Catch up

Geez it's been a while since I have blogged. I have been extremely busy but not really doing much. Work was busy and then I have been just too exhausted to do much else. So going through my photo diary I'll transcribe what I have written there.

general
Agfa Cadet trial was a failure.. Mostly do to my inept handling of the film. I needed more sticky tape.
My No1 Box Brownie needs a winder so I sourced a broken n2 Box brownie as a donor. This camera dates from 1904-1907 and uses sight lines on the top of the box for lining up your shot. It's as small as a bug!! I am constantly amazed at how tiny these boxes are and what lovely photos they produce 100 years later. As this on uses 117 film size I may be able to get 127 size to fit.

The Box Brownie Flash II Had issues last film in the winding the holes in the 120 spools where just too big for the winder.

2 May

My Birthday box filled with goodies arrived. It was filled with all sorts of goodies that I had collected from January to April in my US mailbox. 10kg of presents.
2X Diana Clones
1X Black mini
1x Box Brownie No3 though I have since decided to sell this one. The film size is 4.5 inches wide!! Unless I wind two 120s on one spool... :-(
1x Box Brownie special ( trapezoidal shape)
1x Valiant Six-20 folding camera with box light tight bellows. Very exciting
1x bag of film but from when I wanted high ASA so hmmm I'll sell most of this
Japanese film and some spools and a military bag that I wanted as a handbag. :-)
Several copies of Light leaks magazine. The only ones missed, I have as PDF anyway.
Brightened a low day I was now too busy to be depressed.

3 May
Mother got the mail today and so I woke up to a huge box and two smaller boxes. One had a pristine No2 Box brownie that I have dated to 1919. This works flawlessly and takes 120 without any need to re-spool. The awesome thing about this camera are the three apertures. Research tells me that they are f/11, f/16 and f/22 but some forums are telling me f/16, f/22 and f/32 I am inclined to use the first scale as my BBF2 is around f/11. The Brownies have a shutter speed of 1/35 to 1/50th of a second.
The other small Box has a pocket folding Kodak No1. This old camera is a little worse for wear, the red window was missing, the glass at the front of the spotter is missing and the bellows part is stuck to the film part. I spent some time priding the two parts apart and found a film! Gee. The Bellows tested as light tight.cool!!

4 May
Birthday spent totally alone. Don't ask.

5 May
After night shift, I went to Cape Banks. This is my healing place and the past few days have been emotionally very tough. I do manage but some days are harder than others.
I arrived before dawn and the sky was only beginning to lighten. The car park was filled with Rabbits who scattered as soon as my headlights hit them. Only one lone fox near the houses.
I sat in the car for a few minutes and watched the sky lighten a bit.
Leaving the warmth of the car, I headed for the cliffs. As I walked down the path, I felt my mood lighten My plan was originally to go to the little Island and watch the sun rise from there as the freight ships come into port, but as I reached the top of the cliffs, I saw the rock pools left over from high seas last night. Heading over to the edge, I found a dry spot for put my bag down and set up. I found a sheltered spot for the pin hole camera where it would not blow away and settled down with my 1946 folding Kodak to shoot the rock pools as the sun rose.
Finishing the roll, I stood and and turned to change cameras and was quite startled to see a fox sniffing my camera bag. Faster than I can lift the iPhone, he vanished. Thankfully without Any of my stuff.
Next camera out was the 1919 Box Brownie No2 this had an ASA 50 film in it a fact that I promptly forgot and forgot to time expose two frames (d'oh!!)

Cape Banks worked it's magic on my soul. And as the sun took full custody of the day, I was ready to go home. Next stop was Vision Image.

Vision Image was not too difficult to get to from Cape Banks but as I passed under the airport flyover, I spied a sign telling me that the airport tunnel had one lane closed. OH No!! The South/west traffic was as a stand. Hmmm

The Man at Vision Image looked oddly at my ancient films. After careful study, he offers me Caffenol processing for the old old colour films. Some films were e-22!!! The Japanese films were a no go They were just too small.
Disappointed about the Japanese films, we chatted about the others, two Pan-X and a kodacolor. He suggested that if I want them in colour then he could ship them to the states. Eep I don't want to mortgage my house for film developing so we agreed on the Caffenol route,

I headed home via Botany road Maccas and pulled in for a coffee and a toast or muffin. As I walked in, I spied a sign "NO EFTPOS" due to banking problems. Westpac had suffered a huge failure and across the city hundreds of businesses had no EFTPOS. For me it meant nothing to eat. I headed home via the princess hwy then the M5 and I was delighted that this way had not traffic WIN!!

Later In the day I headed to the PO where there was 2 expired films waiting for me. A back 120 roll and a 127 one.

The 4th was such a shitty, dark day and the 5th was a golden one. It figures eh?