Old School Photographer

I have no idea who this person was, but I’ve carried his photograph with me throughout most of my life. I look at it every once in a while, usually when I am going through a Kondo phase. It must be the case that he was friends with my relatives, possibly even my parents, but as far as I can tell, he was never the topic of dinner time conversation or holiday reminiscences. An old acquaintance of some sort. Someone’s army buddy. My connection to the photograph has everything to do with the fact that he is using a camera, and that is probably the only reason I’ve never thrown it away. I picked up a copy of a similar Graflex at a local camera store a few years ago and it was my first experience with a 4x5 camera. That is our only connection.

Storied

 

One of the most interesting things to me about older homes is that they often have a unique history. Things that happened within their walls, famous or infamous people who once lived there, stories that essentially beg to be told over dinner and drinks. I used to know the folks who owned this house located not too far from the Tappan Zee Bridge. They're both gone now, but I still remember them both, and some of their tales about this wonderful place. For instance, about how Edward Teller, the famous physicist, had a special alarm system installed when he lived there, a direct line to the local police. 

The house I currently live in is far less storied, but was once owned by a man who spent several years here under house arrest for embezzlement. Nobody famous, a local politician, just a garden variety asshole in other words. I keep hoping to find a bag of cash under the floorboards, but so far... nothing.

Good light to you this weekend!

Quirky, Elderly Cameras

Every once a while it is fun to shoot with cameras or lenses with personality. Semi broken, I mean. Old. For instance, I have an Aires rangefinder that requires a hard counterclockwise twist of the lens to insure that the shutter will fire. It doesn't get used very often... On the other hand, the photograph above was made with a different elderly camera, the 64 year old Minolta V2 rangefinder from 1958. Its main claim to fame is a top shutter speed of 1/2000 sec, which means you can shoot wide open at f/2 in daylight. Pretty rad. The lens is an uncoated 45 mm f/2 that gives pleasant, old school results. Alas, the camera came back from service with the shutter firing about a stop too fast. Rather than throwing any more money at the problem, I just compensate when shooting. Don't know about you, but I like how my old film cameras connect me to an earlier time in our history.