Love and hate is the relationship with my Box Brownie. When first used many years ago, it could do me no wrong. Its images have a wonderful, diffused quality, Images dance in and out of focus eccentrically, surpassing any novelty lens of today. Returning to it years later, I found it scratched my negatives in a rather unartistic way, then I noticed the terrible parallax error, a gulf of misalignment of what I expected her to capture and what she did capture on film. After a very light bit of tinkering, I seemed to resolve the scratching issue, making sure all the parts the film passed through where clean and anything that was supposed to spin, now spun freely. However, I secretly think I was just spooling the film inside the camera in a far too convoluted manner.
Armed with some 120mm film I took her out again and managed to capture images of the sky, all by accident. The Box Brownies viewfinder is tiny, dirty, blurry and something you don't peer into, but more peer down at from 30 or so cm. If you make out anything at all, you are doing well. Big, bold contrasty scenes are best. On the occasions where I could make out the image in the viewfinder, composing as best I could, the resulting images were significantly more biased to the sky than expected. The camera itself doesn't seem to indicate any misalignment of parts; everything looks to be fitting in its place just right. I can only assume it's a Brownie quirk. I do have 3 Box Brownies so if I persist with these little buggers I may know for sure if it's a quirk of one or all of them.
To give myself something of a fighting chance, armed with earbud cleaners and lens fluid, I wiped anything related to the viewfinder inside and out. This did improve things greatly, but nothing like the miracle required. Remembering to take scene composition in the viewfinder with a pinch of salt does grate with my strictness for framing, basically knowing it's not worth the risk of composing things neatly in the frame when you have no idea where that frame is. I feel with practice it's probably just a matter of experience combined with stepping back a little to give the frame borders a healthy dollop of space.
Using the brownie is a little slow because of that terrible viewfinder. It helps to move the camera from side to side rapidly as there is no point trying to see the perfect vision in the viewfinder, that view being a mush of light and dark zones with no detail to speak of. I also need to make sure the camera looks level in my hands to avoid drunken-looking horizons, something normally people don't think about when using a camera with a useful viewfinder.
From my days of geeky vintage lens know-how, by means I've now forgotten, I had calculated the apertures of the Brownie as F16, F22 and F32. I also measured the shutter speed at around 1/40 to 1/50 depending on the moon cycle and Astrological charts. In a nutshell using iso 100 film on a bright sunny day, with F16 aperture you can get an OK exposure. That leaves F22 and F32 very useful for nothing, which is somewhat confusing as I assume the film of the day was even slower than Iso 100.
Kodak perhaps pushed development quite considerably to achieve usable negatives, generally, it’s all something of a mystery. My first roll of iso 100 film, shot in lovely light was, if anything, a touch underexposed. ISO 400 appears a wiser choice. F32 for full sun, F22 for cloudy and F16 for light shade, or something like that.
For whatever reason I've decided my Brownie is best for Old Cities and Towns. Here it seems to be having something of a huge advantage for my anxiety-ridden, self-conscious street photography: nobody seems to notice it. Whether it’s the waist level viewfinder, the fact the whole situation is too bizarre for people to want to engage, or it looks like a crap black box of nothingness, so far, I've been close to invisible. The only hitch is the time it takes to see through that bloody viewfinder.
Carrying the Brownie is also something of an oddity. The Brownie does have a beautiful leather carrying handle that, I am quietly confident, will snap off given any opportunity. Walking through the city clutching a rectangular black box does feel somewhat strange. I try to juxtapose it with modern clothing to avoid passers-by thinking they’ve entered a time slip.
Below I changed to Ilford HP5. It offers more options for light conditions. I used the Bellini Euro data sheet for the development of 5mins. The Negs might be a little thin, so I need to investigate that a little further.
I remembered to point the Box further downwards than the viewfinder shows, which has been successful. The next issue is trying to avoid wonky horizons, I could use a spirit level, first I will just try being a little careful. What I have discovered is my photo keeper rate isn’t great as I cannot see the image cropped in the viewfinder, I don’t have that added filter to reject an image. A few of the images I probably would have rejected if I could of seen them in a viewfinder.
It is rare I photograph on the streets; I find Oxford fairly unintimidating due to the amounts of tourists taking photographs and the Town's friendly inhabitants. The Box Brownie takes the edge off further with its discreet look and waist level finder.
I am finding my images aren’t different than any other competent photographers on a day with good light. On Instagram I’m seeing the exact same spots on the street repeatedly. I do wonder if I need a more focussed idea of what I want to capture within City/Town photography. The Final image of a Woman cycling past a sun-touched wall is my favourite. In some ways I’d rather have a series of images based on that simple concept rather than a spread of photogenic captures.
