doug grosjean

The pregnancy bump in the Rollei photo is now a 4-year-old boy named Phoenix.  We have a 2-year-old daughter named Lilith.  And are expecting another daughter in April.  Playing with film in a dark room was much cheaper.

I've had a couple Ciro-Flex cameras.
They always tend to come to me a bit neglected.
I like the simple industrial build quality.
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You can make a focusing screen.
Take the old one, measure thickness, length, width.
There are acids to etch it, or you could have one side sandblasted.
I went the acid route.
Then install it.
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If you've no way to measure, go to a glass & mirror supply company with the glass in hand.
Let them measure and cut a new piece for you.
Then you're just left with the acid etching.
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I also like the simplicity of the Ciro-Flex.

Nobody needs photography, the way they need air & water.
But if it gives the photographer joy to share their work?
And if it gives the recipient joy to look at the shared photos?
There's no harm, and at least 2 people are happier for it.
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For me, personally?
Wife & I shoot weddings.
Potential clients may not need to see our photos.
But I suspect we'd have fewer clients if we didn't share.
Our relatives don't really need to see photos of our toddlers.
But when we visit face to face, they thank us putting them online for them.
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Do people still do what's best for themselves, even if a self-proclaimed experts says there's no need?
I certainly hope so.

On 10/31/2022 at 5:15 PM, glen_h said:

I haven't tried to keep track, but it seems to me that all forums are less active than before.

CMC is one of my favorite to read, though I don't post so much in it.

 

It might be that there is a delay while people get used to the new system.

 

 

Facebook format has sort of steamrolled right over most forums.
It's not just here; it's forums on every subject.
I suspect Facebook domination more than the update is the cause of lower volumes.

Old school.
Kodachrome slide film.
1988 whitewater slalom racer.
South Bend, Indiana.

 

I'd be more likely to participate in this forum, if I was shooting more film.
Nowadays, my wife & I mostly shoot it on family vacations.
Her film camera of choice is a Holga, mine a Widelux.
Processing & scanning are getting to be a challenge for us.
We have plenty of film in the fridge.

The 2 things to keep in mind:

1. How good is your phone?

2. What is your goal with the photo?

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Like the original poster, I also have a few cameras. Maybe a dozen or more. They range from a 1900 Kodak Panoram (swing lens panoramic box camera) to Rolleiflex TLR to film & digital SLRs, to a cheap compact submersible digital. I also use a GoPro on my bicycle to record 50 MPH descents and police stops for speeding. My "phone" is a tablet from 2017.

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Typically the subject determines which camera will be used.

A wedding will be digital SLR, mine matches my wife's.

A wedding would be challenging with my tablet.

Our toddler swimming will be submersible digital.

So will nude maternity photos in the pool.

Star trails requiring 8-hour exposure will be 1950s 120 roll film camera.

Family vacations are shot on dSLR, a Holga, and a Widelux.

Photo of a broken part at day job will be on tablet.

It's the easiest way to get an image that I can email.

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For most people, a camera phone is enough.

Stray too far from typical scenes with typical light, and It's not.

Northwest Ohio Oilman

Lovely.. what an odyssey Doug! We change. we develop, good that you've got a gig doing something that you intimately love .. . I do love the wide look.. well done.. Remind us about the technical details.. also the film/dev etc

 

Hi Chuck,

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Thanks!

Chuckling at the term Odyssey.... I was also car-free for 10 years, and that ended with the purchase of an Odyssey van for hauling children.

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The Widelux is a very simple camera to use.

The 28mm lens is housed in a turret on a vertical axis.

The turret has a vertical slit in the backside, and film is on a curved film plane.

The turret rotates from left to right during exposure, painting the image as it goes.

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Focus is fixed at about 11', and you control depth of field with the aperture.

F2.8 to F11, on a stepless dial on top of camera.

3 shutter speeds: 15, 125, 250.

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I typically used Kodak Tmax 100 in it on a sunny day, and just standard developing,

So these were sunny, probably F11 at 125.

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WIth focus fixed at 11', it helps to include some foreground to make the image look sharper than it really is.

And usually, due to the width, I like to put some sort of bookends at each end in the composition.

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That's all there is to it.

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I've sometimes used the Widelux at weddings too.

But given that I no longer have a scanner, we can't offer those images quickly.

So we don't push it, but I'd sure like to.

Minor Correction:

Wash Day in Victorian Era was Monday.

Just Googled it.

As mentioned above, it wasn't my job, so it's not burned into my memory like plowing or butchering.

