Forgotten Camera: Matthew Robertson

By Matthew Robertson
(click on either image to see it larger)

"Remember APS film, that revolutionary consumer-friendly wide-screen format?

"Ten years ago I bought my first 'serious' camera, a first-generation Canon Elph, and loved the ease of use that it gave me. But I wasn't a photographer, or even a snapshooter. The roll of film that I would develop in the summer would have Christmas photos on it. I was cheap, and it was expensive. If I was ambitious I'd shoot three rolls of film a year, mostly photos of my dog, and my one attempt at getting artistic was buying a few rolls of B&W film. It turns out that I had one of them left.

"Getting out my fancy APS compact camera has been eye-opening. I'm astonished at how little has changed between cameras then and now, and just how bad a little camera it was. Is. But it was fun to run a roll of film through it, and now I'm looking to add a 35mm SLR to my collection of tools.

"Technical details: Canon IX240 Elph, APS B&W film, probably ISO400, and about five years past its expiry date."

Matthew Robertson
Toronto, Canada

Share this posting with a friend

Personal Favorite: Jim Kofron

Noah and Boo, by James L. Kofron
(click on image to see it larger)

"This is a photo that I love. Taken with the Sigma SD10, at ISO 400, with the Sigma 30mm ƒ/1.4 EX lens (one of my first shots with that lens). I had just acquired this lens, and was taking a few fun shots around the house. My son was sitting at an end table, working on some homework (note the Gameboy in the lower left of the frame). One of our cats was sitting patiently on the chair with him. I snapped off a series of four shots. The Sigma isn't known for high quality photos under these conditions (underexposed, incandescent, ISO400), and there was some of the typical color noise associated with these shots. What is less appreciated about this sensor is the fact that B&W conversions come out very nice—this was done in Lightzone. The cat was in deep shadow, so I pulled that part of the photo up slightly.

"I love the play of light from the lamp, the lighting around Noah (nearly angelic), and then the 'Cheshire cat' effect of Boo in the background. This came out much better than what I originally visualized it would look like. It makes a great print as well!"

Share this posting with a friend

Photographing Pets: Stephen Scharf

Lucky by Stephen Scharf
(click on image to see it larger)

"This is my cat, Lucky. As I am unmarried and presently unattached, he's also my principal companion. He's about three years old; I am not sure of his exact age because I adopted him about a year ago from a rescue agency. Lucky is the first cat I've owned since my previous cat, Eddie, who was one of the great loves of my life, passed away from complications arising from FIV (the feline equivalent of HIV). I grieved Eddie's passing for an entire year, and almost to the day a year later, I found Lucky. He's added a great deal to my life after Eddie's passing, and one of my daily joys is to arrive home from work and find Lucky waiting for me, meowing his hellos. He's a vocal cat, affectionate, intelligent, and very interactive and social. He keeps me company wherever I go in the house.

"I took this portrait of Lucky in indirect window light one sunny morning with my Fuji F31fd point-and-shoot: ƒ/2.8, 1/40th second, at ISO 800. Lucky was sitting on top of his very tall cat scratching post. Normally, Lucky is a very sweet, affectionate, cat, but when cats get in this high position above their "prey," their predatory instincts come to the fore and they can become quite aggressive. Lucky was in such a mood when I took this, and he is trying to belt me with his left paw as I took the picture. I had to be really careful because he has claws like a velociraptor, and could have really shredded me if he had gotten a hold of me.

"I really like this portrait because of Lucky’s very engaging and direct look. It captures very clearly one dimension of who he is, a predator with instincts intact. One of the advantages of always having a point and shoot around is that you can very quickly take advantage of photographic opportunities like these. If I had to go and dig out my big DSLR and slap a lens on, I doubt I would have gotten this shot. The low noise at high ISO performance of the F31 let me take this shot at available light; using flash would have not resulted in the very engaging look he is giving me in this portrait."

Share this posting with a friend

Forgotten Camera: Matjaž Lužnik

My Mother's Flowers, by Matjaž Lužnik
(click on either image to see it larger)

This is my second "Forgotten Camera" post.

This is a second camera. It is an Altissa Altix-n and it was produced in the 'Sixtes in East Germany. I got it by chance; my friend was cleaning a storage room in his house and he wanted to throw it away....

It's a nice little camera, perfect for point-and-shoot and for street photography. It's all manual (exposure, focus by manual metering distance), but in sunny day you only use the "sunny 16" rule, set it on hyperfocal distance and shoot...It has very nice sharp lens Mayer-Optic Görlitz 50mm ƒ/2.9. You could buy also 35mm and 90mm lenses.

