Steve Maniscalco Photography

Three Brownies

I did get the three brownies out over the weekend and managed to burn 3 rolls of film pretty quick. It's a funny looking arrangement and I was stopped twice by people wondering what the heck I was doing with three cameras at a time.

The results did not quite live up to my hopes. It seems the camera I had on the right side had a very dirty little plastic lens. It was so dirty that those shots just don't look like they belong with the shots from the other two cameras. Now, I'm not really objecting to the crappy images. It's just that all three images need to be at about the same level of crappy to make a decent looking tryptych...for my tastes anyway.

So, I'm left with two choices; clean the dirty lens or dirty the clean lenses.  I went for the cleaning option as having more predictable results.

The other thing I learned from this run is that perhaps a wider angle of coverage...a greater angle between the cameras...would be a better look.  There is just a bit too much overlap on these images.

Here's an example of what I came out with. I think you can see that the concept has something going for it, now I just need to make the execution right.

Catching Up a Bit

When it takes so long between posts, I usually start off with some reason/excuse. I think I'll skip that this time. 

Projects:

Just finished putting this little contraption together and I hope go get some film through it this weekend. The idea here is to be able to take 3 simultaneous (nearly) shots at three slightly different angles. I'm thinking tryptych here, but stitched panos are a possibility as well.

Yep, that's 3 brownie hawkeye flash cameras, mounted about 15 degrees apart, locked and loaded, ready to go.
 Brilliant idea or flop waiting to happen? Time will tell, and I'll show the results either way.

General Business:

I just ordered a 43mm lens for my Mamiya 7. That camera is turning in to my 80% solution. If the 80mm lens was faster, it'd be at 90%.
 $1200 for a used lens...most I've ever spent on any single thing related to photography. I know it's a great lens, let's just hope I get along well with it.

I sold most of my 4x5 lenses, leaving myself only a minimal large format capability. I know I didn't give it very much time, but it's just obvious to me that I don't have the time to devote to large format. It's a shame really.

Been tweeting quite a bit lately. I've found some good photo folks to follow and have over 100 legit followers myself now. Still looking for more film photographers and alternative process folks to follow. Point them out to me if you know of them and follow me on twitter.

A Brownie in Flagstaff

We took a short trip up the mountains from Phoenix to Flagstaff this weekend. We like to go once in the Summer to escape the heat, and once in Winter to see the snow. I got a couple of hours to wander this small college/western town and take pictures.  My Brownie Hawkeye Flash had half a roll in it, so I dropped it in the bag with the Mamiya 7.

That one element plastic lens does a pretty good job.  Using a camera like this will teach you a valuable lesson about exposure.  The camera has one aperture and one shutter speed.  You point it and snap the shutter.

As usual, this is FP4 developed in Thornton's 2-bath formula.

I've Flipped...or, Fun With Brownies

In this case, I've flipped a lens...on my Brownie Hawkeye Flash.

Once again, drafting my son for the job.  He is apparently the only human being willing to sit in front of a camera for me.

 

At least Penny helps out now and again.

Test Shots

Ok, let's be honest.  If these shots were brilliant, I wouldn't be calling them "Test Shots."  I'd be waxing poetic (to the best of my limited abilities) over the qualities of the film and camera.  But, fact is, these are pretty much quick crap I shot to determine how this particular camera would perform.

The camera is an old Kodak Brownie Hawkeye Flash.  I bought a couple of these for very little money as "toy cameras."  They've been tons of fun and I'm sure I'll get some good images out of them when the opportunity presents itself.  In the mean time though, I'm limited to sitting the kid down in the front yard and shooting a roll from various distances to determine exactly how far away I have to be for a decently sharp image.

For these shots, I added the Kodak #13 close-up attachment I was lucky enough to find for a few bucks on ebay.  As always, my younger (more patient) son was glad to help.  Ok, I think he got some Wii time for his trouble...still I appreciate his efforts.

First shot from 4 feet.  This looks to be about as sharp as it gets.

 

Next shot from 5.5 feet.  You can see that we've lost a bit.

 

Of course, I could have just looked this up at the Brownie Camera page.  Heck, the .pdf of the manual says between 3 and 4.5 feet for the Hawkeye with the #13 attachment.  So, all I've really done here is burn a roll of film to verify what Kodak could have told me 50 years ago.  Of course, may way is more fun.

I have 2 of these little wonder cameras (often available on ebay for a buck or two plus shipping).  I've flipped the lens on the other one.  That gets you a little closer focus and produces a pretty interesting effect on everything no centered in the frame.  I'll shoot a test roll on that one soon...maybe even with the #13 attached. Close up and flipped.  Should be interesting.    

Mystery Solved

Did you ever wonder how your Dad managed to take such horrible pictures on Christmas day?  Well, if you grew up in the 60's, like I did, I think I've solved that one.

These abominations were taken with a Kodak Brownie Super 27.  A plastic fantastic camera that looks like a 110 format rectangle but upsized to take 127 film (I need to get pictures of this thing and post them).

So, Efke 100iso film with flashbulbs.

 I appologize.

 

 

Brownie With Flash

Fun shot of the day...Brownie Hawkeye Flash.

Burned an actual blue flash bulb for this one.  It's a neat experience, shooting with an old flash.  The sound and smell are unique and, if you're old enough, nostalgic.

I've got a few set ups like this.  I like the feeling of making new snaps just the same way people made snaps 50 or 60 years ago.  It could be a flash bulb Christmas.