Stone House, Saltspring Island

The Stone House, Saltspring Island

Located between mainland British Columbia and Vancouver Island, Saltspring Island, the largest of the Gulf Islands, is a unique and beautiful spot.   Driving up the ramp from the little ferry, one wanders along winding roads that snake between mountains and forests of cedar and Douglas fir.  Then suddenly the corridor of forest opens to reveal a pocket of valley with rolling farmland, punctuated by rustic farmhouses set among gnarled Garry Oaks.  Sheep graze in the fields, and signs for artists’ studios, potter’s workshops, and woodworker’s shops dot the road’s edge.

The island has a long and fascinating history.  First explored by the Spanish and British in the 1700s, Saltspring was settled in the 1850s by early pioneers who had abandoned their hopes of quick riches in the Fraser River Gold Rush.

A group of 9 Negro slaves, who had purchased their liberty in the United States, arrived at what was to become thew town of Vesuvius in 1857.  More black settlers from California were followed by immigrants from Portugal and Scandinavia, then British and Hawaiian settlers (Kanakas) originally recruited by the Hudson’s Bay Company.   As a result of this long history, the island boasts some of the oldest farms in  the province, and photographers find many abandoned farmhouses and barns dating from the 1800s.

As the light was fading under drippy skies and heavy overcast, I came across this old house in a small valley near the sea, with a meadow and a lovely old abandoned barn.  Sitting beside a muddy lane, this old farmhouse was framed by alders and maples festooned with lichen.

This image was taken on Kodak VC- 160 at f/16 using the 65 mm. Schneider Angulon on my Baby Graphic.  Given the limited amount of foreground, front tilt was not used.

Using the interchangeable backs on the Baby Graphic, I then took a black and white version on Ilford XP-2:

The Stone House, Black & White

References:

“Saltspring Island.”  Online Posting on vancouverisland.com. http://www.vancouverisland.com/regions/towns/?townid=257

The Misty Lane

The Misty Lane

This image, taken at f/22 with the 75 mm. Ross Xpres lens on my Ensign Selfix 16-20, is a good example of what can be accomplished by vigorous cropping and creative processing in Photoshop.  Although not of gallery quality, this is a pleasant and somewhat moody image of a road in the mist.  The original image (see below) was a thoroughly unremarkable color photograph of a lane in light mist taken on Kodak VC-160 film.

The mist was not thick enough to produce much effect.  However, on viewing the original image, I thought that there might still be a picture hiding within.  After converting the image to grayscale in Photoshop, I cropped out the busy sky and trees, isolating the lines of trees and road converging into the distance.  Cropping off the distracting, light-colored space between the trees at both sides, I anchored the image between dark tree trunks.  I then used the Curves function to accentuate the darker tonal values, darkening the trees at the beginning of the lane, and similarly accentuated the lighter values, brightening the early rays of the sun as they struck the end of the lane where the misty effect was most pronounced.

Misty Lane Original Image

The take-home lessons are twofold.  First, much of the artistry of photography occurs after the shutter clicks, and the same original image can be interpreted by the printer, be he/she at the sink or the mouse, in multiple ways.  Learn to scrutinize your photographs for interesting lines or elements that might be extracted to form the basis of an artistic picture.  Secondly, for those who still debate between digital and “real” photography, I would suggest that rescuing this image could have been done by traditional burning and dodging, but only by a master printer.  Using Photoshop, I drew out the essential monochrome elements of this image in about fifteen minutes- and didn’t have to clean out the sink!

Postscript:

Recently, a kind reader, Scott Bilotta from the International Directory of Camera Collectors, offered me another insight into the many images that can hide within a seemingly ordinary negative.  I must admit that I don’t think well in square format; as a landscape photographer, most things are side to side or, occasionally, up and down, but rarely square.  Scott reworked this image in Photoshop, using the square format to capture the critical elements in a way that I had not considered in my rectangular mindset.

The Misty Lane, Scott's Version

In this image, I think that the delicacy of the mist adds to the overall impression of early morning sun and colorful fallen leaves.  Thanks, Scott for showing me more creative possibilities.