I simply love this camera. Most of the time I shoot black and white film, which I develop in my bathroom and then scan on my scanner. But this photo is some kind of exception; I was shooting colored film (Fuji superia 1600), developed in local lab. The subject, it's my mother's flowers in front of my house.

Matjaž Lužnik
Slovenija, European Union

Share this posting with a friend

Photographing Pets: Greg Christie

Cadfael, by Greg Christie
(click on image to see it larger)

"This English Cocker Spaniel was surrendered (or rather dumped) at a Sydney shelter because of age (9.5 yrs) and chronic arthritis. He was overweight, had a couple of bad warts and could hardly walk. The law here permits to the shelter to put a dog to sleep after only two days in the case of an owner surrender (dumping). This guy was given only those two days. I have never seen a dog in such physical distress as I did that day. Needless to say I brought him home. We got him on medication, reduced his weight, cleaned up some bad warts and treated his arthritis. Now he bounds around with our other rescues like a puppy. So he can spend the rest of his years with us. This photo shows how happy he is."

"To take this photo Lynne held a treat while I got on the floor. With dogs you really need to be at their level. I bounced flash off the ceiling to avoid reflections in their eyes which are can be very difficult edit out. It was taken with a Pentax 18–55mm kit lens on a Pentax *ist D."

Share this posting with a friend

Personal Favorite: Michael Douglas

By Michael Douglas
(click on image to see it larger)

"Several years ago, my kids and I walked down to the beach to play in the sand. We live only a few blocks away, so it was an easy walk for my (then) 1-year-old son and 3-year-old daughter. I had brought along my 35mm point-and-shoot, hoping to get a couple of snapshots of them playing together.

"We walked down the steps to the beach, me carrying my son and holding my daughter's hand. Once we reached the bottom, I looked at my son and saw that he had fallen fast asleep in my arms.

"I hadn't brought a towel or any kind of shade, and I didn't want to just drop him on the sand, so I was forced to keep him in my arms. I was determined to get a few pictures, though. I shot through a roll, holding the camera awkwardly in my off hand while balancing an increasingly heavy toddler on the other arm. When I dropped the film off at the developer, my expectations were pretty low.

"Later, flipping through the pictures, I saw the unsurprising results. Blurry, wildly tilted horizon, limbs cut off, etc. But at the end of the roll, there was this one, perfect, miraculous image. Years (and several thousand dollars worth of equipment) later, this awkwardly shot photo is still my favorite."

Share this posting with a friend

Forgotten Camera: Robin Pywell

La Rochelle, by Robin Pywell
(click either image to see it larger)

"I buy and sell old cameras on eBay regularly and this happened to be my most recent purchase when the Forgotten Camera challenge was first posted. It's from the 'sixties, before Japanese camera makers became multinational corporations and cameras often bore their importer's names (remember Honeywell Pentax for example?). This is a Rank Aldis rangefinder, based on a Mamiya 4B but modernised to include a CDS sensor and built in Korea to keep the price down. (Click here for more information.)

"The camera was a joy to use but the uncoated lens does colour shots no favours and even lends B&W a quaint, old-fashioned look. My sample image was taken on holiday and is probably the type of tourist 'record shot' that the original owner bought the camera for.

"A great reminder that eBay is a losers game—I bought the camera for £5.99 ($12) and despite advertising it as 'film tested' sold it for £4.99!"

Robin Pywell
Gloucestershire, England

Share this posting with a friend

Photographing Kids: Kate Sommers

Luke by Kate Sommers
(click on picture to see it larger)

"This little guy was the first person I was ever paid to photograph. He was such a joy to work with and I have since become really fond of family and children photography. His name is Luke and as his mother is pregnant she wanted some pictures to remind Luke that one day he was actually an only child. I approached Luke as a silly adult that did things his parents would never do, and I really wanted to capture his personality. I set my camera's (D200) white balance to Direct Sunlight and used my 50mm lens for almost all of the pictures in the shoot. Thanks to Luke's pictures my business has grown exponentially. I will always value my pictures of Luke, and hope his parents will too."

Share this posting with a friend

Forgotten Camera: Andrew Dawson

Juno beach, Courseulles sur Mer, Normandy, by Andrew Dawson
(click on either image to see it larger)

"I started out photography 'proper' with a battered Zenit EM from eBay (complete with fuzzy, glue-striped pentaprism and musty smell), so I guess it was inevitable I would end up with another Russian camera to show me the way into medium format...at least this one looked like a Hasselblad though!

