I’ve been on the lookout for a back for a camera i bartered for years ago. the camera is a century 8 grande portrait outfit
(photograph courtesy of historic camera.com a great website if you like looking at “old stuff” or want to see what you have )
http://www.historiccamera.com/cgi-bin/librarium/pm.cgi?action=display&login=century_8
anyways when i received the camera it came on an ornate semi centenial stand ( without the film holder rack ) and the camera came with an 8×10 back. i eventually made a 11×14 back for the camera out of foam core and waxed paper, and a paper negative holder as well. it worked like a dream. i just had to load each sheet separately, no big deal unless i wanted to take more then one photograph.
eventually i purchased a 7×11 film back and holders which i mounted on what was the mount for the 8×10 back. and that worked beautifully too, but like the 8×10 is about 1/2 the 11×14 negative, the 7×11 REALLY is half the size. 11×14 is such a giant negative i have wanted to get back to shooting that format for a long long time.
recently i found an inexpensive back and a couple of film holders. if you have ever priced anything large format, you know inexpensive is a relative term. about a year ago i found a back, broken and in pieces that someone wanted to sell to me for a more money than i had to spend. i don’t have very much money so i passed and figured eventually i would find something a little more for someone with a shoestring budget. well, it happened a few weeks ago. i got a back and holders, and it came with a camera and a 8x1o back as well. couldn’t have been happier seeing it cost less than the amount for something broken !
the camera arrived in the belly of a greyhound bus. just don’t ship greyhound on holiday weeks where there is a lot of bus travel, people and their luggage get first priority. i brought the giant box home and unpacked it. about a day later i had the camera cleaned up. after 10 years in a box in someone’s basement it got kind of dusty, and dirty. i reglued parts of the film holders back together too. it didn’t have a ground glass ( focusing screen ) so i went to the local home goods store and had a piece of plexi glass cut down to 11×14, and i sanded it and sanded it, and sanded it until it was scuffed up enough to work as a cheap piece of ground glass. i figure if i sometimes use waxed paper scuffed plexiglass would work fine. it cost me less than 12$ and about 5 mins of time and saved me probably 4-5 times that. i clipped the corners and inserted the ground plexiglass.
first i made a retina image. i wanted to see if the film holders leaked or the bellows were a mess.
the image came out really nice, so i desaturated it, and added my own color since i like doing that sort of thing
2 hour exposure, expired photo paper
the other day i decided to load up the other 11×14 film holder up with paper, and a a 8×10 too.
i made a few kitchen window photographs
onion and limes and dirty window
scrubby and window light
with an assistant later in the day we made some portaits.
legs
counting to 20
looking forward to taking the empire on the road, and using the back in-studio
