hold•life•still
If you have had a Tim Rice Photo business card in the last five years or so, you might recall they are photos of cameras. Well, time to order some sew cards, so I grabbed some cameras for a shoot. One of these will be the front of all the cards while the other four will take turns making up the backside. Pretty cool, I can order different card designs in the same batch. Moo for the win again.
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A recent addition to the wall of cameras, a Herco Imperial 620 Snap Shot. Introduced in 1955, manufactured in Chicago, fixed f11 aperture and 1/60 shutter speed.
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I have been collecting cameras since 1996. I bought a One Hour Photo lab in June of that year, with it came about a dozen old cameras that were decorating the shop. I made a display in the window, next thing I knew people would drop off old cameras they did not want, in hopes I would add it to the window. Years later when I sold the shop, I packed the cameras up and put them in storage. Still picking more and more up, flea markets, relatives, friends, pretty sure every visit to Brimfield Fair adds at least one to the collection a year. Some would be on my dresser, a couple of shelves in the house would hold my grandfather and uncle’s cameras, but most were still in storage. Then I built the barn, the first thing I did was make some quick shelves and dug all the cameras out of hiding and they were all in one place for the first time. Those who have visited the studio might have seen the original display. Nothing special it was never meant to be permanent. So with some unexpected downtime, here is the newly built camera collection wall, and today happens to be National Camera Day.
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The second round of photographing my collection. Some favorites in here. I always loved the look of this the Nikkormat – a Nikon “light” camera that Nikon produced for consumers, not pros. My workhorse of a camera the Nikon D700, one of the best cameras ever made. MY Nikon D80, my first real dive into digital SLRs. My first real camera the Pentax K1000, and my Grandfathers Canon AE-1, just a classic camera, and his Argus. Which is at the top of the list of favorite cameras. It an awesome ranger finder that is just a brick, square, sharp, dials, and class. I named my dog after it. Plus, some others that I have picked up over the years. Still, plenty more to go. You can check out round one here.
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The Polaroid SX-70 is one of my favorite cameras. The design is so cool, collapses to a small brick, but when expanded, the lines are intriguing. It looks like it is never fully open. It was produced primarily in the ’70s, 1972 to 1981. I just found out today it was nationally released in the fall of 1973 – just like me. I have a few in my collection. This one is an SX-70 Alpha, and I have an SX-70 Sonar. Both were given to me recently for my mini camera museum I have in my studio. (Thanks Sean) When I was a kid, I read that they were used on the SkyLab by astronauts to document the sun. which fascinated me. My neighbor had one on his shelf, and I loved looking at it, he let me open and close it a few times – simple things to impress a kid.
The one below, well, that is a different story. A Kodak Disc 4000 camera, not the jewel of my collection and one of many Disc Cameras I have. I had this very model as a teenager. It was bad. The good news was it fit in your pocket, bad news people took it out and shot photos with it. I used this camera on my trip to Plimoth Plantation. I still have the prints they are just as bad now as they were then. I found online that the original price was listed at $66, there is no way my parents paid 66 dollars for this camera, so I am chalking that up to don’t believe the internet. The SX-70 went for $180 (over $1000 in today’s money), and in good shape, they are still worth decent cash. They have a huge cult following and can still be used with some very expensive film. The disc camera makes a very nice door stopper.
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Silly Kodak, Instamatics are for Polaroid.
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Spent sometime this morning at NEC taking headshots for a great group of people.
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I have seen a variety of floating objects in photos for years, and recently I ran across one that had a camera floating and thought it was pretty cool looking. Now I am unpacking the studio. I have built some shelves to house my camera collection, pushing fifty on display with more to be found and added. So why not start a series of camera photos since I have easy access to them for the first time in decades. This one is a 1940’s Kodak 35 Range Finder, one of the first 35mm cameras Kodak manufactured in the states.
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Another addition to the old camera family, this time a Brimfield Faire find from last month. A 1950s Kodak Signet 35, with 44mm lens. This thing is solid, another brick like camera, rangefinder, the most interesting thing I could find about this one is the price, in the 50’s it went for $95, which in today’s money would be an $830 camera. That is a significant investment. Still in working order, but on the dirty side, needs a good cleaning. The red circle Kodak emblem is my favorite version of their marketing. If you want to know more about this one you can read a great entry about it on Camerapedia.
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Taking photos.
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The Hawkeye.
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There is a list in my kitchen of possible names for the new pup. Radar, Wilbur, Basil Fawlty, Finnegan, Toby Flenderson, Grizzly Adams, Vedder, Weegee, Quinn, David Bowie, Andre, Elvis, Fezzik, are just some on the board. At some point, Dan added Gus. Now Josie’s full name is Josephina Smalls the Great, so we had spice up ‘Gus’ if it was to be used to keep the grand gesture. Prince was considered, Prince Gustofer Fezzik the Giant, Prince seemed too much so it was changed to Sir, Gustofer – which we might have made up- was changed to Argus. Argus is when it all came together. Argus is a camera. One of which I have proudly displayed in my house, it was my Grandfather’s camera, an Argus C3 Range Finder from the 50’s. Dan gets to keep his first choice of Gus, I get to tie it to photography, and a prop for a puppy photo shoot is set. So today, Argus and the Argus went to the studio for some shots. Like his sister, he is a natural poser, when he is not falling off the box backward. Here we have Sir Argus Fezzik the Giant, weighing in just over 15lbs at 8.5 weeks old and his namesake, Gramp’s 60+ year-old camera, nicknamed The Brick, weighing in at 1.6lbs.
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