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by Amy on March 6, 2013

Camera bag: homemade pinhole camera

by Amy on March 6, 2013

This week for What’s in my camera bag, the last toy camera. Our homemade pinhole camera.

Elise Larsen (of A Beautiful Mess) posted her DIY steps for making a pinhole camera (part 1 here and part 2 here). All I did was send the links to Andrew and he more or less took over for me.

He’s the best.

As you’ll see in a second, the first roll of film through this camera didn’t really work out, but I’m looking forward to trying again and having this toy in my arsenal going forward.

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Ok, see at the end there’s a roll of film still in the camera? Where did the canister go? Seriously no idea. So we loaded a roll and then somehow ruined it.

NO IDEA what happened. I don’t remember opening the camera before I took these photos. I cannot fathom where the canister went that the film came in (it’s just boring ol’ 35mm film).

No idea. We’ll just try again.

The DIY instructions for this camera are part 1 here and part 2 here and some more ideas for pinhole cameras.

Here are some photos from when Andrew was putting it together ….

The box itself is one of those un-finished-wood boxes from Michaels or another craft store. It’s just up on it’s side (instead of with the lid on the top like a treasure chest).

The blue on the front is that fun foam stuff (flexible, thin)….

Let me know what other questions you may have about the materials.

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Camera bag: vintage Keystone Olympic 8mm movie camera

by Amy on February 6, 2013

For this week’s What’s in my Camera Bag, another camera I have not yet used.

This vintage Keystone Olympic k-32 8mm movie camera – Andrew bought this off of etsy for a gift for me a couple years ago. Because it is so old and I have no experience whatsoever I have been hesitant to buy/use/ruin film for it.

But as far as I can tell, the film IS available and the camera APPEARS to be in working order.

SO I need to get on that – make a few home movies of the cats or so.

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I really could find VERY LITTLE reference material online about this camera. I searched specifically for the manufacturer’s name and the exact make of this . …. and I got about 95% listings of the camera for sale (etsy, ebay, shopgoodwill and many others).

The Keystone K-32 8mm Movie Camera was made by Keystone Manufacturing Company Boston, MA around 1956. This movie camera was introduced on the market in 1950. It was equipped with an interchangeable lens Keystone Elgeet f:2,5 – 12,5mm. The machine has an adjustable viewfinder, for a normal, wide angle or tele lens.

It measures about 4 1/2 x 3 3/4 x 1 3/4 inches, compact and lightweight (for the era). The camera body is metal, covered with brown leather.

The camera winds and clicks off as expected so I *think* it would work.

We’ll see! Wish me luck!

Camera bag: B-2 Cadet vintage box camera

by Amy on January 30, 2013

Continuing with What’s in my Camera Bag – another vintage camera I got for Christmas.

As I mentioned last week, my mom helped a friend with an estate sale and was able to snag this camera for me.

To be honest – I had VERY LITTLE IDEA what kind of camera it is. Obviously a box camera, but I had never heard of the brand/manufacturer before now. But the front plate says “Afga” and the top handle says “B-2Cadet” so a quick Google search found quite a bit of details.

But really, it’s just fun for me to learn about these things (vintage cameras and vintage photography) and add to my collection.

B-2 Cadet camera - late 1930s vintage camera

This is what I learned:

Late Depression Era box camera, produced between 1937-1938 by the Agfa Ansco Corp, Binghamton, NY USA.

The camera features a meniscus lens and a simple, single speed shutter of ~1/50 or 1/60 (plus the time or ‘B’ setting). So I imagine I would only want to use it outdoors.

It takes 120mm spool film (8 photos). Which is slightly more inconvenient than 35mm but less inconvenient than my Kodak Deux taking 620 film.

Apparently, the reflectors inside of the Cadet’s viewfinders are polished metal, not the usual glass, which is supposed to make this a bit more sturdy.

The camera I have is pretty dirty and beat up, as you can see. Rust and dirt at least. Possible wear down of the shutter springs and other pieces inside (I haven’t looked).

I’m not positive it works (compare to this listing for the same camera in working order). I did find this post which describes what the owner did to clean up his camera, so I may try somethings to see if I can make it usable. That post was pretty informative and here you can download the manual for it (I love the internet). I also found this discussion on Flickr about it, so I may re-read it and see if I can get the thing to work.

I’m excited to play with this camera and see what it can do!

I found THIS SET on Flickr which appears to be all images made with this kind of camera. SO interesting. I particularly love these…

Have you ever used a box camera?

Camera bag: Konica film camera

by Amy on January 23, 2013

This week I have a vintage camera to show you that wasn’t even part of my collection when I began this series back in September.

We had said no gifts except stockings for Christmas, but my mom had helped a friend with an estate sale and was able to snag this and another vintage camera for me for Christmas gifts.

