Of all the things I know
I understand almost nothing

donderdag 30 september 2010

Liddle Riddle


Had a little identity-problem yesterday, so here's a riddle about flash-sync. Solution (thanks roadmouse, but....) in the comment.

woensdag 29 september 2010

Very last of the summer wine?



Quiet moments at St. Lambertus, real food at the tiny market on the Barbarossaplatz, dark crisp bread, black pudding, autumn sun over the Kö. Slow pictures on FP4+ in my 635.

zondag 26 september 2010

Grumpy old men...



...on their blingbling machines. And look how super the 1964 Gevaert now performs, on ISO not-too-much and without 6-nitro in the fog!
I love old film!

"Grumpy old (wo)men" BBC;
more of the bridge on "Then and now 6" below.

Homage to Ingmar Bergman

zaterdag 25 september 2010

Then and now: 1964




In 1964 I got my Lubitel. My first teacher in photography was a school-mate of my older brother and he had a Yashica 635, with that 135 thinghy, very hi-tec (high-tech?) and a real darkroom in the cellar (rinsing-tub in the kitchen). So it seems appropriate to own one, ànd test it with 1964 REX (=Gevaert). Lost it's sensitivity, but I don't think new FP4 will make a nicer picture of my old neighbourhood's mill.

woensdag 22 september 2010

Then and now 16: fast ORTHO film





















Great weather, so I put my only 1957 Ortho Selochrome in the HB, speed group E and Weston 80. Well, after 53+ years maybe Weston 24.
After lamb and sljivovica I (try to) concentrate on red flowers, yellow trees, to see that ortho-effect.
IF: because at home I discover that the back paper is stuck to the film. S***. I decide to develop the film - and when wet the paper can be peeled off, leaving the back a bit rough, but who cares. I have images! Wow! (Look at flickr for the nasty details.)

(In my youth the Strassenbahn was yellow - the right colour. Nowadays they are white/red. Or worse.)

zondag 19 september 2010

the Last-Of-The-Summer-Wine Lecture





Nooo - only joking! But Tony Barbaro inspired me to think about (original) lens hoods. Being a contre-jour lover, hoods are important to me, so let's see what I've got.

I do not hunt for the original (on the Retina you see a simple click-on) but I rather like the Agfa one (+ plastic case) Beb gave me. And Jacqueline's Zeiss-Ikon: a click-IN, the only one I know. Then there is that rather art-deco Enna hood for the Sandmar, and her (only 8 mm, what's the use) sister on the Robin. The multi-purpose hood-cover-case on the Giel's Werra.

The picture of the Leica über-hood I stole from gifthorseuk.

I don't have the Rolleiflex (John?!), Contax, or Voigtländer Sonnenschutz - and for the Wörsching-Gegenlichtblende, well I wouldnt die, but I would do a lot!

Then and now 15: Trees



The old postcards are always so spacious, with broad views. Nowadays, in Nijmegen, there is always a tree in your way. Healthy, yes, good for us and mother Earth, but I am more a fieldsman (howzàt?)

donderdag 16 september 2010

Then and now 14: Quack on Kodak XX



Well, you can imagine we do not call this monument "Marie Adolf Fountain".

***Yes, thàt's how we call it, but we also say: the Quack monument, after the man who paid for it.


The thing disappeared (!) after the war, was found back a few years ago and after a little fight it is back on the old site.
I rather like it.

I put the 1927 column with the 1928 Brownie on 116 Kodak Super-XX Tropical 1951 (Look on flickr how I did that, the stripes are a scanning problem...)

woensdag 15 september 2010

Then and now 13: the Bridge


























In the mid-sixties I spent my holidays in Oberkassel. And every day we (my nephew and I) walked the bridge or, sometimes, took the Strassenbahn, to have a milk-shake (very modern!) at the Kaufhof. One day we didn't have enough money, so we asked for apple-juice. The lady looked at us, said that boys our age should drink milk - and gave us our shakes!
We spent hours at the escalator, I remember now.
In 1976 they built the new bridge, and shove it in place of the old one.
In the sixties there were still "Radschläger" (bottom picture 1910?), they are extinct now, but you can buy them. In chocolate.

PS - I didn't climb the planetarium today - the wind almost blew me of the lower terrace already!

