hip to be square

some photos from the voightlander (pity I can’t find my scanner cable – aw well)

the greater the distance the less the parallax problem

didn’t quite position as I wanted it but i like it anyway

some local swans. beautiful to look at but you don’t want to mess with these guys!

life through a twin lens

how I met my first voightlander

it all began about a year ago.  I was hankering after a holga after flicking through ‘life through a plastic lens’ a photo book of  holga shots.  The ones I’d found around town were more expensive than I was willing to pay for a plastic camera. 

I was repeating this to my mates dad knowing he likes photography too. He looked thoughful for a moment and disappeared up stairs. When he came back he handed me a leather case. “something like this?”

I could bearly speak.. I was in love. A tall standing metal camera. two lens mounted above each other and geared togeher in such an elegant solution to the focusing problem. the weight of it. the look of it. the only thing amiss was the mirror.  when looking down from above to see the mirror was quite rusted and need a while to figure out.

I was so intrigued I nearly didn’t hear the lineage. He had gotten it from a lady, long since passed, who had gotten it from her brother.  “Nice present” thought I ince it would have been quite a piece of kit in it’s day. But that wasn’t the end of it. Seems the brother had been a major in the british army and had gotten it from a german on D-Day.  I recoiled a bit at that point. It was ‘spoils of war’ then and I wasn’t sure how I felt about that. I know it was a different time but still..

I was still figuring my feelings when he said “we’re sending it to a museum. unless you want it? if it’s what your looking for?”. A MUSEUM?! to sit in a glass case doing nothing?! Never to be used again?! NO WAY. A camera deserves to fulfill it’s function for as long as it can. what I was looking for? I just turned to him and said “no. Its MUCH better!”

so he’s happy the camera is being used and I’m happy because I love to use it. you have to spend time with it. set it up. think it out. and when the photos come back after a week of impatient waiting they are a perfect square. 

thats were it began. my obession with antique cameras. its certainly not were it ends 🙂