errrrrm

i was gna treat you to another camera, but the mood's passed

have a song instead

Strange Cults And Secret Societies, by Elliott O'Donnell

as promised back in january (apologies) i have a book for you this time round. enjoy. endure?

i'll start with the boring stuff. open the cover of this book and you'll discover that the last part of the title has been omitted from the somewhat-beaten-up spine there, actually being called Strange Cults and Secret Societies of Modern London. i believe it to be the first reprint (although i can't be sure) and first editions were printed in 1934, both published by Philip Allan & Co.
interestingly (for me anyway), on the inside cover of the book is pasted a large piece of paper stating that "This book is the property of The Electra Lending Library, 68 Bedford Street, Stepney, E.1" and the latest date stamp on there is for 16 Nov 1936; i LOVE that! it's part of the history of the book, this one being 75 years old now and a little worse off for it, spine battered as you can see, and the cover so badly creased it may as well be snapped upon open (which should never happen to a hardback, grr). what i also love about this quirky little fact is that it's also the only date stamp in there, meaning that the first person the take it out never returned it, the dirty, fine avoiding bastard.
but let's move on shall we? i've not read the whole lot (as a matter of fact, i've not picked it up since the coach ride home from london, when i bought it) but from what i have read, i gather that around the time it was written, it would have been seen as a series of chilling tales that the middle classes would have used to give their children the willies, or themselves, i'm not that old so i'm not sure what they did to get their kicks. what i had to take into account when reading this is that way back when, writers at this time were usually quite well off (and hence middle class, upper middle class or whatever), gentlemen, well educated, experts in their chosen fields and well received and respected in the literary world and so on, and this is extremely obvious in the style in which the book has been written, the introduction to the stories, the settings... all of which leading me to the conclusion that the main target audience was the middle classes who would read it for thrills and chills.
the way Mr O'Donnell has written this book implies that he wants it to be seen as factual, but whether or not it's factual, based on stories, old wives' tales he'd heard, old superstitions i've yet to discover. this is probably one of the factors that made it appeal to the target audience.
yet again, i'm rambling. i'll type up a passage of my choosing and you can decide for yourselves whether or not what i'm going on and on about is clearly evident or my own demented misconception. give it all a good read and let me know what you think

Chapter III

The Black Brothers

When I was living in St John's Wood I went to dine one night with a Mr Vogel, who rented a house in Hampstead, not far from Well Walk. I had met Mr Vogel in Paris and, like myself, he took a very deep interest in haunted houses and criminology. So when he wrote to me, asking me to dine with him, I anticiapted renewing some of our discussions, and hearing, very possibly, of some fresh cases of hauntings.

The moment I opened the heavy iron gate and stepped on to the gravel path, leading to the front door, I experienced a feeling of intense depression and loneliness, and this feeling increased when a small, white faced, bald headed man-serveant opened the door to me and I entered the house. It was as still as death. In a quiet timid voice the little bald headed man inquired my name and, with noiseless steps, escorted me to the drawing-room, where I found my friend, Jacques Vogel, seated in front of a blazing fire.

Although it was only a few years since I had last seen him, he was so changed that I barely recognised him. In Paris he had struck me as a man of possibly fifty, or a little more, but still youthful, active, alert and full of life. Now all his youthfulness had gone. His hair was white, his cheeks were pale, lined and sunken, his naturally upright figure was bent, and his expression, once frank and genial, was now entirely the reverse.

He was, in short, quite another person. At dinner he recovered something of his old self, and talked with enthusiasm of his experiences in South America. He had been exploring some of the lesser-known parts of the Amazon Valley and had many interesting things to tell me.

It was after dinner, when we were sitting in his study, that he lapsed into his altered self.

"We often used to discuss haunted houses" he observed, after a long pause, during which he constantly looked behind him, in a manner in which was very trying to my nerves, "and criminals, and regarding the latter, in cases where criminality could be traced from the very cradle, we agreed that it might often be due to some disease of the brain or some malformation of the brain-case. We discussed, too, hallucinations, illusions and madness. Now I have asked you here to-night to tell me whether you think I am haunted, or merely the victim of delusions, which may well be the preliminary stage of insanity. I want you to listen and watch. Are you ready?" I replied in the affirmative, and he switched off the electric light. We were not, however, plunged in total darkness, as the fire was still burning brightly and the embers emitted a ruddy glow that threw into strong relief, on the yellow tinted walls, the shadows of our two selves and the various large pieces of furnitue in the room.
"It always begins now" Vogel said suddenly, after a prolonged silence, broken only by the ticking of a marble clock on the mantleshelf. "Hush, do you hear anything?"

