DASCO bakelite and the Langoliers

DASCO was (and the one above still is) a bakelite toy camera from 40s.
It is, in essence, a cheap piece of pressed plastic with few little metal and glass pieces.
It was made for 127 roll film.
The roll I found inside is Kodak Verichrome Pan. Kodak VP came out in mid-50s.
After the development, a few frames emerged: people, trees, automobiles.
Ah, 50s indeed (look at the cars and the hat):

Kill it before it lays eggs

I bought this can of Kodak 35mm cine version of Tri-X film from late 50s in a hope to find it exposed, but it turned out to be not. So I used the opportunity to check my old film development process on it. First, I put it in my FED-2 rangefinder camera and exposed at 50 E.I. (originally it was 320 ASA but 50 ASA is my best guess of what's left of it), I also bracketed with +1 and +2. Then, I used my standard process for developing fresh Tri-X (4.5 min @ 75F/24C in TMax 1:4) and it turned out to be heavily fogged, barely printable/scannable. Then I developed it in 10% HC-110 at 50F/10C for 2.5 minutes (the time had been calculated based on test). It came out ok. Here is how it looked after the development:

Two Stories Plus X

I have little archive of five old undeveloped rolls I received from the ebay seller in Rochester, NY; there were 3 separate auctions somewhere in 2010; so I developed the rolls in 3 batches with the last one done just recently. Let's start with the first 2 rolls I developed in the first batch --
..........................................................................................................Here they are, the two 620 Plux-X rolls of intense green:



The condition could be better: the hardest rolls to separate from backing paper so far; I had to tear the paper to pieces and still some of it stayed, glued to the film.
The film itself was alive as quick test revealed; developed it at 40F/4.5C in 12% HC-110.
Here is the piece of developed film caught on camera before scanning:



Frame numbers got themselves happily transferred to the emulsion; there are dead round yellow spots where emulsion touched the hot metal of the spool's rusty cheeks and holes, holes, holes...the roll must had been stored in the attic or garage for ages, where it became really hot in the summers.

Still, there were some recoverable images:

Curious case of double exposure

Here, pictured in the uncut grass of my backyard, sits Brownie camera I received last February from *bay seller. It is ancient No 2A model from the early 20s. This very simple box camera has one speed rotary-type shutter and 3 Waterstop apertures...that's it. I bought is because there was a roll of exposed film inside. The film turned out to be a 116 Kodak Verichrome Pan. Now, Verichrome Pan is later film, went on sale in mid-50s. It is also known for preserving the latent image very well. So, 4 minutes in very cold and very active developer and...

On Joan Colom

Joan Colom is Spanish (Catalan) photographer from Barcelona.
Born in 1921, he started taking street pictures in the "red lights" district El Barrio Chino (i.e. Chinatown, now "Raval") at the age of 37.
He had a day time job in accounting and use to shoot during weekends.
I love his style partially because of my addiction to shooting candids "from the hip".
Almost all of his images from 1958 to 1964 were shot "clandestine".
He did this because he tried to capture something very elusive: the glances, gestures, grimaces, poses, all king of people-to people interactions.
He wanted for his pictures to be emotional and alive, to capture the life in its moments and let it live in the photographic form forever.
And he succeeded.
I do not know any other photographer of the time so dedicated to this idea of capturing moments of life as Joan Colom was.
Here is he shooting in Raval with his Leica M2:

You see why the most of his pictures are verticals (i.e. "portrait" orientation).

A moment to remember...

Recent antique store find. It was in a bin with bunch of others; I had little cash with me so I took just this one. It was color one day in... 40s? 50s?