Pinhole Day 2010 X Two

My first attempts at pinhole photography have been a bit hap hazard but I wanted to share the outcome just the same. Excited to participate in this years World Wide Pinhole Day 2010, I inadvertently celebrated the date twice. April 18th hubby and I took off for Sequim with my YaYa Diana loaded with re-spooled 35mm black and white. Only to discover that the following Sunday was the actual pinhole day. Oh well, here is my favorite shot from my Pre Pinhole Practice Day.

Railroad bridge Sequim, Washington with ghost of man and dog 

A week later I tried again using color Superia 100. Not the best image ever. I need to experiment with longer exposures.

Alexander's Castle at Fort Worden

Port Townsend Marina

 Just for fun here is a shot I took a few days later with the pinhole Diana and then manipulated digitally.

Old Mill Park Silverdale, Washington

Who Is Martha and How Does Her Garden Grow?

I recently discovered that there were people out there in blog world who had a love of developing old film found at flea markets or inside old cameras. One of my favorites to read is CraftBangBoom. Inspired by her no fear approach to experimenting I ventured into the dark with wild and wonderful chemical concoctions to see what kind of magic I could pull from some of my camera finds.

This Ansco D-6 Cadet I picked up for $10.00 at a local antique mall, had a roll of 116 Verichrome Pan inside. Noticing the larger film would never fit on my Paterson developing reel I set out to the hardware store to see if I could retro-fit.

The Paterson reel has several parts, two halves, a black centre column and a white spring collar. You can sit the collar aside, you won’t be needing it for this job. I purchased a length of clear plastic hose and cut a piece 1 and 1/8th inch long and slid it down inside the larger half of the reel.

After placing the centre column inside the other half of the reel you can now put the two halves together by placing the center column inside your home-made bushing. In the dark I carefully cut a small piece of the film from the roll so I would have it as a guide for setting the distance between the reel halves. Then I rewrapped the film and set it aside for later. In the light I could now set the reel height for the film by simply adjusting the center column depth inside the bushing. The plastic bushing grips really well in fact if it gets stuck it helps to wet it before you try to disassemble the reel.

I developed the roll using a protocol I found at another blog site I love,  FilmFound 
HC-110 A at 58 Degrees for five minutes and Ta-Da!
From the distant past we are introduced to, oh let’s call her Martha, and her lovely flower garden.

Is this her humble home?

No home is complete without a swing for the little ones.

And finally a shot that looks as though it was taken in a store, maybe where the camera was for sale.

Oh Martha ...I wonder, what were your children’s names and who takes care of your garden now?

Been a Long Time Coming

My creative juices have a tendency sometimes dry up for a season. I will start a project and months or years later find myself picking it up again only to be surprised how much time has really past. I think that is one of the things I love about cameras. They capture the moment and hold it there suspended in time until you discover it anew.
When my daughter returned from living in London in 2004 she brought me back a vintage Kodak Cresta to add to my collection.

This camera has sat on my shelf since then except for a few outings but I could not recall where I took it or what snippets of time it held inside.
Recently I decided to ramp up my camera collecting and with that my old dream of developing at home. Inside Cresta was a roll of Arista 127 black and white I had loaded back in 2005. I gave it 4 minutes at 68 degrees with Kodak HC 110 solution B, the images were overexposed and a bit shaky, probably due to a sticky shutter, but with a little tweaking at last the story of the Cresta roll is revealed.
The first images were from a trip we took down 101 on the Oregon Coast.

Umpqua River Lighthouse

Paradise Café, Port Orford, Oregon

Sometime in 2006 or 2007 I took the camera on a day trip to Sequim, Washington.

Old Dungeness Schoolhouse

Then on my daughter’s wedding day I grabbed the camera and captured this shot of her vintage wedding dress.

Shelby in front of the Courthouse 

And finally  some of the images I took recently to finish out the roll so I could develop.

Harper, Washington 

            Retsil Cemetry Port Orchard, Washington

Vintage Camera Fun

I have been collecting vintage camera for a few years now and with some exceptions they have lived happily upon my shelf collecting dust and making me smile when I pass by. Recently I have started dusting them off, loading them up, and clicking away. While most of the picture taking world has made the leap to digital, I was pleased to discover there is still a vibrant interest in film and alternative photo processes.
   A friend sent me a link to a technique called Through the Viewfinder or Ttv. This is a combo of low & high tech using a vintage camera with a top viewfinder, a tube of cardboard, and a digital camera.
   I found some great instructions here for making my own “contraption” and set to work.

My Kodak Duaflex lets call her K.D.

I think the purpose of the contraption is to give the digital camera a fixed point to focus on while keeping excess light from spoiling the view inside the vintage viewfinder.

                                                                                                    Camera dressed in her contraption

The view inside contraption

The final cropped shot

Don’t you just love the dust and stains that are a part of the internal age of a vintage camera?I have loaded up this little gem with re-spooled 120 expired b&w film so I will have a film shot to compare with the Ttv. I’ll have to post the results when I get them developed.In the meantime K.D. and her contraption dress are packed for the annual YaYa trip to Moclips on the beach.