It ALL Started Here

Let me tell you about a story about a little girl’s fascination.  “What fascination?” you ask.  My fascination with cameras and photography. 

As far back as I can remember I’ve always been intrigued and interested in photography.  When my Dad was in the military, he bought a Polaroid 210 Land Camera.  When I was around seven or eight years old, it was that very camera I’d “steal” when my parents were out of the house.  I’d take a couple of photographs and then put the camera back.  (Oh how I wish I still had some of those photographs)  Since my parents didn’t use the camera very often, they never noticed one or two missing.  At least, they never let on if they did.

Here’s my first camera:

Technically, it wasn’t “mine” but it was my first experience with one.  It was manufactured by Polaroid between 1967 and 1969.  Retailing at that time for $49.99, it was the first color-capable Polaroid Land Camera to sell for under $50.  Over 1.5 million of these were sold.  Polaroid flooded the market with land cameras starting with Model 100 and ending with the 450.  Doing so gave Polaroid a strong footing in the photography market at the time.  Not so today.

The Polaroid 210 uses series 100/660-series pack film which is still available through Fujifilm, and The Impossible Project.  The film is approximately 4.25 x 3.5” and comes 10 to a pack.  The battery is still available also.

In order to take a photograph, there’s series of steps to go through. Luckily, the buttons and knobs are marked 1-4 as an aid.  First, the cover has to be opened.  Then a metal latch is pulled so that the bellows can be unfolded in order to put the lens in its proper position.  Then the white shutter lever is pressed down to cock the shutter.  Once the shutter is released, one might expect the film come popping out.  Not exactly.  After the photo is taken, there’s a strip of white paper sticking out on the side of the camera.  It has to be pulled and in doing so, the tab of the film pops out.  That tab needs to be pulled slowly out so the film goes through a set of rollers that squeezes developer over the frame and out the side of the camera.  After waiting a minute or so, it’s peeled apart.  It was/is truly the original Instagram.

I think it was this process that amazed me:  the little gray box, pulling the paper and film out and all of us standing around waiting expectantly for a picture to appear.

More details about this camera:

•  The plastic gray front cover is detachable and the camera comes with a black nylon strap.

•  Aperture:  f/8, f/42

•  Shutterspeed:  1/1200 to 10 seconds

•  Built with an imagesizer viewfinder that presents a parallax corrected viewfinder along with an arrow that points to the number of feet the lens is focused to.  The photographer needs to estimate the distance from the subject and focus the camera until the arrow in the viewfinder points to the number of feet.

•  Battery:  No. 532 3.0v (PX24)

•  Exposure can be controlled somewhat by manually turning the lens between the lighten and darken settings.

•  It has a plastic two-element 114mm focal length lens which doesn’t offer crystal clear images but is capable of decent results with a steady hand.

My "Baby" Bro - Circa 1976

Me - 1972

My 9th Birthday - 1977

Me playing Atari - 1985

•  It has two speed positions:  75ASA for color film, 3000 for black and white film.

•  With the optional flash accessory, it uses M3 flash bulbs.  They can only be used once and need to be changed after each bulb is expended.  There’s an ejection button that pops the flash out.  One has to be very careful, though, because the bulbs are hot right after use.  The flash unit requires one AA battery.  Flash bulbs are no longer manufacturered, but vintage boxes of them can be found online and sometimes at yard sales or swap meets.  I haven't tried, but perhaps camera stores may still have them, but you’d probably have ask for them specifically.

•  No tripod socket or timer.

There you have it…. Everything you ever wanted to know about the Polaroid 210 Land Camera.

Several years ago, my Dad gave me that camera he bought before I was even born… The very same camera that whet my passion toward photography.  Writing about it makes me want to buy pack film!

 

Marvelous Monday Update 7/22/13

WEATHER
For the past few weeks, we've had horrendously HOT and HUMID weather here in the upper Illinois flatlands.  Why do people call us flatlanders, anyway?  The area I live in is far from being flat.  Besides acres and acres of crop fields, there's rolling hills, proliferous woodlands, and curving waterways.  But I digress...  After dealing with temps in the mid to upper 90's and heat indexes of over 100, we've finally received a much wanted and anticipated reprieve from the humidity.  (I for one say, "Thank Goodness!  It's about time!!)  It's still not cool enough for me to go on walks during my lunch hour, but at least it's cool enough that I can mow the "hayfield" of a yard at The Homestead without fear of falling over.

