Goerz Pocket Tenax

Goerz Pocket Tenax

The camera belongs to a friend. It is a Goerz Pocket Tenax folding plate camera manufactured by C. P. Goerz of Berlin about 100 years ago. The lens an F6.8 Syntor with 5 inch focal length. The compound shutter and aperture control works and the bellows appears light tight. The camera needs only a trip to a good shop for a careful cleaning and lubrication to be fully functional.

The camera kit includes a 7x5x3 inch wooden carrying case and numbered 3.25 x 4.25 inch glass film plate holders.

Camerapedia has this to say about C.P. Goerz

C. P. Goerz was founded in 1886 by Carl Paul Goerz (1854-1923), a salesman who once had been in apprenticeship at Emil Busch in Rathenow and later was partner of Eugen Krauss in Paris. Originally Goerz sold mathematical tools for schools, since 1887 also cameras. By taking over F. A. Hintze's workshop in 1888 his company became a camera maker itself, named Optische Anstalt C. P. Goerz since 1890. It was based in Berlin.

I have posted a few other pictures of this camera to a set called C P Goerz Camera Check them out.

Should anybody have any more information about this camera, please leave a comment.

You can learn more about plate cameras and how they operate at licm.org.uk

Goerz Pocket Tenax Kit

Conspiracy Theory

Who knew that Kenn Starr had a company in India? Or that Monica was part of an diabolical plot to sell butter?


Billboard seen in Mumbai in 1998.

I have placed a few pictures taken in and around Mumbai, India in 1998 into a photo set on my Flickr site. Clicking HERE or on the photo above will take you to the photo set.

Google Image Search Games

The Cars of the Beast

The full story is found here

Google is playing games with you.

People from all over the world are arriving at this post from a Google Image Search for "The Cars of the Beast" or similar. Folks click on the thumbnail image of one of the photos you see in the slideshow. But instead of the pictures in my post, Google sends them to a picture of my granddaughter or to a Bob Dylan Video. Not exactly what they were looking for.

It's all part of the Great Google Conspiracy and now I'm on to them. Follow the link under the slideshow to see the post and learn a bit more about the cars. Or, depending on how you got here, pull your scroll bar down two posts.

Watch Google search play games with the Cars of the Beast at Search Me, WTF? Google

Paranoid Blues Birthday

But something is happening here and we don’t know what it is do we Mr. Jones? ... "there must be some way out of here" said the joker to the thief. ... Keep a clean nose, watch the plain clothes and you won't need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows. ... But when Quinn the Eskimo gets here, All the pigeons gonna run to him.

My apologies to Bob Dylan
Note that links in this post external to blogger open in a single new window.

The Cars of the Beast ?

Seen on opening day at the Dubai Autodrome

Bad in Black, Lamborghini 666

I was told that these cars are owned by Dubai's Sheik Maktoum. He drove a U.S. made Viper in the feature race on that opening day. I don't recall where he finished. I thought it was a bold and gutsy, in your face move, to put the "Number of the Beast" on the cars. Classy. And the Viper was nice too.

Porsche Carrera GT 666

In Dubai auto “number plates” are sold by auction. Highly sought after low numbers and auspicious numbers can bring more than a million dollars.

Millions Spent on UAE Car Number Plates 18 February 2008

In Dubai more than $US7m was spent on the car number plate bearing the number 98. Of course that was small change compared to the $US14m spent by one Emiriti in Abu Dhabi on a number plate bearing the number 1.

Porsche Carrera GT 666-2

It's my guess that the license plate numbers costs as much as the cars. American's might pay an extra $100 for a vanity plate. In the U.A.E. it's a much bigger deal. Millions can be spent for that special number. Check out these articles from Dubai's Gulf News:

Dubai number plate auction generates Dh41m ($11.162 million U.S.)

A number of two-digit numbers, 89, 43, 61 and 78, were on offer, 43 and 61 toping the list by generating Dh2.3 million ($626,ooo U.S.) each. The four numbers were sold for a total of Dh11,14 million. ($3.033 million U.S.)

Dubai holds special number plate auction

Dubai: Number Plate G 16 broke all records of Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) special number plates auction when it was sold for Dh5 million ($1.36 million U.S.) Friday, according to RTA.

You can read an earlier post about my day at the Dubai Autodrome in A Day at the Races Check it out.

Note: All Links to non-Blogger sites in this post open in a single new window.

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Update: April 16^th, 2009

As of this date, this post has now been viewed by folks from 100 different countries. Check it out at And Haiti makes 100 on LostBob's Blog.

See why this post is the most popular on this blog at Search Me, WTF Google?

One Day in the Life

"gradually it was disclosed to me that the line separating good and evil passes not through states, nor between classes, nor between political parties either -- but right through every human heart."