The Sunny f/16 Rule

Many photographers rely completely on exposure data from their camera’s built-in light meter.  In today’s world of matrix metering on sophisticated digital cameras, this produces good results under many lighting conditions lighting conditions.  However, most early vintage cameras do not have light meters, and even a highly automatic light meter is not automatically right.  Experienced photographers frequently employ an extraordinarily useful rule of thumb known as the “Sunny f/16 Rule.”  This simple rule states:

“On a sunny day, for correct exposure, set the camera’s aperture at f/16 and the  shutter speed to the reciprocal of the ISO film speed.“

In other words, when shooting Tri-X, ISO 400, on a sunny day with no haze or cloud and a front-lighted subject, a perfect exposure will be obtained by setting the aperture to f/16 and the shutter speed at 1/400 sec.  For practical purposes, the nearest calibrated shutter speed of 1/500 will do fine.  For Panatomic-X at ISO 100 on the same sunny day, optimum exposure will be obtained with f/16 at 1/100 sec.  For other film types, just plug in the ISO film speed as the reciprocal of the shutter speed.

This rule is important for three reasons:

1. It allows one to work without a light meter.  There are situations where experienced professional photographers do not use their exposure meters, but depend on this rule.
2. Since the amount of incident light from the sun is quite constant (at least in the latitudes that most of us occupy) the rule can be used as a way of checking the accuracy of one’s light meters.
3. Light meters measure either incident or reflected light (see Sekonic’s site for a discussion of incident vs. reflective metering).  Incident light readings, measuring the amount of light falling on the subject, are most accurate, but must be taken with the meter close to the subject.  Depending on the circumstances (see below), this may be impractical.  Reflected light measurements are most common (all on-camera meters measure reflected light), but the amount of light reflected toward the meter depends on the lightness of the subject.  Since most meters are calibrated to the amount of light reflected from a 14-18% neutral gray surface, it is necessary to adjust the reading for darker or lighter subjects.    The Sunny f/16 Rule, representing really the ultimate measure of incident daylight falling on the subject,  bypasses these problems, and is surprisingly accurate.

Incident Metering is a Bad Idea. Use the Sunny f/16 Rule

This rule can be tabulated for different film speeds as follows:

ISO 100 Sunny f/16
1/50	1/100	1/200	1/400	1/800	1/1600
f/22	f/16	f/11	f/8	f/5.6	f/4
ISO 200 Sunny f/16
1/100	1/200	1/400	1/800	1/1600	1/3200
f/22	f/16	f/11	f/8	f/5.6	f/4
ISO 400 Sunny f/16
1/200	1/400	1/800	1/1600	1/3200	1/6400
f/22	f/16	f/11	f/8	f/5.6	f/4

The Sunny f/16 rule can be extended to other lighting conditions, producing a table similar to that provided by many manufacturers on their film packaging:

	Sunny Distinct Shadows	Hazy Sun Soft Shadows	Cloudy Barely Visible Shadows	Overcast No Shadows
F-Stop	f / 16	f / 11	f / 8	f / 5.6
ISO 100	1/125	1/125	1/125	1/125
ISO 200	1/250	1/250	1/250	1/250
ISO 400	1/500	1/500	1/500	1/500
ISO 800	1/1000	1/1000	1/1000	1/1000

An extremely detailed tabulation of empirical exposure settings for a variety of light conditions is available on Karen Nakamura’s Photoethnography web site under the “Exposure” tab.

References:

Author Unknown.  “Guide to Film Photography:  The Sunny 16 Rule.”  http://guidetofilmphotography.com/sunny-16-exposure.html.

Folds, Ben.  “Sunny 16 Rule.”  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sunny_16_rule.

Glatzer, Charles.   “Sunny f/16 Rule.”  http://www.photomigrations.com/articles/0403200.htm.

Nakamura, Karen.  “The Science of Photography:  Exposure.”   Photoethnography web site.  http://johnlind.tripod.com/science/scienceexposure.html.

Ratty Brian.  “Understanding the Sunny f/16 Rule.”  http://www.photomigrations.com/articles/0403200.htm.

Sekonic Inc.  “Incident vs. Reflective.”   http://www.sekonic.com/classroom/classroom_2.asp.