This is how I spent my evenings and weekends:

I'm sure Celeste felt like this:

There were several days that after doing my hair, I swear it looked like this:

Okay, maybe not that bad but it sure felt like it!

GARDENING
Sigh.  I'm really beginning to despise garden pests.  I had planted about 10 hills of cucumbers and two plants grew (which were promptly eating down to nothing in ONE day).  I had planted a bunch of herbs in the garden, too.  The only ones that grew were the ones in pots.  Is it possible something at the seeds before they had a chance to pop?  Recently, I noticed the Japanese Beetles have been devouring my rose bush.  I hand picked about eight of those little buggers off the bush yesterday.

*stepping off soap box now*

Despite the above rant, I do have some lovelies growing on The Homestead:

I forgot to take snaps of the planters and hanging basket. Darn it.

THEATRE
The local college put on its rendition of Big River.  Based on Mark Twain's 1884 novel, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn,  it features music in the bluegrass and country styles in keeping with the setting of the novel. I have to say that there are some very talented theatrical students at the college. 

Some of the singing literally gave me goosebumps... it was *that* good.

GIVEAWAY
The Snowflower Diaries is hosting its first ever giveaway. Click on over to see what it's all about.  There are also some freebies that you may want to stitch up.


STITCHY STUFF
I am almost doing a happy dance.  Almost... but not quite.  I didn't realize how much I really had done on Yuku.  After this past weekend's stitching marathon, I've only got Yuku's right sleeve to finish!  Yay.  Here's what she looks like:

Other WIP photos can be seen HERE.

I should take some close ups so you can see the details better. (Note to self: take better pics of Yuku)  I need to take a break from all the BS and FK's.  Sounds naughty, doesn't it?  LOL  Yuku is going to be put away for a bit while I work on an exchange piece and some gift ideas I have.

Balloon Glow is coming along nicely, too.  So many pretty colors in the sky.  I'm about 1/4 done with one page.  It still doesn't look like anything but blobs of color.

See that tiny little brown rectangle?  That's one of the balloon baskets (in case you were wondering and all...).

I've been doing some projects around The Homestead so stay tuned for future installments.

A Little This and A Little That

Where the heck did June go???!

Even though I've been doing quite a few little tasks around The Homestead, I don't have a whole lot to blog about. Here's the latest "news"...

WEATHER

The deluge of rain has stopped for a bit, but before doing so my Craftsman 6gal 2HP wet/dry vac died. Ya'll know that when it rains and rains and rains, I get water in my basement and the shopvac has been my saving grace in getting the water up off the floor quickly. I finally had time to "shop" for a new wet/dry vac on Saturday. I really wanted to get another Craftsman, but the Sears store in town only had 3 models that could hold 4 gallons or less. At Menards, they had the ShopVac brand. The 8gal vacs were on sale for $10 less than the 6gal ones so I ended up with and 8gal 4HP vac. Bring on the rain! On second thought, I could do without rain for a while.

STITCHY STUFF
Last week, I started a new project that I stitch during my lunch hour at work. Here's a progress photo after a week's worth of stitching:

It doesn't look like much right now, but it's been going pretty fast since all the stitches in the sky are half stitches.

Finally, I was able to finish The Black Cat into an ornament! As you may have noticed, I really enjoy doing flat padded ornaments.

 

Designer: Bent Creek
Fabric:  25ct Hand-Dyed Linen
Fibers: DMC, GAST, Anchor

Embellishments: Runched Ribbon

Lastly, I hope all my U.S. bloggy buddies have a safe 4th of July!

Until next time,

Marvelous Monday Update 6/24/13

WEATHER
I drove through rain and lightning this morning to get to work.  Friday night and into Saturday, it rained. It thundered.  It rained some more. 