Chopin


At 13.10 in the (windy) sunshine: Nocturne Op.9 Nr.2

Canon nFD 35-70 on RolleiRockhard at ±40 ISO 8 min. Rodinal

zondag 12 september 2010

Then and now 12: addicted to light



1970 I was the last organist in our parish church: they literally took the old organ apart while I was playing (there is an electronic organ now).
You had to climb the stairs to the old organ in the dark, rather scary in the winter and therefore the organists entered the church always using strong language...
Today "Museumday" there was a lamp! For the first time I could see how easy the stairs are.

± 15 Years later I was also the last to play in my old school chapel, demolished now, and a few years later in the conventual church, now Byzantine. The last of the Mohicans.

HB Distagon 60mm on HP5

Then and now 11: Balkan Miracle






I met this "trike" in the Sixties (Canon FX?) and, alas, no "today" picture - too afraid to go back and see the modern changes because it was sooo beautiful.
Welcome Dungha, incîntat de cunostinta! (Sorry, no`', stupid compy)

"Poor people don't know how picturesque they are", Oscar Wilde...

zaterdag 11 september 2010

Then and now 10: Primary School



Well (like I said below) the building is still there. It's an art centre now. (Sigh.)

The old picture is pre-war, when I was there as a Baby Boom Benjamin the trees were bigger. Very nice: we were fighting all the time, but the hospital was opposite. (And no psychologists to tell us that we shouldn't like fighting...)

vrijdag 10 september 2010

Then and now 9: Landgoed Heydepark





The estate my father was born, 1908. I hadn't been there for 50 years - but both buildings are still there! And more: an old familiar name still owns it, you can have a nice holiday with the horses, and inside the farmhouse is still that step to break your neck!







On the ±1930 photo below: left my father, right his twin-brother.




Today I had the Praktica + 28mm Albinar
(on rather unsharp FP4 -
I noticed yesterday. Or shall we call that "soft"?)
The small coloured one, the dwelling-house, isn't mine. On the also thirties (top), in front of that house: the new (the picture was made at the funeral of his brother Theodore) paterfamilias, my granduncle. The boss - no tie. In the middle (with a cigarette!): my dad.


(Like to see more of the family?
Look at facebook, Erwin Janssen Ruijs.)



btw: Young Joris Ivens (see below) made his very first film (Wigwam, 1912) probably in the woods of the estate.

donderdag 9 september 2010

Then and now 8: Saturday Night Fever






My saturday evening in 1972: chess-club, and then Berry's snack-bar in Brakkenstein, where very very beautiful Carla Keller fried the chips, sometimes. Grey eyes. I had a FTQL, but never made a picture. Now I have an old FTbQL, but there are just dull houses there. And the street where she lived.
(And look: Seventies: no cars!)

# On the street where you live, Loewe/Lerner 1956

zondag 5 september 2010

Then and now 7: Diebels












Went to the oldest shop street of the Netherlands again, today, but the 50mm Retina Xenon (1938) was not right for what I planned.



But I found Diebels - not the famous "Altbier" nor the stationer's I once knew, but the 1910 Tabakskerverij the tobacco-carver! Well, that's not PC anymore but the woodwork is still there.


And the girl? Well, she was dancing opposite and isn't she lovely?

vrijdag 3 september 2010

Then and now 6: Ivens

























































The grandfather of world-famous cinematographer Joris Ivens (see Heydepark above) was Wilhelm Ivens, important photographer in Nijmegen in the 19th century.
I found these two pictures: the 1155 St. Martin's chapel, the so-called Barbarossa ruin, and the 1885 bridge nearby. The bridge was destroyed by a truck, years ago, but is now at last repaired;
the Palatinate was demolished two centuries ago and we are still thinking about that.

1976 HB Distagon 60mm

donderdag 2 september 2010

Then and now 5: Pic Pac











Pic Pac for "2 Guys" - who are they? It's >sept 1963 Gevaert, 80 daylight 64 tungsten: not very panchro. Thick black fog - but look what was on top of that!


The 7,5 cm. Tessar in the 1938 Kodak Duo620 is not the right lens for this narrow street, but I wanted to test the film. The street is the oldest shopping street in Nijmegen, many shops are centuries old.






Look at the "young" house with the cornice: even the "bird-houses" are still there!
Above L they're dark, and here R they are white painted.