Only a month to go

It's almost unbelievable. I started with my countdown counter somewhere around 180 days. At that time I still thought it would be impossible to pass the time. But as I can see now, many things happened in between from that very moment up to this. That kept me going and distracted. Now finally my little princess will come over for a month of holiday. Starting with 3 days in Paris. I look so forward for that moment. The moment of meeting her, but also to greet the city that I love so much. To feel the atmosphere of Paris, and better to experience that with my distant love. I am reading the city guide to pieces and make already virtual tours. Ow how much I would wish to have a dinner again at "La Coupole" at Mont Parnasse. To skid stones in the small canal St. Martin. Or to get lost in Printemps, Lafayette or Semaphore. Walk around at the hidden graveyard of Mont Martre, or just take a nap underneath the Tour Eifel in the grass, and when opening my eyes be suprised seeing the massive structure. It's wonderful how we kept the faith, Kate and I. Sometimes we had our reality checks, then we started to question this strange voyage we started, not knowing where to go. But now we don't care, it was worth the waiting and our love grew steady and we can't miss a day talking. I sometimes think it's the kind of romance that is hard to find these days anymore. It's the kind or romance you normally get to see in a Hollywood flick. But in this society where people are consumed by their own need for consuming, the endless hunt for succes, the detachement of being human and of nature, we feel that this glowing, burning passionate love, is a great gift that we cherish. In 30 days the adventure will start it's second phase, I am longing for it, and I want to feel and experience every second as an eternal moment. I love you Kate.

My Camera Collection

Part two is about the second camera I found today next to the Zeiss Ikon. It's a "Yashica Minister - D". This camera I bought also just on luck, to my suprise this camera was released in 1963, that's the year I was born. So I consider this as luck. Maybe it's not real antique, but it has some emotional value to find a product from this year. What really makes me happy that this camera originally from Japan, has almost no plastic parts. While cleaning the camera the only plastic party I could discover is the lens of the CDS light measuring Censor. This camera must have been pretty revolutionairy with it's very sensitive light censor. The trick is that on top of the camera is a dial that represents the ASA value of the film. The dial has to point at the right value, the light meter will after operating a seperate button on the back of the camera point at a value, this value is to be found at the ring of the lens. After choosing the corresponding value, the camera is ready to shoot. This camera is a rangefinder type, so setting the focus is done with a pretty complex device, consisting of mirrors. They give an image of a yellow box with a center, while focusing the lens the image gives a ghost in the small central dot, when the two images fit together the camera is focused. These were the days that people still had time to make a picture. The technical data on the camera is: Yashica Minister D Manufactured around 1963, 35mm rangefinder camera, Yashica Yashinon 4.5cm f/2.8 and a Copal-SVL shutter (speeds 1 to 1/500 sec, B,M,X , delay action) and an uncoupled CDS exposure meter.

My Camera Collection

Today i was lucky, I was stroling through Antwerpen on my way home, when I found this "eco-shop". It's a second hand shop with all kind of stuff, from second hand kitchen stuff to furniture and everything in between. A quick tour through the shop brought me back to the entrance, when I noticed a small cabinet with some camera's and stuff. The first Camera I noticed was a "Zeis Ikon Box Tengor" with a Goerz Frontar achromat lens. To be more specific it's the first Zeiss Ikon Camera that was prototyped in 1920 and released about 1926, this was the year smaller companies merged into Zeiss Ikon, one of the companies was Goerz, hence the name of the lens. The film format is 120, this means that the size of the pictures taken is 6x9 cm.

It's interesting how those first camera's looked inside. It's a simple box with a film pressure plate in the film housing, keeping the film flat (something quite revolutionairy those days). Furthermore it has 2 shutter speeds, 1/24 and B and to my big suprise it has 3 aperture settings f11, f16 and f22. The aperture is a simple strip of metal with 3 different holes. The camera has 2 simple viewfinders (vertical and horizontal). To operate this type of camera you really need to have good knowledge of photogaphy. On the web are different sites with pictures actually taken with this box. It's one out of three of the Zeiss Ikon cameras in my collection, probably the first model ever released by Zeiss Ikon.

Here is an add for a newer type of the Box Tengor (probably around 1930):

"Underwater Sculptures"

"The all time Fetish Queen"

Bettie Page (born April 22, 1923 in Nashville, Tennessee) was a popular American model and pin-up girl in the 1950s. Page posed for a number of fetish modelling photos in addition to pin-up photos. While she faded into obscurity in the 1960s, she experienced a resurgence of popularity in the 1980s and now has a loyal cult following. It's rather amusing footage of her, and by moments I wondered what she is actually doing, but somehow I couldn't stop watching.

"Sushi Bar"

great idea of placing a camera on a conveyor belt of a Sushi bar in Tokyo. Some people even don't notive the camera passing them, great footage of ordinairy people.....

"50's Pinup style Photography"

On a sunny day at the war museum of Overloon in Holland with a good friend making old style pin ups of her.

Art Freak