As part of Living History, and in keeping with the Victorian Era, each day was a particular chore.

This is Wash Day, which if I recall correctly, was Tuesday.

As farmer, not a farmhouse lady, this was not my job.

We farmers washed our own clothes at home in the modern world.

But there were plenty of things to wash anyway.

Dish towels, wash cloths, etc.

 

Widelux FV.

The Kitchen Garden, at Firestone Farm, at Greenfield Village.

This is where the heirloom dinner items were grown.

In the first photo above, the garden is far right, starts where the white paint on fence ends.

Sadly, in the wake of Covid, the Noon Dinner Meal is no longer part of the experience.

The farmers there are not happy about that.

Man, the food was great.

Now I'm drooling....

 

A blast from the past:

Widelux FV photos of Firestong Farm from about 2009.

Firestone Farm was boyhood home of Harvey Firestone.

He left the farm and founded Firestone Tire & Rubber.

He ended up Henry Ford's friend.

When Ford sold 15,000,000 Model T's, Firestone supplied the tires.

Both men ended up rich.

And the families intermarried.

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The farm was located in Columbiana County, Ohio.

East side of the state.

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In 1985, it was relocated to the Henry Ford Museum.

It was set on 9 acres of land in Greenfield Village.

Greenfield Village is the living history portion of the Ford Museum.

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In 2013, I worked on this farm for 1 year: March 2013 to February 2014.

Plowing with horses, shearing sheep, milking cows, planting, harvesting.

And animal husbandry, lambing, butchering pigs.

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Brutally physical work, just like they said in the interview.

But they fed us, as much as we could eat.

Every noon dinner meal was like a Thanksgiving feast.

1880s recipes cooked on a coal stove, using heirloom crops.

And recipes from an 1880s cookbook.

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As luck would have it, that was the snowiest year on record for this area.

It didn't look this nice in winter.

I shiver a bit recalling it even now, almost 10 years later.

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I loved it there, but I left.

I left the farm for the same reason everybody leaves farming:

A lot more money for a lot less work elsewhere.

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In my case, I moved on to a mechanic's position in HOM department at Village.

Historic Operating Machinery, caring for all the vintage gear in daily use.

Weaving looms, windmills, grist mills, carousel, high-wheel bikes.

Horse-drawn farm equipment, horse-drawn carriages.

In that department, at a belt-drive machine shop, in 2016, I met my future wife Katie.

Katie is also a photographer, also likes to shoot film.

And now we have 2 young children together.

We are photographing weddings together on weekends (digital).

And the rest is a story for a different time & place.

 

My father, who owned his own auto repair shop for the last 30 years of his working life, always joked that when a product with a lifetime guarantee failed: "Well, I guess that was its life then!"

Tangent:

The daughter my wife was carrying in photos was born on February 11, and came home on the 13th. Mom & baby doing well. A baby girl, Lilith Rose, weighing 6 pounds 15 ounces. Sorry for modern photo.

A hike below the rim, on Bright Angel Trail in Grand Canyon.

November 2020

Jerome, Arizona

About ruins.

New Mexico

My very own first camera would be an Olympus XA, purchased at Labelle's department store in Tempe, Arizona after graduating from motorcycle mechanics school in Phoenix. I still have it. It's been to top of Pike's Peak, bottom of Grand Canyon, above the Arctic Circle. Works well; taught me a lot.

Montezuma's Castle

Camp Verde AZ

Red Rocks State Park

Sedona AZ

Abandoned motel at Glen Rio TX.

On TX / NM border along old Route 66.

 

To answer the original question, it depends on who you're asking about.

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If you ask my wife, It matters a lot. She has a degree in photography, and my skills (and other traits) caught her eye when we were co-workers at the Henry Ford Museum. We started a wedding photography business which has gone well (other than Covid), and she enjoys being photographed as we expect our second child in 10 days.

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Customers?

Matters a lot to them.

They want to look their best.

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Our families?

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Her family has several skilled photographers with a solid understanding of the basics. They do it for fun. They are glad we have managed to make some money with it & have fun.

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My family is glad to have me documenting everyday family life. My father passed away in 2018 at 88, and he loved having me along on day trips in his Model T Ford, snapping away. A photo collage at his funeral was mostly my work, and I was honored.

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My siblings are more likely to think: "If he's taking pictures, then at least he's not riding motorcycles."

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But I take cameras on motorcycle trips, bicycle trips, whitewater trips.

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In the end, does it matter? You're not playing piano in a whorehouse when you are using your camera.