Box Brownie

I absolutely love shooting with antique cameras. There is a certain fun factor to shooting with cameras that were built many years ago.

The best part about most old cameras, is that these little buggers were built to last. Most digital cameras built these days are obsolete in two years, and non functioning in 10 years. What a shame.

I have had this little box camera in my collection for a while. It is a Kodak No. 2 Brownie Camera, Model D.

Cute little Box Brownie. Used but in nice condition.

The Box Brownie put the picture taking process into the hands of the masses. This particular Brownie uses the still readily available 120 size film, and creates eight 2 1/4" x 3 1/4" inch exposures per roll. It is a simple camera, but has almost everything you need to make some nice images. The shutter speed is about 60th of a second. There are three apertures, f11, 16 and 22 and a bulb setting to take extended exposures. The camera is a fixed focus camera, and takes images from about 6 feet to infinity. There is a close up adaptor for taking portraits, which I do not have, and it would allow the camera to make closer head and shoulder portraits.

The model D was produced from 1915 to 1917. The last patent date on the back of my camera is 1916, so that puts this camera right in the middle of the production run.

Here is more info on the camera:
http://www.browniecamera.nl/no_2_brownie_model_d_1915_1917.htm

The back of the camera opens, to reveal the model information and patent date.

The camera is very simple to use. You load the camera with film, key wind the film to the chosen exposure, and then push the shutter lever on the side to make the exposure. There are two waist level finders on the camera (for verticals and horizontal images) to allow you to sorta see what you will be taking a photo of. The little mirrors inside the finders are not as crisp as they once were, so the image isn't as easy to see as it could be. It does work pretty well though in lining up your subject.

A close up of the view you get from the horizontal finder on the camera..

I shot with an old expired roll of Tri-X I had in a drawer to test out the camera. Tri-X is a 400 asa film, which was unheard of back in 1916 when people were using this camera. Most "fast" film was still in the 25-50 asa range.

With the 60th of a second and 400 asa film, my light meter said that I should be good with f11 to f16 in open shade. And that is what I did.

After the eight test exposures I developed the film and was amazed to see that they were all pretty much properly exposed. Not bad for flip flop spring set shutter in a 95 year old cardboard camera!

Nice smooth skin tones. Amazing for a simple meniscus lens glued into a cardboard box. A little soft from center, but nice.

Soft all around, and a little soft off from the center sweet spot on the lens. But still a nice portrait.

My daughter Kalli is always eager to help out her dad, so she sat for a few portraits so that I could run the camera through the paces. I found the lens to be sharp in the center, and fall off to the edge.  I also found the pictures to be a little soft over all, which I guess is from the film not being perfectly flat inside the camera, and again the little glass lens that is glued in the front of the camera.

It was so much fun to use! I know I will definitely be making more portraits with this camera.

Vivian Maier: Street Photographer

Early last week I had the good fortune to have a day off of work and traveled to see the Vivian Maier exhibit at the Chicago Cultural Center. It was a perfect day to travel to the city. I drove up to the burbs and parked along the Burlington tracks, and took the Metra in to Union Station. The Cultural Center is a quick 1.5 mile walk from the station, and with all the energy in the Loop, you find yourself arriving there in no time.

 I was taking this photo when security stopped me :) There is no photography allowed at the exhibit. I don't think there is much to see here, so I figured I can get away with posting it.

The show was amazing! For those that don't know, Vivian Maier was an unknown photographer that took street images in Chicago and other urban areas in the 50's and 60's. She had other images, but  this is the predominant focus of her work. She was a nanny working for families in the Chicago area, and was a self taught street photographer.

Her images were sold at an auction and discovered by John Maloof. He has over 100,000 negatives, prints and rolls of undeveloped film by Ms. Maier as well as personal effects like news clippings, hats and her cameras as well.

This is the unfortunate tale of an artist: she was discovered only after she passed away in 2009. The body of work is immense, and with all the negatives, prints and undeveloped film left behind by Ms. Maier it will take years to figure out and decipher her life's work.

A blog that describes the discovery of her work can be found here.

A video about the discovery of the images can be found here:

http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=7297794n

I found her work to be on par with other great documentary photographers of the day. The fact that she was producing this work, and kept all the images to herself is quite amazing. There is an intimacy she has with her subjects. She took more than a photograph, she revealed  her subject's personality through the images she created.

I would highly urge anyone with the time to see this exhibit before it is finished on April 3rd. The web is a great place to see her work, but to see the prints in person is simply amazing.

A quote by Ms. Maier from the gallery flier sums it up: "We have to make room for other people. It's a wheel- you get on, you go to the end, and someone else has the same opportunity to go to the end, and so on, and somebody else takes their place. There's nothing new under the sun."

Maple Syrup at Forest Glen Nature Preserve

As family we traveled to Forest Glen Preserve near Westville on Sunday to see how maple syrup is made.

Forest Glen Preserve is the third largest producer of maple syrup in Illinois. They have staff on hand during this open house to explain how the sap from maple trees is boiled down and turned into syrup.

Today was just a demo, however, as the real syrup harvesting and boiling took place in February when the temperatures started to fluctuate above and then below freezing. This fluctuation is what makes the sap flow into the bags and buckets attached to maple trees throughout the preserve.

The first stop was the pancake and sausage dinner served in the Gannett Outdoor Education Center. Mmmmm giant plate sized pancakes served with butter and real maple syrup produced at the preserve!

After pancakes and sausage, we needed a walk, so we headed up the hill to the building where the maple sap is evaporated and made into maple syrup.

 

Inside the building they call the "sugar bush" staff was on hand to explain how maple syrup is made from the sap collected from the trees. An evaporator is stoked with cord wood, and allows the sap to evaporate off the water vapor and eventually turn into maple syrup. 

The syrup harvest was actually quite good this year, with over 150 gallons of syrup produced. Last winter, only 50 some odd gallons of syrup were able to be made, so it fluctuates from year to year depending on the  temperatures outside.

To give you an idea how much sap is needed to make syrup, the staff pointed to 55 gallon drums in the corner of the "sugar bush" building. It takes 43 to 50 gallons of sap to make one gallon of syrup! We were really amazed at the ratio.

 

 In and around the Forest Glen Preserve, the staff left up the buckets an bags from the last sap harvest to show how it is collected. This sap isn't any good for syrup making and was just for demonstration purposes. The bags are preferred over the buckets because they can be used for the season and then thrown away, as opposed to cleaning and storing all the buckets. There are some smart squirrels out there though, who have figured out how to nibble the corners of the bags and drink the sweet maple sap :) In one day, the staff said that the squirrels can undo that day's work through their craftiness. 

All in all it was a beautiful day to be outside, and we all learned a lot about syrup making. The best part was eating pancakes in the afternoon!

Model Mayhem!

I have a lot to accomplish this year! One of my goals  is to do more modern portrait work with my digital cameras as well as the wet plate process. As most of you that have had your images taken at living history events know, the process is an amazing combination of art, science and creativity. When the Gods are smiling and the timing is right, the work just sings.

Modern subjects just look cool in wet plate  :)

To try and network with more photographers and models, I joined  Model Mayhem in February, and I now have my very own MM number! MM# 2105260


I have a very small portfolio at the moment, since most of my work over the years is owned by the folks I used to work for. I plan on building up my images with both digital and wet plate work this year.

If anyone is interested in doing portrait work with me, let me know. I have to work my photography around my full time job, so my nights and some weekends are taken. I plan on having fun and making portraits this year, so just let me know if you are interested.

So enough of the snow already! Let's get some portrait work going!

steve