The Store by the Road

The Store by the Road

Driving down the road late in the year in southeastern Washington, my eye was caught by this abandoned store under the naked limbs of a grove of huge maples.  Peering through the windows, I was barely able to discern piles of old furniture and discarded office equipment. The back porch was piled high with eddies of dried leaves that rustled with each swirl of  the chill autumn wind.  I propped my little pocket tripod on the hood of my car and took this image on XP-2 with my 1928 No. 1 Kodak using the f/6.3 Anastigmat at f/16.

Selecting A Vintage Camera IV: The Baby Pacemaker Crown Graphic

Pacemaker Crown Graphic with Kalart Rangefinder

For those who want to take a step up in technical capability, gaining ground glass focusing, basic camera movements, depth of field correction, interchangeable lenses, interchangeable film backs, and the ability to use short focus, wide angle lenses, yet still retaining the convenience of 120 roll film, the 2×3 Baby Pacemaker Crown Graphic is an amazing little camera.  Manufactured between 1947 and 1958, this small Pacemaker Crown Graphic is essentially a miniature large format camera with many the of the features  of a Linhof-type technical camera.

The Pacemaker Crown Graphic is a member of the class of cameras known as press cameras, the name deriving from the fact that these cameras were originally designed for use by press photographers.  Consequently, they were tough, well designed, enormously versatile, and capable of exacting results under the most difficult circumstances.  Although they were produced by many manufacturers, including Burke and James, Pressman, Linhof, Omega and Meridian, the term “Press Camera” will always elicit images of the ubiquitous Graflex cameras, especially the famous Speed Graphic and Crown Graphic.  Although originally aimed at journalists, the Graphic cameras became the workhorses for both art photography and general purpose commercial photography such as weddings, portaiture, product photography, documentary photography, and advertising.

The Graflex at War

The Speed Graphic was the still camera of World War II, and took many of the most famous images of that conflict.  On the home front, the most famous press photographer of them all, Arthur Fellig, a.k.a. Weegee, prowled the streets of New York with his Speed Graphic.

Weegee

After his first job selling candy, Arthur Fellig worked in a photo studio, a darkroom, and a photo agency before becoming a freelance news photographer in1935.  Specializing in the night shift between 10 pm and 5 am, he quickly became known for his gritty images of murder victims, fires,

Weegee at his Typewriter in the Trunk of his Chevrolet

and tenement life.  Installing a shortwave radio capable of receiving all police and fire transmissions in his 1938 Chevrolet, his reputation spread quickly for always being the first to arrive at a murder scene or fire.  Weegee’s nickname was a phonetic rendering of Ouija, due to his frequent, seemingly prescient arrivals at scenes only minutes after crimes, fires or other emergencies were reported to authorities. It is unclear whether he named himself Weegee or was named by the girls at Acme Newspictures. Weegee became one of new York’s best known and most flamboyant news photographers.  He went on to become involved in motion pictures and published several books, including the autobiographical Naked City, which inspired the movie of the same name.

Speed vs. Crown Graphics:

The model designation of Graflex cameras can be confusing, and the amount of literature on these ever-popular cameras, many of which are still in use today, is daunting and beyond the scope of this essay.  Suffice it to say that the Graphic press cameras of the mid-twentieth century can be divided into two main classes:  The Speed Graphics, which are equipped with a focal plane shutter in addition to the leaf shutter on the lens, and the Crown Graphics, which lack the focal plane shutter but are capable of working with lenses of very short focal length.

The Speed Graphics’  focal plane shutter is local within the camera body in front of the film plane.  This allows use of  lenses that do not have attached shutters (known as “barrel” lenses); however, this feature is of limited use.  In fact, for landscape and many other types of photography, the focal plane shutter is a decided hindrance, because it places an extra object between the film plane and the lens, precluding the possibility of using very short focal length lenses.  The Crown Graphic is unique in that the focusing track is hinged and extends into the case, allowing the front standard to approach very close to the film plane, and permitting the use of very wide angle, short focal length lenses.

Lenses:

A variety of lenses are available for the Baby Graphic.  The one restriction is that the lens boards are small, limiting the selection of lenses to those having less than an approximately 50mm diameter rear element.

