Taking pictures

About 5 years ago I bought a Kodak Duaflex camera for $10 from a giant antique mall outside Madison, Wisconsin. A year ago, I finally bought some film for it and took some pictures. While carrying my Duaflex around Portobello road I stumbled across a beautiful camera, the Ilford Craftsman. It was sitting in a jumbled pile of cameras and I walked away. Then I had to go back and get it because it was just sitting there at the back of my mind whispering. It cost 35 pounds and I had to borrow 5 pounds from CW (which I paid back!) to get it. Then last night when I was wandering around etsy I stumbled across an Ensign Ful Vue, another British made camera, and I just fell in love. At first I was deterred by the price and so I started looking around to see if I could find another less expensive one, but I kept coming back to the red Ful Vue. It was such a beautiful little camera. Finally I just decided it had to be mine and I bought it. I'm noticing that my little hobby has gone from $10 to $100!

The Duaflex is a temperamental little beast. In rain or gray light it does not seem to focus and there are streaks of darkness across the picture.

A picture I took of the one German cemetery from World War II in Belgium did not come out because it was right at dusk and it was a shade too dark for the camera to work. It kind of broke my heart that the photo did not turn out (I need to scan the negatives so I can upload that set of photos). Then, something happened today as I was uploading photos to flickr and organizing them. I found that I kind of miss the odd streaks that the Duaflex randomly decides to apply to pictures. It gives them a ghostly feeling. In fact two of my favorite pictures were taken by the Duaflex, the one of the laundry hanging in Cora and CW's back yard

and the other of the St. Pancras train station.

The Ilford on the other hand takes sharp pictures. It is very rare that it blurs a picture (except for a couple I took in London on a windy day). On a sunny day the pictures are very crisp and clean.

Sometimes though they are just a bit too crisp and I find myself missing the Duaflex. The Ilford takes 120 film, which is readily available at Central Camera for about $4 a roll. The Duaflex requires 620 film, which costs about $15 a roll because they do not make it, or you have to take 120 film and respool it on a 620 spool. I tried that once and mucked up a roll of film. I did just read that you can file down the edge of the 620 film and it will fit, so I may have to try that.

I'm looking forward to the Ful Vue and seeing what it can do. I bought a messenger bag that also has an insert to make it into a camera bag because my poor Ilford has been tossed around. I am thinking of trying to carry two cameras with me and start branching into color. There have been some moments that I wished I had color film in the camera.

I have four rolls of film that have been developed and are waiting for me in Chicago and I have four more rolls that will be developed soon. They include pictures from Turkey, the UK and Iraq and I am looking forward to seeing how they came out.

In the meantime I can be found on Flickr as enfleurage.