This is a crop from a larger photo I took a few months ago on Sutter Street in San Francisco, late at night on my way home from work. The photo has been doing rounds on my harddisk ever since, because I couldn’t really figure out what was wrong with it. Well, the tree just [...]
Being slightly bored between the holidays has its advantages… I was idly browsing through the cinema listings when I stumbled over this little gem: Helvetica It’s a documentary not just about the font, but also about typography, print design and urban environments. It’s admittedly not everybody’s cup of tea to listen to 80 minutes of [...]
The Jiffy Kodak Six-20 with the very stylish Art-Deco faceplate was produced between 1933 and 1937. It was Kodak’s entry-level offering at $7 ($314 in today’s money using the unskilled wage index). The Jiffy is different from most other folders due to the use of a parallel knee-strut system to support the lens, which allows [...]
This is my Kodak Medalist, made in 1943. The Medalist was produced through most of the 1940s and during the war many of the cameras were specifically made for the armed forces. The military versions, like the one I own, had a black anodized lens tube to reduce reflections in combat situations. I don’t know [...]
One unexpected side effect of the Web has been the wide array of websites dedicated to vernacular photos. Found photo blogs abound, but some are far more interesting than others – the eye and humor of the collector has a large influence on these sites. One of the best ones that I’ve just recently discovered [...]
I took this picture a while ago in Golden Gate park in a little bamboo grove in the Arboretum. I brought the Kodak Medalist on one of its infrequent outings, something I don’t do very often since the camera is just too heavy for a casual stroll through the park. But whenever I use the [...]
Since we’ve bought a new scanner I’ve been going through some of my negatives for a second pass, and this is one of the “rescued” photos that I couldn’t scan well before. This is Spofford Alley in the heart of Chinatown in San Francisco, one of the oldest and mostly untouched alleys that criss-cross several blocks [...]
Today I’ve stumbled over a great blog if you are interested in Japan: Walking in Japan by Kurt Bell is all about his hikes in the Japanese Alps and the interesting things he finds along the way. Kurt clearly enjoys his walks through the mountains and that shows in the photos and videos that he [...]
Here’s a bit of a different view of Nob Hill in San Francisco. This is on Joice Street at the corner with Sacramento looking uphill towards California Street. Joice is a very narrow street, really only a steep canyon between the tall buildings near the top of the hill. The light conditions were pretty bad [...]