I did hear something. I heard a door being opened, rather gently and, as gently, closed again. Then I heard footsteps, moving softly and stealthily accross the hall, in our direction. I glanced at Vogel. The firelight seemed to be concentrated on him' and it revealed, with a clearness that was startling, unmitigated terror in every feature of his face. My attention was, however, speedily absorbed by the footsteps, which halted immediately outside the study door. I became aware of someone listening there with extraordinary intentness. I expted the door would open and someone would enter, but this did not happen.

There was absolute silence, and stillness, till Vogel suddenly gripped me by the arm and pointed at the wall, opposite the fire-place.

On it, in bolder and blacker relief than any of the other shadows, was a new shadow. It was the shadow of a person, whether man or woman it was impossible to say, cloaked and wearing a slouch hat, drawn so low over the face that only a large, hooked and parrot-shaped nose and nut-cracker chin were visible. The arms were extended and the fingers crooked, as if in the act of choking someone. Although nothing but a shadow, it seemed alive and full of murderous instinct.

Never had I seen a shadow so horribly sinister and suggestive.

"Do you see it?" Vogel whispered.

"I certainly do," I responded.

"Then it is visible to other besides myself," he replied, obviously relieved. "It is not a delusion; I am not mad, as yet."
"No," I said. "I believe you see what appears to be a shadow, but shadows usually have some material counterpart. Let us test this one."
I got up, stretched out first one han and then another, and moved every article of furniture in the room, but the strange shadow on the wall was unaffected. It remained stationary and intact. Then, suddenly, as we both stood staring at it, silent and fascinated, it moved.

Still maintaining the same crouching, murderous attitude, it crept, slowly and furtively, along the wall, till it came in line with the chair Vogel had just vacated. There, it halted for a few seconds, and then it abruptly vanished.

Vogel was about to make some comment, when, from a remote empty corner of the room there came a chuckling laugh, so full of malice that I sprang back in alarm.

"You heard it?" Vogel whispered. His voice shook and I could see him trembling.

"Yes," I said. "None too pleasant, was it For how long has this kind of thing been going on?"
"Oh, for weeks, months," Vogel replied, "and until to-night it has always happened when I'm alone. I was terribly afraid it wouldn't come to-night because you are here. But, thank goodness, you have seen and heard it, and, so far, I am sane. I must have a drink, O'Donnell, and then i'll explain it all."
He pressed a button in the wall and the little bald-headed servant, looking more scared than ever, brought us whisky and soda. I didn't smoke; but after Voel had puffed away for a few minutes in silence and refilled my glass, he commenced his story.

"Exactly two years ago," he said, "I wandered one night into a cafe on the principal streets of Rio de Janeiro. For months I had been travelling through the vallet of the Amazon, sometimes by boat and sometimes on foot, roasted by the sun, which is terribly fierce in that part of the world, and plagued to death by mosquitos and other insects, If you want a foretaste of Hell, you can't do better than spending a few weeks exploring the Amazon Valley.

"You can imagine, therefore, what a treat it was to me, after such an experience, to find myself once again in civilised surroundings.

"Prior to sailing for New York I put up at an hotel near the docks. A few evenings before I embarked I was walking along d'Esterre Street when I saw a man, apparently a gentleman, a little way ahead of me, on the opposite side of the street, suddenly attacked by two swarthy ruffians, who had been hiding in a doorway. I instantly tan to his assistance when the ruffians, on seeing me, speedily decamped.

"The man I rescued was profuse in his thanks and invited me to dine with him at one of the best hotels in town. On the way there in a taxi he informed me that he was Gilbert de Costava, a Portuguese aristocrat by birth, at present earning his living, or trying to earn it, as a poster painter in Rio de Janeiro. He was very affable, and later on, after we had had several rinks in the hotel lounge, proved extremely communicative. Indeed, we chatted together so long that it was not until the early hours of the morning that I left the hotel and made my way, none too sober I admit, to my own quarters.

