My late Fathers Super Ikonta.

Your Dad had a great eye, and was well versed in the ways of Zeiss cameras and the film he was using. You should be proud of his work. Thanks for posting.
 
Nice pictures

Nice pictures

Wonderful pictures. Each of these tells a story personal to you and I appreciate you taking the time to scan and share them!
 
thanks for sharing these photos and stories. pls post more :)

jmpgino said:
, sad because what you see on your computer does not do justice to the images I have at this end.
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RFF attachments are tiny, compared for instance to photo sharing sites like Flirck. also RFF galleries the resolution is bigger than when linking images to thread like above. yes still not same as looking the originals, but better anyway :)
 
I have really enjoyed seeing the photos your dad took. Your background narrative is a perfect match to the fine photos. Thank you for sharing these.

Bob
 
What more can I add to what has already been said except these are seriously good images and with your memory of the events surrounding them you might want to consider a book. Thanks for taking the time to share the photos and your memories.
 
The story of your father's travails in acquiring his camera shows how an artist will suffer for his art!

What a treasure-your whole family.
 
I don't think anyone will disagree with me that these are some of the most interesting pictures (and accompanying stories) we've seen here in a long time. Please keep them coming. (The Sunderland picture is awfully evocative; can't imagine it in anything other than b&w. And the swan-on-Avon shot is as good as things get, for sure.)

189 rolls, you say? I'm impressed at the precision of this recordkeeping. Looking forward to seeing what you do with the camera, once you get it back.
 
Awesome and hilarious!

Flickr allow for posting of many photos instead of just one or two. Shorpy.com is a cool site for old photos and several here are worth submitting. I love the one with the ships.

One request: We need a photo of the camera!!

I have a 6x9 Ikonta which I love:
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jmpgino said:
...One funny thing worth sharing was is that I found some very tasteful NUDES of Mother, taken 1955. I had wondered if there was something like that in the darkroom for years but never looked because it would not have been right of me to do so. Anyhow he would have destroyed the neg's if he was ashamed.
Another small point that some of you might find funny regarding the camera's history. When WW11 ended England did not want any of our money going into Germany, after all they had caused so much damage and defeating Hitler cost us so much. Well when you went abroad the British Government would not let you take more than fifty British pounds sterling, the camera was going to cost him roughly that amount, no credit cards in those day's so he knew he would have to smuggle the cash in and then convert it. His method was simple, roll up the cash put it into a condom and stick it between his ass cheeks, luck allowed him customs passage without a search. I think he was being a little stupid but he knew the times either way it is rather funny.
Good night to all, I hope I am not boring you with these tales.
OH one thing I have a close up lens set up, something that some of you may not know was available. One piece of glass goes over the rangefinder part that your finger rotates and the other goes over the main lens. I have some rather good images he did for Christmas cards, I will root them out in the morning.
James.
PS If any one wants a look at my Mother in the NUDE, the answer is NO BLOODY WAY !!!!!!!!!!!!!
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One of my neighbors asked me if I had any nudes of my new wife. When I told him "no" he asked me "do you want to buy some?".
 
Another two.

Another two.

Thank you for the nice comments, it would be nice if the old man was alive to enjoy them himself.
So two more here, the ship funnels one I do not have a date for at the moment but rest assured it was taken before 1965 again in one of the dock yards back home. It is a 6x9 neg but I cropped it a little. I think it is a superb little image, just a random pile of ship air intake's waiting to be fitted onto a new ship.
The second I just thought I would throw in because it is from an old folder, not a rangefinder model. The camera I think took the image is a Kodak, with a fixed lens made by Ross of London, very strange camera, getting into the film area was a job only to be done when sober. Anyhow the image is of my Mother on her wedding day, taken by Father on their way down the A1, it was the main spine road down England in those days, they were going to a small Hotel called "The Ram Jam Inn" it is still there and they spent their Golden Wedding there. Mother took one of Father as well but she was not as steady as Pop was, the year 1943 he was home on leave if I can remember correctly.
 
Charming. To me, this thread is a lot of what photography's about. Thank you for sharing.

My avatar is from a slide my father took of me when I was about four. My dad's camera was a Rival 35, which I still have. The pedal car was my friend's and to this day I still remember that visit. I'd never ridden one, but was smitten immediately. Unfortunately, a pedal car of my own was not in the budget (or so I was told).

Looks like your dad had a pretty sweet car, too! :)
 
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A self image.

A self image.

Well he is one Father took of himself smoking in 1955, the light is good and looks like it was window only lit.
 
Bales at docks.

Bales at docks.

Sunderland docks, 1962 bales of wool or hemp, not sure but the light is good.
 
Close up lens.

Close up lens.

Mother got a close up lens set up for Pop's birthday in 1958, here he is playing with it.
 
this should be sticky... really
thanks for sharing!!!

I would totally enlarge the ship and put it on my living!!!
 
Flowers girl.

Flowers girl.

A young girl looking at a flower box, not sure if she was caught by the camera or she posed for it. Taken 1956 on the Isle of Jersey.
 
Something like your thread here puts digital in perspective. One expensive camera, 189 rolls of film, over what appears to be a 20 year period. That would have probably been typical for a semi-serious photographer. That gives numbers to punch into the calculator to compare the cost of digital to film, in the real world. I doubt that there is a digital photographer in the world who gets the hit rate your dad did, which apparently was pretty close to 1:1.

Thank you for sharing your dad's lovely photos.
 
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