The two most common “normal” lenses usually found on the Baby Graphic are the 101 mm. Graflex Optar, manufactured by Wollensak, and the 101 mm Kodak Ektar, both four-element Tessar-type lenses.  The Ektar is an excellent lens (one of the best of the mid-twentieth century) and is capable of producing superb images.  The Optars are also solid lenses, but have a reputation for being somewhat less sharp.  Some Baby Graphics are found with Graflar or Trioptar triplets.  These are of lower quality and should be avoided.  Less commonly, high-quality optics by Rodenstock, Zeiss or Schneider, such as the 100mm Zeiss f/3.5 Tessar or the 80mm Schneider Xenotar can be found.  Another excellent lens that can occasionally be encountered is the 105mm f:3.7 Ektar, which has been described as having “…sharpness and bokah like a Summicron…”  Among modern lenses, the multicoated 100mm Schneider Symmar has been described as an excellent choice, providing top-notch optics with good coverage.

The most common telephoto lens found on this camera is the f/5.6 Graflex Tele-Optar, also by Wollensak, a good quality four-element lens similar to a Schneider Tele-Xenar. However, as far as the best image quality is concerned,  two better options  would be the five-element 180mm f/4.5 Rodenstock Rotelar or the 180mm f/5.6 Schneider Tele-Arton.

There are two common options for a medium wide angle lens, both in 65 mm. focal length; this is  roughly equivalent to  a 35 mm. lens on a 35 mm. camera.  The most common wide angle in this focal length is the 65mm f/6.8 Graflex Optar.  Higher image quality can be obtained from the 65mm f/6.8 Schneider Angulon, an excellent moderate wide angle lens.

One of the best features of the Baby Graphic is its ability to use very wide angles lenses, which can be difficult with some large format cameras.  The hinged focusing track allows the 2×3 Crown and Century (but not the Speed Graphic) to rack and pinion focus these lenses right into the body.  The premier lens for this purpose is the Schneider 47mm f/8 Super Angulon.  47mm focal length on 6×9 cm. is equivalent to a 21-23 mm. lens on a 35mm camera.  This lens, in addition to its wide format, will cover the 6×9 cm. negative with room to spare.  Movements are limited due to bellows compression, but the ability to use this focal length outclasses some cameras with much larger price tags.

There are some other, less common lenses that one might consider; I speak not from personal experience but from a perusal of Kerry Thalmann’s Large Format Home Page, in particular his discussion of “Lightweight Lenses.”  For “normal” lenses, one might consider a 90mm. f/6.8 Schneider Angulon, a Dagor-type lens with six elements in two groups.  Postwar coated Angulons or those branded by Linhof are preferred as being of more consistent quality.  The 90 mm. f/6.3 Wide Angle Congo is also a possibility, although the quality of the Congo lenses may be variable.  In the short telephoto range, consider the 150 mm. f/6.3 Fujinon W, a four element, three group, Tessar design; the 150 mm. f/5.6 Schneider Xenar; and the 150 mm. f/9 Schneider G Claron.  In the 180-200 mm. range, the 180 mm. f/9 Fujinon A, the 200 mm. f/8 Nikkor M, and the 203 mm. f/7.7 Kodak Ektar are possibilities.  These all use shutters of Copal #0 size and have a good chance of fitting into the small Baby Crown Graphic lens boards.  It may be advisable to borrow one of these lenses and check the fit before purchasing.  Many of the more modern lenses are singly or multiply coated, with consequent increases in image contrast.  One caution, however: one’s geographic locale should be taken into account when considering lenses of f/8 or f/9 maximum aperture.  While these will be fine in desert sunlight, use of a lens with a maximum aperture f/8 or higher in low light conditions such as my typically overcast and cloudy Pacific Northwest weather and heavy tree cover may be quite a challenge.

Graflex Roll Film Backs:

The nomenclature and evolution of the Graflex camera back and its associated film holders is both complex and confusing.  This has been summarized on the Pacific Rim Camera page “Graflex Backs and Film Holders.”  This entry will focus on the  backs available for the 2×3 Baby Pacemaker Crown Graphic

Graphic Roll Film Holders: Original with Knob Winder (right) and Later Lever Action (Left)

Roll film holders for the 2×3 Baby Graphic were available in three formats: 6×6 cm., 6×7 cm., and 6×9 cm. The earlier model holders are designated either as “22” or “23”, the “22” indicating  6×6 cm. (2×2 in.) format, while the “23” indicated 6×9 cm. (2×3 in.) format. With the introduction of the 6×7 format, the designation changed to RH12 (6×6), RH10 (6×7) and RH8 (6×9). The number described the number of exposures obtained on a roll of 120 film. Other holders were designed for 220 film using a different pressure plate.

