someday and it won't be long.

terri · Apr 21, 2006

How fun! Any way to plug up that light leak, or is it toast because of the warping?

mysteryscribe · Apr 21, 2006

Yes a liberal bed of liquid nail, then close it up with a thick rubber band till it sets. Cut a hole in the back the size of a 2x3 film holder and make a back to hold them. I'll show you when it is done. Probably tomorrow.

If it turns out to be a leak around the lens, then I pop the end of the paint can off and fix it, clean the lens and replace the paint can lid. The lens is attached to the lid so it comes off and goes on. If I find another can like it, I can have interchangable lenses.. Just like a real camera.

We need to get more people into camera butchery... far too many vintage cameras wind up in display cases....thats a joke... If there was a humane society for cameras, I would be on the ten most wanted list...

mysteryscribe · Apr 21, 2006

Terri,
If I ever post a picture outside this room again, I want you to draw and quarter me. I look lousy in a kilt to so I won't be trying that.

My brother, his son and I are all involved in a blog, mine, where we do great shootout. Every once in a while I shoot something I think is cute. So I post it on this site. So far, nobody gets it. Or at least it seems that way. I do hope it isn't my magnetic personality that is the problem. Though it might well be.

The latest challenge was a communication device. So I did a shot of two tin cans and a string. I don't think anyone here got it. LOL maybe I'm getting senile but I do remember it as a childhood communication device. Probably as good as some of the com services out there now.

I guess I shouldn't try to be witty with the cell phone generation. Had to delete about a hundred words right here. Oh well rant 21 is over....

mysteryscribe · Apr 23, 2006

I am going to tell a true story but there is a lesson for me in it. Back in the early seventies I was a crime scene photographer. NO not the gun carrying detective they have on tv these days. I just make the pics collected the junk and moved on to the next one.

However it was the first time that I was closely involved with a color lab. I had always just sent my color work to a prolab. At the Local PD we had a color photo lab, and our very own photo only lab tech... Now they insisted that we shoot a gray card to do the color balance. It was just a throw away shot of the card. All the cameras and all the lights were pretty much fool proof, so all the test shot was supposed to do was to balence the color.

These days I am shooting a group of primative cameras. I am beginning to see the need for a test shot on every shoot. Even with the cut film, it would be a good idea to have a couple of toss away shots, just to see what the camera is doing on that particular day. I wonder if the early photographers did that as well. I'm sure I'll eventually settle down to a couple of cameras to shoot, and get to know them intimately but for now it is an experience each time I go out. Sometimes a good one sometimes not so good.

One thing I have learned on those primative cameras without a tripod screw, I need to weight them down some. Camera shake is a problem. I am thinking 'photo bean sock.'

mysteryscribe · Apr 23, 2006

I was watching the story of the san francisco earth quake on tv one of the last few nights. The narrator was talking about how the quake was the most photographed natural disaster of all times, at the time I guess. The reason he said was that Koday had just brought out their 3a camera with roll film. Every smalltown paper in the country had a man with one, as well as the individuals who could afford a camera.

I bought one once for the lens. That thing made a heck of a negative to have been on roll film. Also got my first lesson in uniform system fstops on that camera. I sold the lens and thought it was regular fstops. Fortunately someone explained it to me in time to correct the listing. Also explained all the over exposed film I was shooting with that lens... I never said I was bright.

terri · Apr 24, 2006

mysteryscribe said:
I was watching the story of the san francisco earth quake on tv one of the last few nights. The narrator was talking about how the quake was the most photographed natural disaster of all times, at the time I guess. The reason he said was that Koday had just brought out their 3a camera with roll film. Every smalltown paper in the country had a man with one, as well as the individuals who could afford a camera.

I bought one once for the lens. That thing made a heck of a negative to have been on roll film. Also got my first lesson in uniform system fstops on that camera. I sold the lens and thought it was regular fstops. Fortunately someone explained it to me in time to correct the listing. Also explained all the over exposed film I was shooting with that lens... I never said I was bright.

patriciao82173 · Apr 24, 2006

I bought my first digital in 2003(an SLR that is)I was crazed with digital but by 2004 I was bored with it. Yeah you can do everything under the sun with one but really it takes ALL the fun out of the process of NOT knowing just what you are going to get. That said I think it's fine for the typical portrait wedding etc photographer.

