Purple Book ?

[Frank Schmidt]

I’m sure George Eastman never intended his Kodak cameras to be used as props in still-life photos. A 51 second exposure in the dark at ISO 125, f/22 using a Canon 60D and 50 mm lens. No flash.

If you know someone interested in photography and you need to get them a gift for the Holidays, this is a new book by Grant Haist reviewing his massive collection of Kodak cameras and products. Grant worked for over 10 years on this book and has collected Kodaks for over 40 years. He was Senior Research Assistant at Kodak labs for 32 years. (When the company puts together a display of vintage Kodak cameras they come to Grant to borrow his.)

This scene is lighted with the oil lamp flame, purple gel over spotlight and finally just white spotlight on the flower and camera. No color added in edit. All done in the dark except for wick light.

The neat thing about this book is that it tells the history of photography from about 1880 up to the 1950s by way of the author’s collection and so you can see what the he is talking about as he tells the story of Kodak and photography. It’s very much a coffee table picture book with diagrams too showing how the cameras and early flashes worked. Early tripods, film types and women in photography are all included. Haist Press - Home

Believe it or not, of the hundreds of cameras pictured in Grant’s book, this exact model is not included. It’s a 1A Pocket Special that was made from 1926 to 1934. I found it at a flea market a couple of days ago.
See more of my work at: FrankSchmidt: Art, Design & Photography | RedBubble