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Thread: Pleased To Meet Ya

  1. #1

    Join Date
    Oct 2007
    Posts
    57

    Pleased To Meet Ya

    Hi

    I spent the 1980's completely immersed in photography, primarily LF. Besides my personal fave-love of B & W 'classic' contact printing, I also did a lot of commercial work, in all formats.

    What I learned from the commercial work is that photography quit being fun and became just more 'work.' So I quit doing photography professionally.

    But I always wanted to someday get back into LF, when circumstances permitted, using the simplest approach possible, a 'labor of love'. Just do it for myself, not for money.

    About a year ago at a flea market I found an old Korona VII folding-out-of-a-box 4 x 5 camera. It weighs almost nothing. I'm stripping the leather to reveal the nice wood underneath, which I'll finish (varnish, french-polish or oil) to match the lovely interior wood. It came with a lens--probably RR or early anastigmat, seems convertible, in a brass 'TBI' style shutter with air-cylinder shutter mechanism. I've also jerry-rigged a 127 ektar from a Crown Graphic on it, and that may become it's primary lens. The camera has a spring back. I'm 'modernizing' it--making sure the GG focus matches modern filmholder specs, etc.

    My intention is to use it for simple portraits, landscapes and 'LF street photography,' where shifts & bellows extension aren't needed.

    I also have a Crown Graphic, but TOO heavy & limited for what I need beyond the Korona. So I'll sell/trade it and get:

    1. a basic 5 x 7 (eastman 2-d, korona etc.) field camera, for when movements & longer bellows are desired.

    AND/OR:

    2. a 5 x 7 version of my little Korona folding-box camera (premo etc.). I love these 'LF in a box" things and they're easy to find. Also easy to repair, modify, maintain.

    I'm also interested in building wood LF field cameras from parts and/or scratch or a combination thereof.

    For the last 20 years I've made my living from painting...paintings, not houses! ....and also from music, mainly 'old time' style music. I've built two fiddles so making a simple wooden field camera doesn't seem so daunting!

    I found this forum a few days ago via web-surfing and have enjoyed wading the archives. Lots of info, good ideas, wit, links. people--and some really nice photos too!

    Due to both budget and inclination, I'm a fan of cheapo, found-at-the-flea-market older lenses, cameras and related what-not. in the past I owned several such lenses which made good images. Early Dagors, Protars, RR's, Turner-Reich etc.

    So I guess I'll be hunting down them darn things again!

    I plan to contact-print 4x5 & 5x7 b&w. I'm Interested in using litho film in-camera and developed for continuous-tone (I used to do graphic-arts darkroom work, so am familar with all the possibilities) and also various alternative processes.

    I live in New Jersey, along the Delaware river, about 30 miles north of Philadelphia.

    Some random fave photographers: Walker Evans/J. Sudek/George Tice/Berenice Abbott/W. Christenberry/Atget/Avedon's western LF portraits/J. Meyerowitz/S. Shore....many many more.

    Jane
    Last edited by janepaints; 7-Oct-2007 at 00:06. Reason: typos.

  2. #2
    Yes, but why? David R Munson's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jul 1999
    Location
    Saitama, Japan
    Posts
    1,494

    Re: Pleased To Meet Ya

    Welcome, Jane. This is a great community of photographers - still the best I've found in ten or more years being an online forum junkie. I hope you find this site and the people here as helpful as I and so many others have.

  3. #3
    wfwhitaker
    Guest

    Re: Pleased To Meet Ya

    Hi Jane and welcome. I think you'll find some similar interests here. It sounds like you have a lot of experience of your own to share.

    Some of your comments struck a personal chord. For one, I never pursued photography commercially for the same reason you left it. And, like you, I've found there are some neat old cameras out there which with a little work and ingenuity can be made to work very well with modern materials. I have a nice little Rochester Universal 5x7 which I modified to take Technika lensboards. At 3 1/2 pounds, it travels well. I also have an "LF in a box" old Conley 6 1/2 x 8 1/2 self-casing camera which has had its crusty old leather removed so it can be refinished into a working camera. The danger is that the projects get in the way of taking photographs!

  4. #4
    darr's Avatar
    Join Date
    Apr 2005
    Location
    The South
    Posts
    2,291

    Re: Pleased To Meet Ya

    Welcome Jane! I am familiar where you are from as I grew up in South Jersey along the Delaware for a while. This LF Community is the most informative and polite out there. It is always nice to welcome a fellow female.

    Kind Regards,
    Darr

  5. #5

    Join Date
    May 2000
    Location
    Tamworth, Staffordshire. U.K.
    Posts
    1,167

    Re: Pleased To Meet Ya

    Jane, welcome from the U.K. I'm sure that many of us will benefit from your experience. You're musical tastes sound good as well. I drove to London on Thursday to see The Old Crow Medicine Show and it was the best gig I'd been to for years. Keep fiddlin'.
    Pete.

  6. #6
    Moderator Ralph Barker's Avatar
    Join Date
    Sep 1998
    Location
    Rio Rancho, NM
    Posts
    5,034

    Re: Pleased To Meet Ya

    Welcome to the forum, Jane.

  7. #7
    Large format foamer! SamReeves's Avatar
    Join Date
    Sep 2006
    Posts
    1,214

    Re: Pleased To Meet Ya

    Welcome.

  8. #8

    Join Date
    May 2006
    Location
    Utah
    Posts
    214

    Re: Pleased To Meet Ya

    Welcome to the forum. You can't be too far from where I live.
    I'm also shooting about the same way you are...contact printing 4x5, 5x7 & 8x10. I also do a little bit of med format work but the sheet film is where I spend most of my time.

    If you're looking to set up a darkroom you need to go see Le Camera on route 1 near West Windsor/Princeton/Lawrenceville. They recently moved and are now in the shopping center where Wegmans/Target/Home Depot are. Lot's of used darkroom stuff (trays, timers, etc.) for great prices.

    Alan.

  9. #9

    Join Date
    Dec 2001
    Location
    San Joaquin Valley, California
    Posts
    9,599

    Re: Pleased To Meet Ya

    Welcome aboard!
    "I would feel more optimistic about a bright future for man if he spent less time proving that he can outwit Nature and more time tasting her sweetness and respecting her seniority"---EB White

  10. #10
    おせわに なります! Andrew O'Neill's Avatar
    Join Date
    Sep 2003
    Location
    Coquitlam, BC, Canada, eh!
    Posts
    5,136

    Re: Pleased To Meet Ya

    Welcome from Coquitlam, BC, Canada!

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