It’s a film camera from the 1960s so I am SO excited to see if I can get it to work.

My camera is a bit dusty and scratched from use, but it appears to be in good shape. If all the pieces are in there (light seals and all) then I’m going to try a roll of film …

I’m not at all familiar with this brand of camera, but when I was looking up info I just searched this phrase “Konica ee matic Hexanon lens 42mm, f2.8″ (all terms pulled from the front of the camera body).

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The camera came still in the box (with instructions AND the inspection certificate) and also all snug in a leather (no idea if it’s real leather) case that snaps securely in the back. (The back of the case is stamped with ‘Made in Japan’

Check out the photos in the gallery above to see what I mean.

Again, I have not yet used this camera, I had no idea it even existed and I know nothing about it…

That said, this is what I have learned:

The Konica company dates all the way back to 1873 (in Japan) and in 2003 they merged with Minolta.

I believe this is a Konica EE-Matic Deluxe, manufactured in 1965 and an upgrade from previous models of Konica EE-Matic.

And that’s about all I got. There’s a lot of info online about various models of Konica, but I couldn’t find out a whole lot about this one.

Since I haven’t even begun to play with it, I don’t have any images to show you … But I did find this gallery on Flickr. These photos were all taken with a camera either exactly like or very similar to mine. Check out this photo and this photo for example. Also found this gallery of other examples.

But, again, not a whole lot of details about the camera itself.

Do you have any experience with a Konica?

I’d love to hear about it in the comments below!

3 comments

Camera bag: Diana mini

by Amy on January 16, 2013

Now that the holidays are over it’s time to return to What’s in my Camera Bag?

If you missed previous posts in the series, you can check out vintage Polaroid, Oktomat, Kodak Deux, Polaroid Pathfinder Land Camera, Fuji Instax Mini and Holga.

Today I wanted to tell you a little more about the Diana Mini toy camera.

Blogged a bit about the camera already here.

Note: This is DIFFERENT from the Diana camera. That camera takes 120 film (like the Holga). The Diana mini takes 35mm film.

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I don’t know if you can tell from these photos but this camera is pretty small. 3.5 x 1 x 2.5 inches according to the Amazon listing. And awfully light (since it’s all just plastic including the lens). EASY to fit in a purse or maybe even a pocket. And since it’s just a film/toy camera there are not any batteries or power source needed so you can carry it around as long as you need to to finish a roll.

From the Wikipedia description:

As a bottom market camera intended for novelty use, the Diana frequently suffers from light leaks, film advance issues, and other problems. However, its low-quality plastic lens has been celebrated for its artistic effects in photographs, normally resulting in a slightly blurred composition that can provide a ‘dreamlike’ quality to the print

And another point of view from an Amazon review:

Be aware: this is a lo-res camera. Plastic lens. Plastic body. It is designed to give over saturated pictures. It has a zone focus that works but IT’S A ZONE FOCUS. If you use it, nothing is out of focus, but things are rarely IN focus either…. The film can be tweaky to get to move through the camera correctly – lots of little eccentricities….

I got this camera beginning of April 2011 and finished my first roll of film mid-2012. Partly because I was shooting 2-images-per-frame which effectively doubles the number of photos to take. And partly because I knew that the film would be expensive (relatively) to develop and replace, so I wanted the images to “count” …

I’m now partway through my second roll (which I’m hoping to finish soonish). But, as I learned from the first roll, the camera likes light – and since I spend SO MUCH time inside for work (and we haven’t gone on any trips recently) I don’t have a whole lot of outdoors time.

From reading this post from Elise, I decided to shoot the entire first roll as half-prints (2 images per negative frame). The second roll I was going to try the other square format, but I was having a difficult time moving the little knob that controls the setting, so rather than risk breaking it off (totally my luck) I thought I’d just go with the half-frame size again.

This camera is very easy to use, but when I very first got the camera I wasn’t 100% sure how to load it. Part of that is because I was nervous about doing it wrong and ruining a roll of film (done that before. Feels so wasteful). But I found this video on loading a Diana Mini that was very helpful.

So, all in all … it seems like a little finicky to get to know, but I really love the way the images have turned out. The good ones, at least. Really lovely saturated color. And the side-by-side diptych is fun to play with too.

Image examples from the first roll:

Have you ever used a Diana Mini? Any other toy camera? What do you think?

Our 2012 in objects

by Amy on January 1, 2013

For the second year in a row, I’ve selected some of the objects and things we have that can represent our past year.

See our 2011 in objects here (and the Blurb book I made about it)

I love chronicling the meaning of the objects we choose to keep in our lives.

I believe in things.

I believe that your belongings DO have meaning beyond just their physical makeup.

And I believe those things deserve to be recorded.