"The Salyut was a bit of a tricky beast; it arrived DOA, which is never a very good sign, but I decided to persevere and sure enough, second time around it arrived in (not quite) full working order, which was obviously a vast improvement. Full of optimism for my shiny new medium format camera, I took it on its first trip out where it promptly returned to form, the strap eyelets falling out of the body before I had even taken a shot. Not to be deterred from its mission to distance itself from its haughty Swedish cousin, it made noises like it was breaking every time I wound the shutter (though I was later told this was quite normal), scratched my film if I didn't load it just right and now and again reverted to its 'originally shipped' role and played dead.

"That said, when it was working it was an absolute joy and on that trip and on subsequent outings I've taken some of my best photographs with it; I've even managed to perfect the reassuring smile which you give to those people clambering out of the nearest 'cover' thanks to the rifle-crack shutter. Good stuff!

"The photograph above is a shot I took on the Salyut's first trip out."

Andrew Dawson
Staffordshire, U.K.

Share this posting with a friend

Forgotten Camera: Jerry Thirsty

Madison Skyline, by Jerry Thirsty
(click on either image to see it larger)

"The Graphic View II was my first view camera. I brought it out of retirement for this. Still gotta dig the red bellows and Art Deco-ish detailing. The special mount is a PITA though; it only does pitch and yaw, so to adjust the third axis you either have to fiddle with the tripod legs or add another tripod head underneath. Here's a picture of the Madison skyline, shot on Kodak E100SW with either the Caltar-II 90mm or the Caltar-II N 135mm."

Jerry Thirsty
Madison, Wisconsin

Share this posting with a friend

Photographing Kids: Manish Bansal

Smile, by Manish Bansal
(click on image to see it larger)

"Taken in Bangalore, India, with an Olympus C-760UZ camera.

"This girl belonged to a poor family of basket weavers, living on the outskirts of Bangalore. I was taking a photo of their tattered hut when she came running and stood in front of the camera. She was wearing a worn out and patched dress. As I started clicking, all the other kids joined her and I ended up taking about 100 pictures. After each shot, the kids would come running to see the photo on the camera's LCD and then running back to pose again.

"I took about 200 pictures that day but this one has stuck in my mind; that serene look, that sense of contentment. Whenever I feel low, one look at this image is enough to cheer me up."

Share this posting with a friend

Forgotten Camera: Roy Hammans

"Back in the 1970s I owned a Rollei 35S LED but we got separated, along with my then-wife and I, in 1980.

"Figuring that perhaps the reliability of LEDs after 30+ years may not be so good, I sought out a straightforward 35S in a moment of nostalgic yearning a few years ago. In 2002 I acquired this one through eBay.

"Shown with an English pound coin, the 35S was one of the smallest full-frame 35mm cameras ever made and has a truly remarkable Sonnar ƒ/2.8 lens that is razor-sharp.

"This particular one has an interesting provenance too. I bought it from Ian Hamer, one of the U.K.'s leading jazz trumpeters who sadly died in 2006. We had quite a lengthy correspondence due to the camera shutter not functioning below 1/30th second when I received it. Ian very kindly took it back, had it fixed and returned it to me. He told me in the course of our correspondence that he had used the camera for nearly 30 years to photograph, amongst many other things, the leading jazz musicians that he worked with during that era. I feel honoured to own this particular example, and try to take it on regular excursions alongside (or even occasionally instead of) my Nikon digital.

"The most recent snap that made it to print was taken this year at The Tate Modern Gallery in London. Even with Ilford Delta ISO 3200 film in it, the wondrous lens quality shows through."

Roy Hammans

By Roy Hammans
(click on either image to see it larger)

Share this posting with a friend

Photographing Kids: Dwayne Davis

Hayden, by Dwayne Davis
(click on image to see it larger)

"This is a photo of my son, Hayden, taken with my Canon Digital Rebel and its built-in flash. I am strictly an amateur. As for approach, I use the motor-drive feature with my kids because they tend to pose with unnatural smiles. In this case he was playing with his siblings and hamming it up for the camera when I started shooting, so I kept going until I got a truly genuine smile from him. This photo may not have a lot of technical merit but the subject means a lot to me, and I like the non-standard angle and pose in this case, and there is something about seeing his face mostly from one side that appeals to me."

Share this posting with a friend

Forgotten Camera: Bill Bresler

Forgotten Elvis, by Bill Bresler
(click on either image to see it larger)

"The camera is a Balda Super Baldax, a sweet little German 120 folder with rangefinder focusing. It was made in 1955, the year I was born, and yes, I'm bald."

Bill Bresler
Livonia, Michigan

Share this posting with a friend