I bolted upright in bed at 4:30am on Saturday remembering that I had dirty laundry sorted into piles on the basement floor.  Long time readers might remember that when it rains, and rains, and rains, I get water in my basement.  I jumped out of bed and rushed to the basement to find it... yup, water spreading across the basement floor toward the drains.  I had reached a pile of towels so I quickly threw those in a basket, and picked the other piles up before the water got to 'em. 

As I wandered around the basement to make sure there wasn't anything else that might need to be off the floor, I heard water running.  Washer? No. Sinks? No.  I followed the sound.  It was coming from behind some bins I had stacked by the wall.  Lo and behold, I found a hole the width of the end of my pinky.  Water was pouring in from the saturated ground like a tiny faucet.  As soon as the rain stops, repairs are in order!

STITCHY STUFF
Thanks so much for the comments regarding the nose I made for the snowman last week.  I didn't mean to have a crooked nose.  It just happened, lol.  It gives character, doesn't it?  I finished Mr. Snowman into an ornament.

 

Designer: Stoney Creek
Magazine: Stoney Creek Cross Stitch Collection, Jul/Aug 2000
Fabric: 25ct Ivory Luguna
Fibers: DMC
Embellishments: Carrot Nose and Star Buttons,

Handmade Coordinating Cording

 

It only took me a week to stitch up this cute scissor case at work on my lunch break.  Even though the linen banding was attached to the case, it wasn't as difficult as I thought it would be stitch.

 

 

Acorn Scissor Case

Designer: Lizzie Kate

Fibers:  DMC

Embellishments: Buttons, Acorn Charm

Since I finished the scissor case, that meant I had to pick another project for work.  The BF said, "Oh, just pick one!"  So I did.

Ballon Rally

It reminds me of this Balloon Rally that I've been to a couple of times.  The hot air balloons are awesome to see in real life.

Back to the project:  A bit ambitious for a work project, wouldn't you say?  It's a Dimensions Gold kit.  A benefit of having a 45 minute commute to work is that I'm slowly working my way through the many kits I have.  I really liked the fact that this kit had all the floss separated and organized.

There were two of those floss organizers.  Each one had threads that were 3ft in length, and the floss was glued to the organizer.  My infinite wisdom told me that it would soon become a nightmare with tangled floss... and what would I do with the leftover bits that were still useable?  The floss now looks like this:

I spent the weekend winding the floss onto bobbins.  No more worries about tangled floss and leftover bits, lol.

I've been promising for weeks to make Black Cat into an ornament.  Last week, I finally found a cute backing fabric.  Had plans to make the ornament over the weekend, but life got in the way.  I'm about 1/2 way done, though.  Does that count?

Until next time,

Three Times Charm

Hope all the Dad's, Grampa's, and Uncles out there had a great Father's Day. 

I went to visit my Dad on Father's Day.  You can read about him HERE.  We sat outside and if it weren't for the swarms of gnats, it would've been a good visit.  What do you get your Dad when he's 71 years old and really doesn't need anything?  Lately, I've been resorting to the green stuff, you know $$.  This year, I got creative with the card.  Behold finish #1...

The inside letters that spell "Dad" are origami.  I thought it turned out cute.

I'd hoped to have a complete ornament finished, but I didn't have matching DMC to make the cording I wanted.  So, for now I'll just show the stitched part.

Snowman with Tree

Designer: Stoney Creek

Magazine: Stoney Creek Cross Stitch Collection, Jul/Aug 2000

Fabric: 25ct Ivory Luguna
Fibers: DMC
Embellishments: Carrot Nose and Star Buttons

 

I made the nose out of Sculpey since the company recommended is no longer in business.  I especially like the fringe on the scarf. What do you think of Finish #2?

 

Finish #3 was actually finished a couple weeks ago.  I received word that it arrived at it's new home so now I can show it.  Here's what I sent Jessica in IN for the July 4th Exchange:

 

 

Sing for the USA

Designer: Brittercup Designs
Fabric: 25ct Ivory Luguna
Fibers: DMC
Embellishments: Liberty Bird Button, Red Ric Rac

 

I really enjoyed stitching this design and will probably stitch it up again when I get more of the bird buttons.  This was the first time I used ric rac on an ornament.  It was a bit fiddly, but I like the effect.

 

Until next time,