand, shook her head "no," and quickly moved off. I have said that my goal is not to catch every possible good photograph, but to make sure the ones I do get are the best I can make them. She'll have to be one of the ones I missed.

 

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Low Tech Wonders - Polaroid Is Back!

My parents recently sent me an old Polaroid 103 camera. Mom found it in an antique store and gave me a call. I quickly looked up the model (103), and found a post about how to convert it to modern batteries. For ~$25, I said yeah, send it on over!

 

(Click Here) to read how to do that.

 

In my case, I decided to use a mini battery box from Radio Shack, which uses two AAA batteries. It (barely) fits inside the old battery compartment.

 

Next challenge - film. Not really a challenge at all. It turns out that Fuji still sells pack film, and at a very reasonable price (~$1 per shot). I bought a pack of iso3000 (!) black and white film on Amazon and gave it a try. Wow! It works!

 

Here's my camera:

 

My Polaroid 103, by Reed A. George

 

I find that my Polaroid underexposes in general, so I've put a filter over the "electronic eye," which is the light meter sensor (that little circle next to the taking lens in the picture above). This allows me to get within the exposure adjustment range, though I still have it pegged at "Lighter."

 

It is great fun to pull out the film after exposing, count 20 or 25 seconds, and rip it open! Even my daughter, born well into the digital age, thinks it's pretty cool.

 

I've scanned a few images on my Epson scanner, but not with good results. I tried it quickly, and need to spend more time. I found that it showed every little piece of dust in a bad way. I'm sure I can perfect my technique.

 

I also bought a pack of iso100 color film. I'll wait until spring to give that a try.

 

In the meantime, here's a gorgeous Polaroid shot by photographer Konstantin Mihov:

 

Image Source: http://imperfiction.com/blog/2013/3/8/elegance-in-polaroid.html

 

(Click Here) to go to Konstantin's blog.

 

 

I'm looking forward to some low tech photography with this beautiful old camera!

 

Dig out your old Polaroid camera (I'm sure someone in your family has one). And buy your film through my link to Amazon below!

 

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