I just hope that all the manufacturers realize that there is a market for artists as well before they stop making EVERYTHING.

Here's a business idea(LOL)...a photography store JUST for alternative techniques NO digital allowed.

mysteryscribe · Apr 24, 2006

When my son in law took over my business, my advice was go digital. It just makes good business sense. He did and never looked back. I on the other hand looked way back.

I'm afraid there will come a time when the only way you can get traditional equip and supplies is to pay a much greater premium than gas is at the moment. Small supply and just not enough demand to entice too many people into the production of it. On the consumer's parts just enough demand to make a couple of guys rich..

I would not be too surprised to see the 35mm slr market drop to only one or two producers. One very high end maybe and one russian or chinese version.

Antiques are skyrocketing...

Now all that said... I think I'll go shoot some paper negatives while I can still get it. And look for that giant freezer locker for film and paper storage... Not that I don't have faith in modern photographers finally seeing the light.

mysteryscribe · Apr 24, 2006

Is it just me or has the public done a 180 on digital cameras this quickly. Two years ago film guys were laughing at the guys who spent big bucks on digital. Everyone knew you could never make an image with a digital toy as good as or enlarge it as far as a medium format negative... Heck even as good as a 35mm was only a dream back then.

I just got my first taste of condescension from a digital camera person. I have to say it was humbling. It was a lot like the story about the campground I posted here. I must be getting old lol.

mysteryscribe · Apr 24, 2006

This post falls into the category of post it or lose it. My mind is a lot like the guy from that tv show. You know the time travelor from a few years ago. I forget the name.

Anyway I was looking for a bit of software to allow me to scan color negative on my homemade backlight scanner. So I come across this piece of software. When I googled color photo editor. I found out that there is a thirty dollar piece of software to add grain to a digital picture. Not noise but real grain as you would see it in a real picture. LOL now that it the ultimate "Tastes like real butter" idea.

mysteryscribe · Apr 25, 2006

Today my Son in Law called. I was developing some paper negatives but they were fixing so I knew I had a few minutes. His complaint was "I feel like I am working harder and making less money. I don't understand it."

That was number one. Money is always the issue with photographers. I know Edward Weston always had money troubles and I'll bet so did Mathew Brady. Then he went on to tell me about his bridal portrait shoot. He drove a half hour to meet bride and her daughter, shot the pics for two hours, then drove a half hour back and processed the digital images for several more hours.

That is an example of why he feels that way about the money. He didn't say he wasn't making any money. What he said in effect was that he was working too hard for the money. I can sympathize but not a lot. Of course one of the first things he did when he took over was to stop offering studio bridal portraits. All of them are outdoors or on some kind of location now. In this market you cant charge the same thing for driving to the site, as you charge for shooting the pics even though an hour is an hour.

Given the choice most of the brides I worked with would opt for a heated and air conditioned studio to the sweat and dirt of an out door shoot. Especially when I added the hundred dollar travel charge. I took about an hour to shoot a studio bridal portrait so I was two hours ahead of him right there.

When I finished, I took the film to the lab and shoved it through their door. Three days later, I am back there picking up my proofs. Now it makes good business sense to shoot digital these days. I have no problem with people who do, for whatever reason. But you have to weigh out your time just like you were shooting film. If photography is a business, then it isn't the same as shooting for ego. Ego will make you redo a shot fifty times. When you shoot strictly for money (as in my case) there was a good enough point. The labs produced 'good enough' prints 95 percent of the time. If the customer paid me without an arguement, it was good enough.

There is peace of mind with digital that I never had, but it comes at a price.

Of course he lamented again, I can see the difference between a film enlarged print and a digital, even with ten mega pics. Is one better than the other who knows. Are they different you betcha they are.

