Vintage or Lomography anyone?

[photographicsafaris]

I have an old folding 6x9 rather than 6x6 camera - they are prone to flair if aimed at a light source, so finding an accurate way to shield them without blocking the lens becomes a challenge

There is nothing to them really, you just have to get to know what the focusing marks relate to - its a £10 exercise as below.

Make sure the bellows are light tight, and the shutter blades move freely. the shutter speeds are prone to stretched springs so can be a light slower than indicated.
Buy a cheap light meter and you'll love it.

1 on a dark surface (road) Lay out a straight length of white thick rope as long as the focus marker scale on the lens and measure out then wrap a strip of black insulation tape for every distance marker identified on the lens.
2 Open the aperture (low number possible e.g f3.5 rather than f11)
3 place camera on a tripod at the end of the rope showing the closest distance with the lens the same distance away from the start of the rope as the first mark on the lens focus scale (in point of fact the scale should be measured from the film plane but this way gives you 5 inches of error margin either way)
4 frame camera to cover the full length of the rope - start to finish and try to include some of the Horizon, preferably with a close skyline interest e.g. trees about 100m - 200m away
5 Set an appropriate shutter speed for the light conditions, preferably above 1/30th
6 before each shot in section 7 write on a board the distance focused on in the shot, and place facing the camera so the it looks like it is adjacent the actual focus point it represents
7 Take one picture for every distance marker on the lens focus scale (remembering to wind on between shots) (if possible use a cable release)
8 go to step 6 until your have run out of film.
9 Process and Compare photos to see how the focus compares to the distance marker it was supposed to focus on.

The next task is to focus on something about 1/3rd the way through the focus distance on the lens and shoot a roll of film with differing apertures and not changing the focus - obviously adjust the shutter speed to accommodate for the different exposures

Make a note on a board in the picture what the aperture value of that shot was.
Make special note of the red for aperture and distance focus setting this should be the point of front to back focus. (Wishing that the shutter speed is high enough to carry a sharp image)
To make this exercise doubly interesting try shooting a fast flowing water/traffic scene

if you want to freak out the guys in the lab, get a changing bag, and wrap a roll of 35mm unexposed film inside a 120 roll and shoot a load of pictures. Then wrap back into a 35mm cassette and drop in for dev and print as framed....most amusing on a 6x9 camera and the panorama is awesome.

And yes, I still have and use some treasured Film cameras, that i can't bare to part with.

As an aside I really do wonder at the point of shooting 5000 photos a day at sporting event where/how do these treasured 5000 photos get seen by anyone, surely by flooding the accessibility you're restricting your own market?
I can't even begin to get my head around editing and then storing for archival purposes 5000 photos a day (assuming a 32 working week year with a Nikon d800 thats my version of hell!)