The original models utilized a knob to advance the film, while later models employed a lever for film advancing.  The designation “Singer”, often applied to these lever-action film holders, comes from the fact that the Singer Sewing Machine Company owned Graflex for some time and marked its film holders accordingly.

There has been considerable discussion about the difference in film flatness between these two models, as the lever-advance models had rollers to hold the film in place.  I use the older model holders and have not had a problem with film curling so far.  Doug Daley, of the Camera Clinic in Seattle, notes that, while the lever-action models have the advantage of the rollers, they also use a lever return spring which has a tendency to break and is almost impossible to replace.

It is important to note that the Graflex holders advance film based on the number of rotations of the internal rollers, not on the appearance of numbers on the paper backing.  Using the numbers on the backing, which is the case for all 120 roll film cameras and the detachable Rollex backs used on vintage plate cameras, ensures that images are evenly spaced.  With the Graflex backs, image spacing is dependent on the gearing built into the back, and can in theory be inaccurate if film thickness changes.  It has been said that modern films are slightly thinner than films produced in the 1950s, and this is a potential source of frame misalignment.

Noting that the edge of my first frame was cut off on my first rolls with the Baby Graphic, I tested frame spacing using a roll of outdated film, tracing each frame onto the film with the dark slide removed.  I found that both of my backs started the first frame too close to the beginning of the roll, indicating that the modern-day Kodak paper leader was slightly shorter than those produced in the 1950s.  After the first frame, image spacing was not a problem, indicating that film thickness for practical purposes was not a consideration.  Noting that there was room for a ninth frame at the end of the roll, I now start my pictures on the second frame, then wind the knob 1 1/2 turns after the last frame to obtain my eighth shot.

To be continued….

References:

Frederick, Todd.  “Modern Lenses for 2×3 Graphic?”  Photonet Online Posting.  http://photo.net/medium-format-photography-forum/001HwX.

“Graflex Backs and Film Holders.”  http://www.pacificrimcamera.com/pp/graflex/backs.htm.

Graflex.Org Web Site.  http://graflex.org/.

Karp, David.  “The Pacemaker Crown Graphic as a Field Camera.”  http://www.largeformatphotography.info/cameras/pacemaker/.

“New York on Fire: Images From the Gordon Archive.”  http://www.weegee.org/

Thalmann, Kerry.  “Lightweight Lenses.”  http://www.thalmann.com/largeformat/lightwei.htm.

Wikipedia articles on Press Camera, Speed Graphic, and Weegee.

“Weegee’s World.”  International Center of Photography.  http://museum.icp.org/museum/collections/special/weegee/.

“Weegee: Biography and Exhibition of the American Photographer in the Fotomuseum, Winterthur, Switzerland.  http://www.cosmopolis.ch/english/cosmozero/weegee.htm.

The U.S. f-Stop System

Understanding the idea of aperture, or “f-stops”, is not always a straightforward concept for beginning photographers.  There are two ways of controlling the amount of light that falls on the film: the exposure time, or shutter speed, and the size of the lens opening, or aperture.  The concept of aperture is complicated by the fact that, when comparing different lenses,

Canon 35mm Camera with Unusual f/0.95 Lens

having the same size opening does not necessarily mean that the same amount of light falls on the film.  Rather, the amount of light admitted by a given opening depends on the focal length of the lens.  In other words, if the iris diaphragm opening is 25 mm, it will expose the film only one-quarter as much on a 200 mm telephoto lens as it will on a 50 mm lens.

In modern times (i.e., after the mid-1920s), the aperture has been expressed as an “f-stop” or “f-number”, with the f-number being expressed as the ratio between the focal length of the lens and the diameter of the pupil in the iris diaphragm:

f = (Lens focal length)/(diameter of iris diaphragm opening).

Consequently, our  50 mm lens with a 25 mm opening is a nice fast f/2 lens, while our 200 mm telephoto lens with a 25 mm opening is frustratingly slow at f/8.  This gives one some insight into why fast telephoto lenses are large, bulky, and expensive- a modest 200 mm telephoto lens with a maximum aperture of  f/2 has an opening of 100 mm, or about 4 inches!

