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Family gathering, Kodak Instamatic Reflex


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Folks,

 

I just got back a roll (cartridge, really) of film which I shot using

my old Kodak Instamatic Reflex. I love that old camera! Wonderful

lenses and accessories--too bad Kodak pulled the plug on their 126

film. At least Ferrania is soldiering on with it.

 

This photo is from Christmas 2003 (yikes, I left that roll in the

camera WAY too long!) when my family and my brother-in-law's

grandparents all had Christmas dinner at my humble abode.

 

When I got my prints back from the local Wal-Mart send-off service,

they were full-frame square, but they cropped a bit of the image area

(about 1mm all the way around the negative), leaving my grandmother

(foreground left) with only her nose and one eye. I knew I composed

better than that, and a quick check of the negs confirmed that, so I

took them to work today and scanned this on the old UMAX Mirage II

flatbed (no dedicated film scanner here).

 

The picture is a poignant reminder to me of how fragile life is: my

brother-in-law's grandfather, third person back on the right, passed

away only three months after this photo was taken. Sadly, he is the

only one not looking at the camera!

 

(I'm the goofy guy in the plaid shirt leaning forward, 3rd person

back on the left.)

 

Instamatic Reflex, 1/300 sec. (default X-sync speed on these

cameras), 28mm Schneider-Kreuznach lens, tripod, Ferrania Solaris

200, Vivitar 2000 (bounce flash).

 

--Micah in NC<div>00Ah4X-21251884.jpg.f40212915214f8063b679121397445e3.jpg</div>

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By the way,

 

In case anyone wonders how I tripped the shutter since the Instamatic Reflex's do not have self-timers, I used an even older piece of Kodak gadgetry: the clockwork Kodak Self Timer which fits on the end of a standard old-style cable release and squeezes it as a photog. would in 5-15 seconds (adjustable).

 

See Mr. Mangum's page:

http://www.nwmangum.com/Kodak/AutoRelease-1.html

 

--Micah in NC

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that is the spirit, Frank, or did I miss the humour, all my fault.

 

but I wonder if it is potato and egg salad? which tends to the yellow end of the spectrum

 

Micah, I enjoyed the story and the photo. regards, Bill

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Folks,

Thanks for the nice comments! That's not potato salad--it was a bowl of macaroni, I think (bad scanning technique on my part).

 

Garry, that's my sister, Jessica. She was about 21 when this was taken. She HATES having her picture made. I think the noisy, buzzing Kodak Auto-Release (I told you folks the wrong name of the gadget in first post) startled her.

 

And, silly me, that was THANKSGIVING, not Christmas. It was 2003, though.

 

--Micah in NC

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