"Early in the evening we had dropped all formality, calling eachother by our Christian names, and, on saying good-bye, he had given me the address of his sister, Marcelle de Costava, in Brooklyn, asking me to be sure to look her up."

Here Mr Vogel paused and bade me help myself to whisky. Then he went on:
"When I was back in New York I lost no time in calling on Miss de Costava. Her brother had told me she was remarkably pretty, and I wondered if dhr trslly were, or if partiality had led him to exaggerate. It had not. She was quite the most beautiful girl I had ever seen, but there was something about her, in her large dark eyes and expression generally, that was disquieting. I could not define it at the time, but I think I understood it later on. All the same, despite this strange something I saw in her, we became geat friends, and I was contemplating asking her to marry me when i got a cablegram from Paris telling me my mother was very ill and I must return at once, if I wanted to see her again alive. Consequently, I booked my passage on a French liner, that was sailing for France almost immediately, and I had no time to see Marcelle before embarking. However, I sent her a radiogram within a few hours of my departure.  ..."

blah blah blah, it's taking too long, my neck hurts and there's loads more to go. might finish it if anyone gives a shit. long story short, Gilbert de Costava is in cahoots with these Portuguese guys who call themselves the Black Brothers, who hire shadows as assassins to kill those who have wronged them, Vogel wronging Marcelle by more or less gilting her so Gilbert takes revenge. they can't be called off and Vogel talks O'Donnell into staying the night and watching to make sure he doesn't get killed, fails, Vogel dies.

i fear i've written too much.

pray tell, where did you acquire it? Upstairs of the Stable Market, Camden, London, UK

cost: i can't remember, £1? may have been less...

bored of my cameras?

if you're growing tiresome of my random ramblings about assorted cameras, my next post will be on a book. i'm pretty fixed on which one it'll be, but not yet 100% certain.
keep sharing, and keep your eyes peeled!

Lomo Lubitel 166B

for those people who get bored of 35mm or digital, the next logical step to take would be a medium format camera. the Lomo Lubitel 166B is a cheap russian camera that's relatively easy to use and incredibly handsome, a perfect introduction to 120 film.
probably the most alluring thing about the Lubi is the fact that it's a TLR (Twin Lens Reflex) as opposed to the now ordinary SLR, where you see through the viewfinder exactly what the lens see. some people see this as a con of TLRs, as your photo-taking can go awry due to parallax error. i, however, see it as part of the charm. i also love how you need to hold the camera at waist/hip height to see anything through the viewfinder (which you do by looking straight down the top, incase you didn't realise), which is not entirely dissimilar to the Box Brownie; don't get confused though, as the Brownie is not a true TLR, it's what's been dubbed recently as a 'toy' camera.
but i digress, the Lubitel is a TLR in one of it's simplest forms. the only controls you need (and have, for that matter) are the shutter speed, aperture and focussing. the focus is the same as any other camera but because of the twin lenses, it focusses them both at the same time thanks to a simple cog mechanism (which you'd be able to see quite clearly if the bloody photo was in focus!), and because it focusses both you can tell when it's gravy through the viewfinder.
when setting the shutter speed and aperture you can tell how truly cheap this camera is. to set these there are two small silver silver dials around the bottom (photo-taking) lens, and anybody who knows anything about cameras will know which one does what, as it moves a small silver hand displaying which f stop or speed you have chosen. simple enough, in theory, but due to the lack of built-in light meter you're going to need either a good knowledge of exposure or a hand held light meter.
speaking of exposure, the only means of knowing how to adjust exposure for different ISOs lies yet again in knowledge, or if you're truly stuck there's a tiny wheel you can see in the centre on the left hand side of the camera, which spins around with different weather conditions and different ISOs to suit, along with suggestions of the other two exposure elements.
there are two variations that i know of when it comes to the Lomo Lubitel 166B, there's the 166+ and the 166U(niversal). the 166U is an improved model of the 166B and was produced four years after, in 1984, and  terminated in 1988. despite being an improved model, many people agree that the 166B is easier to focus than the 166U, and also holds the film better and runs it through smoother. the only advantage i can seem to find that the U has over B, is that it's supplied with a 6x4.5 mask, should you not like or tire of the typical 6x6 square format.
The 166+ on the other hand, is Lomography's recent update of the popular russian classic. because it's lomography, it's incredibly expensive and comes with a vast range of things you don't really need, such as various masks for different formats, and a 35mm conversion kit; the only Lubitel to have such a thing.
it is very easy to use 35mm in a Lubitel without a conversion kit though - simply pop the film canister where the 120 usually goes, and load as usual. winding it on is a little different however, due to the fact that 35mm cameras have the winding set out already. there are some guides online, and i learned the hard way that you have to slowly decrease the amount of clicks (of the film winder knob) or end up with overlapping photographs. the effort of all this is worth it though - once developed, the photograph runs over the ratchet-holes of the film to create a very cool effect.