The beauty of the f-stop system is that, at a given f-number, every lens will allow exactly the same amount of light per square centimeter to fall on the film.  Thus an exposure of 1/100 second at f/5.6 will be exactly the same no matter which lens or film size one uses.

Before the f-stop system was adopted, however, things were nowhere this simple, and a variety of systems were in use to express lens aperture.  In 1899, a summary of the most common systems looked something like this:

Aperture Systems Circa 1899

Clearly, the situation with respect to aperture expression at the turn of the century was extraordinarily confusing.  However, this table does contain the seeds of our modern, streamlined system.  The left column expresses the aperture according to our modern concept of the f-stop, even though the numbers are not neatly rounded off to f-numbers of 2, 2.8, 4, 5.6, 8, 11, 16, 22, 32, 45, and 64 as they are on the aperture scale of a modern camera.  What is also important to note is the second column, which tabulates the “U.S.” or Universal System (also called the “Uniform System”).

U.S. System f-Stop Scale

Many cameras produced before the early 1920s employed this system, which was a simple numerical progression doubling at each stop and having no direct relationship to the focal length of the lens.

The relationship between the U.S. and modern systems can be expressed more simply as follows:

f/stop	4	5.6	8	11	16	22	32	45
U.S.	1	2	4	8	16	32	64	256
Simple lens (Approximate)				1	2	3	4	-

This table also includes the approximate correspondence to a simple numerical system used by Kodak on some of their most basic cameras.  Note that the U.S. and modern systems intersect at f/16.  The U.S. system is found quite commonly on early Kodak cameras such as the No. 1 Kodak Junior shown in the image above.  Although the maximum aperture appears as “4″, this, like most of the Rapid Rectilinears, is actually an f/8 lens.

Thinking at the Fire

Thinking at the Fire

One weekend in October, I took a camping trip through the eerie landscape left behind when the five cubic miles of water from prehistoric Lake Missoula gouged its way through the Palouse wheatfields at the end of the last ice age.  Carving out the Columbia Gorge from Western Montana to Portland, Oregon, this seven hundred foot-high wall of water must have been heard and felt for hours before it carved its way through the rolling hills, scooping out Grand Coulee and Palouse Falls.  I camped in my little tent  next to the cascading waters of Palouse Falls in below-freezing temperatures, warm in my sleeping bag under a space blanket.  Each night, my fire kept me warm and cooked my supper, then made my morning coffee after I broke the ice out of my water bucket.  One night, I set up my No. 1 Kodak on my little pocket tripod, then sat pensively gazing into the flames for several minutes while I took this exposure.  My image is partially transparent, as if I am not totally present in that time.  It matches the unearthly quality of this eroded landscape in the moonlight.

The Image I Won’t Show

As a photographer, I shoot anything that moves.  Or doesn’t move.  Or might move onto a page in someone’s magazine.

But sometimes you have to be careful about what you shoot and show.  Really careful.

I recently spent a week in Miami at the 2009 Healthcare Globalization Summit.  As usual, I wandered the streets looking for images.  Returning each night to the parking lot, I was greeted by the pleasant Hispanic man in his 40s who manned the gate.  Slightly plump, with dark curly hair, a couple of days’ stubble, and a slightly rumpled T-shirt and jeans, he looked like any one of the thousands of Hispanic men who kept Miami running for the benefit of the richer and more privileged Anglos.

One night as I pulled  into the lot, he sat with his feet perched up on the desk, absorbed in his newspaper.  Illuminated by the overhead light, he looked like one of Edward Hopper’s images of night people.  On an impulse, I asked him if I could take his picture.  We struggled a bit with his fragmentary English, but eventually he got the idea, then smiled and assented.  Hurrying to my room, I loaded film into my classic Ensign 16-20 and arrived back with camera and tripod.

We began talking as best we could while I set up my equipment.  I came to understand that he was from Columbia.  Struggling to convey something to me, Eduardo (not his real name) became frustrated, pulled out a folder from beneath his paper, opened it, and laid it out for me to read.

