a miracle of film

I know I've talked a few times before about how I have my grandpa's camera from the Korean War.It looks kind of like this. This doesn't give a good idea of what it looks like, but picture...oldness. Leather bellows and a fold out lens and manual settings.

Without getting too technical, this is a really hard camera to use. Cameras now-a-days will tell you what settings to put your camera on, and when you look through the viewfinder, it will pretty much show you what the picture is going to look like. With this camera, it's kind of guess and check. The first roll of film I developed from it was useless.

At grandpa's funeral, I took a few pictures with this camera. When I went to the darkroom to develop them last night, I had no reason to believe they would actually turn out. In the pitch black of the darkroom, I prayed and prayed and prayed that there would be at least one image I could use. Developing the film, my hands shook and I got chemicals everywhere, and still I prayed that when I pulled out that roll of negatives, there would be SOMETHING I could use. Just one image, that would be enough for me. Against all odds, I had nine usable pictures! Two I had accidentally double exposed (one looked good, the other made me upset because I ruined a picture I had really wanted to use.)

I don't have time to explain more, i'm going to be late for class, but I have more to explain. If you check back later, I will make this post a little smoother and explain some things about the pictures. But for now, realize that every one of these pictures I took with a camera made in 1948 is a miracle :)











This one was double exposed but I think it turned out really cool :)