This is NOT about materialism …. this is about valuing those things that actually have meaning.

Take a look below – and I’d love to hear what objects represent your 2012! Or check out Tell Its Story for ideas on how to document the objects in your life.

Our 2012 represented in objects:

(in no particular order)

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Big Bear:

We didn’t go on any real vacations this year (versus 2011 when we spent a week in Alaska and a week in Scotland). But we were able to schedule a really quick weekend trip to Big Bear. One of the fantastic things about living in Southern California is there are so many great destinations nearby.

We didn’t do really anything on this weekend. It marks one of the only times in my life I have gone on ‘vacation’ without doing a ton of touristy things. We took long naps both days and read pages and chapters of our respective books. And then went to bed early.

I sometimes forget what it’s like to relax … but this weekend in Big Bear was certainly relaxing.

This is a small patch we bought while there – I still haven’t decided what I want to do with it

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Project Life:

This is the year I started truly memory keeping again.

I began my first Project Life album on my 30th birthday (April 2012). Since then I’ve spent all of … oh, $50 total on photo prints. Nothing on paper. And started collecting a few little embellishments to use throughout the album (like the washi tape and Elise stamps pictured here).

I know I talk about this all the time. I’m sorry about that. But truly truly Project Life has done WONDERS for my memory keeping. I love the photos and the stories I’ve documented of the last 9 months. And I love that I’ve been able to do it with such a small time and product investment.

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Khaleesi and Fangsana:

My babies (my coworker calls them that and I’ve picked it up). We got our first pets this year! 2 darling little sister kittens in June.

Who are apparently very picky with their food and only like this one flavor.

It’s so different having to take care of other living creatures. Our whole lives changed this year. We now wake up early to feed them. We now have to make sure we don’t leave out little things (like bobby pins) for them to chew up. We sleep with warm heavy weight on our legs.

I love them.

Plus every single time I go to the grocery store I need to grab 12 or 18 cans of this!

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Schubert HQ:

Um. Yes. Big news.

We bought our first house this year! We closed mid-February. Moved in mid-March. And have been doing work on the house consistently since then.

Being homeowners is … such a change! We finally got all our belongings out of storage after 4 years (even though all the boxes are not yet unpacked). We get to make decisions for changes however we like (I ~~got to~~ had to design our kitchen from scratch).

And now we have a guest room (and lots of floor space) for family and friends to stay with us.

Owning a home (and paying for repairs) changes the way we spend our time. Owning a home also means I can now plan to quit my day job (since I don’t need that job history to qualify for a loan). So excited!

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Writing:

2012 was the year I really started what I’ve been thinking about for years.

I also started reading more of the writers’ memoirs and instructional books that I’ve been collecting.

I’m not saying 2012 was a HUGE year for my writing …. but it was a START.

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Home improvement:

Why, yes. That is toilet paper.

Totally emblematic of all of the home improvement (and headaches) we had to deal with in 2012.

Basically every single thing that could go wrong has gone wrong with this house. I think we have it settled now, but the very first weekend we lived there we had no kitchen, no gas (which means no hot water), the plumbing/sewer backed up into our downstairs tub and we discovered some of our windows leaked because it poured rain all weekend.

So, yea. Toilet paper? Just reminds me that we have tree roots growing into our pipes that have already cost us $1200 and will probably cost more in the future.

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Sugar free:

I have white sugar in the house that I haven’t used in …. I don’t really know when.

2012 was the year I significantly cut back on my sugar consumption – with an eye to quitting completely eventually. Haven’t had any sugar yet in 2013

I haven’t put sugar in my coffee since the end of January – after 10+ years of sweetened coffee every single day (at least once).

It was ROUGH. ROUGH ROUGH. But remember last year when I included NyQuil in my ‘year in objects’ because I got so many head colds? NONE this year. Not a single one. I’m not saying it’s because of the sugar, but I really do feel so much healthier this year and there aren’t really any other changes I made.

I would 100% recommend trying it.

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Ghostbot Records:

2012 was Andrew’s first full year running his record label – and I could not be more proud of him. His freelance recording clients are really (really) taking off! He just recorded a song for a Fraggle Rock anniversary tribute album! He may be getting producing credit on an album released by a major label. And he’s just about to put out his 4th release on Ghostbot.

Other than a couple big things this year – our house and our kittens – 2012 has been low-key. But those big things have been totally life changing.

Balance, my friends.

What objects represent your 2012?

Memory keeping with a purpose

by Guest on January 1, 2013

The following is a guest post from Nancy Hann, founder of Traveling with Purpose

Hello there. Happy New Year! I’m so thrilled that you’ve decided to stop by Amy’s Blog Party on the first day of your new year. Let’s get off to a great start.