I was surprised to have an asylum application appear before me on the first page.  Fascinated, I read on.  My anonymous Hispanic friend was a Colombian attorney from Bogota, had been active in Colombian politics, assisting in rallies aimed at attempting to free hostages held by FARC.

FARC Soldiers

The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia, or FARC), a Marxist-Leninist revolutionary guerrilla organization, has been the main protagonist in the in the ongoing Colombian Civil War for more than 40 years.

Originally established in the 1960s as a people’s movement in reaction to repeated and systematic human rights abuses by the US-backed Colombian government, FARC and its nonviolent political wing FARC-EP’s tactics have degenerated over the years into kidnappings, hostage-taking and political murders.  The group became involved in the cocaine trade during the 1980s to finance itself.

Losing its popularity, FARC has faced widespread criticism throughout Columbia, expressed recently through large rallies during 2008.  Eduardo, as an attorney involved in human rights cases, became involved in the public reaction against FARC.

Soon threats ensued, and a friend and associated disappeared.  His bloodstained body was found a few days later.  Faced by escalating persecution and the very real fear of kidnapping, torture and murder, Eduardo, his wife, and their three children fled to Miami and applied for political asylum.

However, as best I could tell from Eduardo’s fractured English, they didn’t run far enough, and threatening phone calls began again after they arrived in Miami.

So that is their situation- a young family, both parents trying to make enough money to survive in a country where they do not speak the language, and dealing with death threats while they wait to see if the government will grant them asylum.  Yet Eduardo was always cheerful, friendly, and helpful, giving no sign of the way his life is going.  Could I do as well?  I’m going to remember this the next time I start to worry about my bank balance.

I did take his picture.  It’s still on the undeveloped roll in my camera.  But I won’t put it on a web site where it can be seen in Colombia.  I’ll keep it for myself and wonder when I see it how this courageous man is doing.

Winter Fields in the Palouse

Winter Fields in the Palouse

This is another example of the fine detail and delicate tonal gradation possible with the combination of the f/6.3 Kodak Anastigmat and Ilford XP-2 film.  The Palouse is a vast rolling grassland in Southeastern Washington, formed from thousands of years’ accumulation of loess (windblown silt).  The rolling hills are now wheatfields dotted with farms and occasional herds of cattle.  The landscape has a beauty that changes with every season, from the delicate lines of winter stubble to the green of spring crops.

Selecting a Vintage Camera III: Plate Cameras

One option for vintage fine art photography using roll film is the “plate camera”.  Although many cameras manufactured between the late 1800s and the 1930s used glass plates, this term is often used specifically to refer to a type of small folding camera, usually in 6×9 or 9×12 cm format, designed specifically to use small glass plates or sheet film.  These cameras can be fitted with 120 roll film backs, available on eBay, in place of plate holders.  The small plate camera is actually quite an early design, with the first models being produced around 1915 (see the KW post).  Production continued into the late 1930s, when glass plates were no longer a popular medium and these models were largely superseded by 35mm and more modern medium format cameras.

Voigtlander Bergheil

The camera shown here, the Voigtlander Bergheil, is one of the best known of its type, and illustrates the typical features of this class of cameras.  This is a very functional, professional-quality camera equipped with the famous Heliar lens.  In addition to its superb mechanical and optical qualities,  the Bergheil’s fame derive in part from its association with Brassai, one of the greatest figures in 20th century photography.  A Hungarian painter, sculptor

From Paris By Night by Brassai

and author who moved to Paris in 1924, Brassai studied photography under the Hungarian master Andre Kertesz.  Wandering the streets of Paris at night with his Bergheil, Brassai captured the beauty of the streets and gardens in rain and mist.  Wikipedia’s entry on Brassai states: ” …he captured the essence of the city in his photographs, publishing his first book of photographs in 1933 titled “Paris de nuit” (“Paris by Night”). His efforts met with great success, resulting in his being called “the eye of Paris” in an essay by his friend Henry Miller. In addition to photos of the seedier side of Paris, he also provided scenes from the life of the city’s high society, its intellectuals, its ballet, and the grand operas. He photographed many of his great artist friends, including Salvador Dalí, Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse, Alberto Giacometti, plus many of the prominent writers of his time such as Jean Genet, Henri Michaux and others.”  It should be noted that this early work with the Bergheil was done without the benefit of a telephoto or wide angle lens.