Before I began to sound like an old man doing "back in the day," I had to go take care of my old fashioned paper negatives. Ah well I do miss work.

mysteryscribe · Apr 25, 2006

The week after halloween had become a big Christmas shopping day. The weekend after had at least three street fairs to choose from. Yes it could be cold. Yes it could be rainy and yes it could be miserable in general. Especially if you were an old man to begin with.

The cold and the rain were ten times as bad on me as on my neighbor. The cold rain had forced the festival inside of the national guard armory. It should have been warm and dry, but. There always seems to be a but in my life. Someone had forgot to tell the maintenance crew to turn on the heat. At least that is the explanation offered by the event's organizer.

The result was a bone chilling cold made worse by our wet clothes. Wet clothes that wouldn't dry out in the cold gymnasium sized room. My hands hurt from the arthritis which I had picked up somewhere along my journey to old age.

I wished that I hadn't bothered to sign up for the event. Since about twenty percent of my income came from those shows, I went to everyone I could find.
Photographers weren't known for their pension plans. My plan had been to eat too much, drink too much, stay out late and just generally wear myself out.

I figured I would be shooting weddings until I dropped over dead. Things seldom work out like you plan.

I lost my craving for fatty food with the two ulcers that continued to plague my life. The booze went when my balance began to fail, at sixty-three I couldn't stay up late enough to get into any real trouble. Life had settled into a grind.

Converting cameras by day and spending hours at night on the computer. I was learning more about the world. than I was ever going to need to know. Still it beat I Love Lucy reruns on TV.

I unpacked the display and settled into the novel I was reading. It was one I had downloaded from the internet. Something about a lost photographer and his adventures trying to find his way home. One of those way too symbolic things.

The teenaged boy startled me. I hadn't been paying any attention. I had learned over the last year to ignore the people until someone asked a question.
"Wow, where did you get all these old pictures?" He seemed genuinely interested so I answered.

"I made them myself."

"No way man these are antiques."

"Well they look antique, but I made them."

"My dad is a civil war nut. He would love this book." The book he had in his hand was a hand bound book filled with primitive shots of a civil war reenactment.

"You should buy it for him then.
Christmas is just around the corner."

"Yes but I really didn't want to spend fifty dollars. I'm not working anymore."

"I'm sorry son, but I can't sell it for any less."

"How about that picture of the battle."

"It comes framed and unframed." I suggested it so that he could find some way to afford it.

"How much unframed."

"It's actually a poster that way. You know you can tack it up somewhere. As a poster it's only twenty five dollars." Yes I cut the kid a deal.

It was about closing time when she came in. She was barely five feet tall and if her face hadn't been slightly lined she might have passed for a twenty year old. She walked directly from the door to my table as I watched.

"My nephew said you made antique style pictures?"

"Yes ma'am I do."

"What kind of camera do you use?"

"Hold on I'll show you one of them." The camera I carried to the show didn't have a makers name. The wooden frame wasn't old at all. At least not as old as people thought. The wooden tripod was packed with the camera. but I didn't pull it out. She looked at the mahogany box with the bellows stretched between it and the mahogany lens board.

Attached to the end of the lens board was a barrel lens. It was all polished brass and worn enamel painted surfaces. Behind the brass lens was a shutter with no speeds at all. It was open or it was closed. The camera had the old air bulb to trigger the shutter.

"Wow that is old," she said. I nodded in agreement. Heck the lens was old. The rest of it wasn't all that old.

"I've been looking for someone to make a picture of me and my husband. Can you do this?"

I took a quick look. I was ready to say of course I can. That was before I took the second look. "Lady, you need to go buy yourself a good digital camera and a tripod." I continued to look at the pictures as I spoke.

"It wont be the same. This is from just after the civil war."

"Let me put it to you this way, I can make it, but I won't make it. I'm sorry I just don't do that kind of thing."

"Are you sure? Lots of photographers with a digital camera will do it, but I can't even find anyone with a really old camera. You are the first one I've seen with pictures sort of like it."

"Lady my picture aren't like that at all. I'm sorry. I just don't think I can help you." I handed her the picture and thought about what she wanted.

The picture would have been her laying on a table under a bloody sheet and her husband standing over her with an autopsy saw. Man why couldn't it have just been early porn that she wanted.

the end