Camera- Agfa Billy Record 4.5, 6x9 folder, c.1935
I played around with different apertures, to see what I could get. The dreaminess of some of these first ones seems to fit.
Exposure was sometimes problematic as the slower shutter speeds do not work properly, although once or twice I used a best guess using 'T'. I stuck to speeds above 1/30 where I could. All hand-held, and a great pleasure having no mirror slap. As for composing, - there is often a degree of guesswork and randomness, (sometimes pretty total!); the external finder is tiny; it's inverted of course (L to R) which is nothing new, but as in the station photo following, the problem sometimes is seeing an image at all due to the size and more often, the direction of the light shining on it. The pop-up viewer is pure guesswork. ...Other times, it's easy to see.
I really like the random feel, and the way I had to go with the camera as it is (even though I plan to fix it) I feel it adds to the power of the photographs and stops me being so much in control. Or maybe in a different way. Maybe I need, at the moment, the freedom it allows me.
It's amazing the depth of field you can achieve with f32, (as in the next station shot) even with the focus firmly stuck at 3 ft. I am wondering though, seeing those earliest negs : whether when I first had the camera there was more movement on the focus ring before it finally froze (I only clearly remember not being able to use it). In other words, it became worse under my care. In any case I promise billie a complete overhaul as recompense! I realise now what a fine camera she is. But I do like her as she is...
...I could pretend that the lean was artfully intentional but I'd be fibbing.
This is the station of the previous posted pics revisited. I was thinking of that first photo when taking this one, I was quite disoriented by the changes, trying to find the same position as years ago was harder than I anticipated. Unbelievabaly, after very little change really in years, just in the last three months a new road has sprung up, a new car park, and baskets of flowers. The 'new' cafe has gone continental with tables and benches outside. I had to take the shot from the middle of the new road, which disconcerted me, hence the lean...also it was impossible to see anything in the tiny finder - when the light shines on it in a certain way all you can see is reflections. Excuses excuses. Maybe I'll go back and try again, I should have been further back, I appear to have been standing pretty much where the car was in the first - not sure how easy that will be. Maybe I'll try again.
Another reminder of the past - (ah well -the buildings lean one way and the car another in this one!)
The film I used for the new ones was a mix of Tri-X and Acros 100
More to come.