If you like to read Lemon and Raspberry, I’ll bet you’re also looking for ways to make a difference, whether it’s around your home or across the ocean. I love that Amy posts lots of motivational and organizational info to help us all stay on the right track.

Have you made a New Year’s resolution to make more of a difference in your world? Have you ever thought about using your talents to help others? Are you working on improving your photography? Do you love memory-keeping or being the historian for your family?

There are ways to use these passions to help others as well.

Let’s think about things close to home first:

Who documents the activities in your child’s classroom or sports team?
Does anyone take pictures of activities with your extended family, church, friends, etc.?
What about neighborhood parties or events?

If you love taking pictures and memory-keeping you could volunteer to be the official or unofficial historian for any of these activities. There are always people in any group who either don’t have the time, interest or skill to do it. You could think about putting together an annual digital photo book (like the ones at Blurb) for your group and offer it for sale so others could buy copies for themselves. It could even be a little bit of extra income and what a gift your work would be to others.

Now what about something a little farther from home:

Do you admire the mission and vision of a favorite non-profit?
Are you able to take a few hours out of your month to lend them a hand with photography, memory-keeping or story telling?
Or maybe you can take a week or so out of your year to travel with them to do the same

Consider the possibility of volunteering your time to take pictures and/or do some memory-keeping. Most non-profits have either service projects and/or fund-raising events that can be documented. Imagine taking compelling photos for a soup-kitchen that feeds the hungry or an overflowing homeless shelter in the winter. Often times smaller organizations don’t have the funds to hire a professional photographer and if your skills are high quality you can provide them with photos that will help tell their story to their potential donors, newspapers, foundations, etc.

Do you enjoy writing? Then consider writing a story about an event or service project and allow them to use it in their newsletters or press releases. If you’re a blogger, share about it on your blog. One of the most important things for every non-profit is exposure and awareness. You can help with that for free!

Another option would be to offer to take a trip with an organization that provides services away from home. This could be a humanitarian organization that helps after disasters, a group that trains third world farmers to produce better crops, or works with endangered species conservation or any number volunteer organizations around the world. You’d be amazed how many organizations like this are out there.

I’ve had the privilege of traveling with a couple of different organizations in the last few years and would jump at the chance to do it again when the opportunity presents itself. It was a life-changing experience and I was able to help others as well! If you’d like to read more about one of my trips, please check out my site, Traveling with Purpose. Check out this post specifically about a trip that I was able to go on to Bosnia and Herzegovina.

I also had the chance to go to the Middle East with an organization that trains women leaders in a region that doesn’t always honor the important contribution that women make in society. Here’s a Blurb book that I put together for one of those trips just to give you an idea of what you could do. It was eye-opening and made me so thankful for the freedoms we have here in the U.S. I’ll be writing about one of those trips in the coming weeks.

And while we’re at it you can help me out.

If you know of any great organizations that provide either service-oriented or educational travel opportunities, or if you’ve been on a trip yourself I’d love to hear about it. I’m always on the lookout for groups and trips that I can write about.

So, consider helping someone this year with the skills that you already been blessed with. You’d be amazed how great it feels to lend a hand to someone in need.

I trust that your new year is brimming with fulfilling and adventurous days! And don’t forget to stop by and see where we’re off to next.

A little bit about Nancy: I’m the founder of Traveling with Purpose. I love blogging, photography, memory-keeping, travel, helping people and learning new things and this gives me a chance to combine all of those passions in one place. You’ll find a more detailed bio here: http://travelingwithpurpose.com/about-me/

Camera bag: Vintage polaroid

by Amy on December 12, 2012

Another edition of What’s in my camera bag?

This is a camera that you’re not going to be able to snag on Amazon if you want one – but you can scour garage sales or etsy for your very own.

That’s right. I’m talking about a good ol’ vintage camera.

A Polaroid Sun 600 to be specific.

This lovely old camera was a gift from my grandmother, bless her heart.

SO fun. This is totally the kind of vintage camera that I dreamt about using when I first started taking photos . …. Waaay back in 6th grade.

Using this camera you feel like you’re in an old movie. It works just like you would imagine, with a bright flash and the image being spit out the front.

Some basic info about the Polaroud Sun 600 from The Impossible Project:

The Polaroid Sun 600 LMS camera was first introduced in 1983. Though the exposure adjustment switch was available on several earlier models, it wasn’t christened the Light Management System until the Sun 600’s release.

A basic 600-series camera, the Sun 600 features a 116mm single-element plastic lens, fixed focus with a minimal focal length of 4 feet, electronic shutter and a built-in electronic flash.

Polaroid’s 600 cameras were well-known for their television commercials featuring James Garner and Mariette Hartley, and the Sun 600 LMS was no exception. Watch the 1983 commercial HERE

Some other views of the camera …