Folded, the Bergheil looks like a small, leather-covered box five to seven inches in maximum dimension, with a leather handle on the top and, in most cases the rear half of a flip-up viewfinder on the left side. Opened, it displays a rear ground glass screen with a fold-out focusing hood.  Once the image has been composed and focused on the ground glass, the focusing screen assembly slides upward in its tracks, and can be replaced by a glass plate or sheet film holder, or by a 120 roll film holder.

Pressing a concealed button on the top of the camera allows the front plate to flip down, forming the base plate for the focusing rails and exposing the front standard, lens, and bellows.  The front standard is usually then pulled out to an infinity stop and locked in place, after which focusing is accomplished using the rack and pinion controlled by the knurled focusing knob at the front of the base plate.  The term “Double Extension” is frequently applied to this mechanism, referring to the fact that there are two sets of focusing rails, the upper set attaching the front standard to the upper base plate, while the lower set, equipped with the rack and pinion assembly, moves the upper base plate and lens assembly back and forth on the lower base plate to accomplish fine focusing. A few models, particularly Agfa plate cameras, are equipped instead with a focusing lever and helical focusing screws incorporated into the front standard, eliminating the need for the lower focusing rail.

Bergheil Side View

Most small plate cameras of this era are equipped with thumb screws controlling a small amount of vertical rise and fall and lateral shift of the front standard.  Most unfortunate is the fact that there is no vertical tilt or horizontal swing, precluding any use of these movements to allow for greater depth of field.  There are no rear movements.  Three methods of composing the picture are usually available: a waist level finder, a swing-out wire finder attached to the front standard, and the ground glass focusing screen, the latter being the slowest but most accurate. Most cameras are equipped with a fixed “normal” 100-105 mm lens, with only a few of the higher-end plate cameras having provision for interchangeable lenses.

What are the advantages of a small plate camera over the folding cameras discussed to date?  The front rise and shift are useful for perspective control when photographing buildings, but are not of significant help in most other settings.  Front tilt, of tremendous utility for control of depth of field, is absent.  What one does gain is the ability to focus accurately on the ground glass,  allowing composition without parallax.  Macrophotography can be carried out readily, and close focusing can be evaluated with accuracy.    Furthermore, the camera is relatively compact and easy to carry.  One significant advantage is that, if more than one film holder is available, one can switch readily between color and black and white film without carrying a second camera body.

Zeiss Tropen Adoro 1927-35

The Bergheil is a classic example of the 1920s small plate camera.  However, this format was extremely popular with advanced amateurs and professionals needing a compact, high quality camera.  As a result, this type of small plate camera was made in significant numbers by a large number of manufacturers, including Agfa, Zeiss, Kodak, Ihagee and Ica, and there are a large number on the used market on eBay today.

Rollex 120 Film Holder

Holders for 120 roll film can be purchased separately either on eBay (usually the least expensive option) or from various online stores.  These slide into the rear tracks that hold the ground glass and plate holders.  After focusing the image on the ground glass, one slides out the ground glass and viewing hood, and slides in the film holder.  After positioning the holder, the dark slide on the holder is removed, the exposure is made, and the dark slide is replaced.  Using the small red window located under the small sliding door on the back of the holder, the film is advanced, and the next exposure can be made in the same manner.

One cautionary note must be made for anyone considering purchasing an Agfa plate camera: Agfa’s famous (or infamous) “Green Grease.”  In the 1920s, Agfa lubricated its cameras with a clear grease that worked well at the time, but over the decades reacted with the brass fittings to form a material reminiscent of epoxy resin, efficiently cementing moving parts in place.  This can be washed out with diligent use of solvent from reachable elements such as focusing rails, but is extraordinarily difficult to remove from the helical focusing threads used on many Agfa plate cameras.  A variety of methods have been proposed for freeing frozen threads gummed up with polymerized deposits of this lubricant: online postings suggest that heat is probably the best option.

References:

“Agfa’s Green Grease.”  The Classic Camera Repair Forum. http://www.kyphoto.com/classics/forum/messages/15681/10484.html?1204729679

Wallage,  Peter.  “Peter’s Plate Camera Page.”  Online posting.  http://www.peterwallage.com/plate%20cameras.htm.