that's just about all i've got at the moment, so suck on my summary:

1. very popular russian TLR camera
2. plenty of variations
3. good as an introduction to 120 medium format film
4. easy to get hold of, and relatively cheap
5. absolutely charming; if you can get your hands on one, give it a go and fall in love

pray tell, where did you acquire it? ebay, of course! cost: £20 +P&P

to see a photo of mine taken with a Lomo Lubitel 166B, click here

song of the day

obviously, i love music too...
so chuck on your best plaid shirt and button up your britches... ho down time!
http://youtu.be/TROPSdK5p84

more CAP stuff coming soon
let me show you how happy i am

Kodak Box Brownie Model 1

for those of you interested in photography who aren't acquainted with the Kodak Box Brownie, you should be ashamed of yourself.
before the introduction of the Brownie, only professional photographers could afford to take photos on their massive large format cameras, and as such they could charge an arm and a leg. The Brownie was marketed as the camera anyone could afford, advertised using the slogan "You push the button, We do the rest"; this being the case, it was strictly a point and click camera. the camera itself cost $1 (modern day equivalent, roughly $30) and the (now extremely annoying and hard to get hold of) film costing 15 cents. therefore, this very camera is the one to blame for the annoying and often embarassing tradition of special occasion and every-day photo taking.
so that's a rough (and probably partly wrong) history of the overall Brownie revolution (obviously, causing photography to explode - i forgot to mention that in my ramblings), now i'll move onto the Model 1.
the Model 1 first rolled off the production line in 1957 and was ceased in 1959. it boasts an f14 aperture and the rotary shutter has a speed of roughly 1/30 - 1/50 of a second. the film it takes is 227 (or as it says inside the camera, "Kodak 620"), which is now an outdated medium. last time i checked ebay, it costs about £12 to get hold of (sorry for switching between dollars and BPS) and THE MOST annoying thing is, it's identical in every way to 120 (very easy to get hold of), except for the spool it's reeled on, which is marginally thinner and shorter than the 120 spool.
i read on a flickr group that if you cut the ends of the 120 spool down to roughly the same size of the film and shave a few mm off each side then you can use it in there no problem, so i tried it out. it fits, and runs smoothly when you wind the film, but the ISO was all wrong, complete waste of film and time.

i really can't remember where i was going with this so i'll sum up;

1. leading figure in the photographic revolution, leading everyone to be able to take photos
2. cheap and cheerful (i expect, if i ever get it to work) point and click camera
3. the only film it takes is discontinued and as such very hard to get hold of, and also quite pricey
4. instant classic, a true diamond.

pray tell, where did you acquire it? oxfam charity shop, romsey, hampshire, UK.
cost: £4.99

first photos ready to go up!

now by trade, i'm a photographer, which is why the photos of my cameras really annoy me. but you have to forgive me, i really can't be arsed to take photos of the same thing repeatedly until it's bang on perfect, and the only manip' software i have on this laptop is um... Windows Photo Gallery ^^
so they're hideously overexposed for the most part, and out of focus where i'd rather they not be; damn fiddly little 50mm prime lens.
but oh well. enjoy

new year, new blog. cheesey but true

17 january 2011, and after finding an awesome secondhand bookshop in Poole i've decided to give the blogging game another go. all i've gotta do now is pull my finger out, and get a move on with getting my cameras and books up.
incase the title didn't give it away, CAP is about my penchant for vintage cameras and vintage books.
over the last few years i've developed a love for old books and old cameras; i'm like a moth to flame, and i hope to share my leisure and pleasure for this with you, those who blog. I've already a few CAPs up my sleeve, and once i've got those up here i'll be updating a) whenever i get some more, or b) whenever i'm bored.
keep your eyes peeled, more to come soon. sooner rather than later, hopefully...