Alexander Solzhenitsyn

Blagoveshensky Cathedral, Kazan

Alexander Solzhenitsyn died yesterday at age 89.

The obituary in on BBC’c Web Page is worth a read.

From the Guardian

Solzhenitsyn's wife, Natalya, told Interfax that her husband, who suffered along with millions of Russians in the prison camp system, had died as he had hoped to die.

"He wanted to die in the summer, and he died in the summer," she said. "He wanted to die at home, and he died at home. In general, I should say that Alexander Isaevich lived a difficult but happy life.

His book One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich is one of my all time most memorable reads.

A Better Shot

The gentleman behind the camera getting a better shot of Guitar Shorty has his own collection of BluesFest photos here:

Grudnick’s BluesFest Photoset

Western Maryland Blues Fest, 2008

Hagerstown, MD
May 29 through June 1 2008

I have started to post some pictures from the 2008 Western Maryland Blues Fest into a photoset on my Flickr photo sharing site. Check them out.


Bettye Lavette Band

Note: Clicking on the photos will take you to its page in my photoset where you can se or download the full size image or view more bluesfest photos.


Bettye Lavette


Charlie Musselwhite


Charlie Musselwhite Band


Buckwheat Zydeco


Buckwheat Zydeco


Norma Jean Bruso


Guitar Shorty

You can see the full photoset here

My kind of place

A friend sent me this


If you take this road, the next left is Discovery Rd.

Too bad that one is a dead end.

More from Mianyang, China

My pictures from Mianyang and Chengdu are snapshots from more than 11 years ago. I was there for less than three weeks but those weeks remain a highlight of ten years of working abroad. It is heartbreaking to see the images and hear the news coming from there this week.


The Morning Ferry

Note: Clicking on the pictures will take you to it’s page in my Flickr photoset where you can see more pictures from Mianyang and Chengdu.

From the L.A. Times

MIANYANG, CHINA -- Everywhere you turned Wednesday, there was more bad news: The official death toll from China's earthquake climbed to nearly 15,000, with thousands still missing; 391 dams were damaged; and in Mianyang county, 3,600 passengers were trapped in trains, and 120 coal miners lost underground.

Fishing

From the Chicago Tribune

MIANYANG, China — The survivors surged into every available space: on top of flattened ping-pong tables, inside an abandoned boxing ring, between treadmills — any place they could find in a sports stadium that has become a settlement for the displaced in one of Sichuan's hardest-hit cities.

A quick search of photos posted on Flickr shows that the cities have changed dramatically since I was there, more cars on the streets, more modern buildings, more shopping; tangible results of China’s economic boom.

See: Commentary by Andrew Smeall, Asia Society

The disaster unfolding in Sichuan, China reveals the tragic side of China's focus on rapid economic growth. Although the Chinese government has responded with admirable swiftness and determination in the face of this disaster, some of the damage, and future tragedies, can only be avoided through more rigorous attention to building codes….

This earthquake merely highlights examples of a trend that has become evident across much of China's economy over the last few years—a trend of profits coming before people. Supporting environmental regulatory industries through fines levied on polluters ironically insures that regulators profit from the continued existence of polluters.

Click here to see a slideshow of 30 images taken in Mianyang and Chengdu in the early spring of 1997.

The People of Mianyang and Chengdu

In early spring of 1997 I visited Chengdu and Mianyang in Sichuan Province, China.. Those cities are much in the news in recent days following the magnitude 7.9 earthquake with epicenter not far from Mianyang.

I had a wonderful time there and would love to return. The images I see on the news and the web from there are tragic and heartbreaking.

I am posting these pictures of some of the wonderful people I encountered there in hope that wherever they are today, they are safe and well.

Note: Clicking on the photos will take you to it’s page in my Flickr photoset where I have posted more photos from my visit there.

Today these young schoolgirls could be high school or university age. Are they still able to smile as they did in 1997?

From China View

MIANYANG, Sichuan, May 15 (Xinhua) -- A teenage girl has told how she and her classmates sang pop songs together as they lay trapped and injured in the ruins of their high school after the massive earthquake in southwest China on Monday.

The Scissor Sharpener

Mianyang Folksinger

Chengdu Bartender. He was very proud of his city and more than willing to have his picture snapped but he turned his ID badge around first.

Please see: http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2008-05/14/content_8167930.htm

MIANYANG, Sichuan, May 14 (Xinhua) -- Death toll in the earthquake-stricken Mianyang City jumped from 3629 to 5,430 by 11:40 a.m. on Wednesday.
Information from the quake control and relief efforts headquarter of Mianyang City said Monday's earthquake also left 1,396 people missing, 18,486 more buried in debris, and 23,235 others injured.

See Also:

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2008-05/14/content_8170751.htm

http://www.cctv.com/english/20080514/101800.shtml

http://blogs.wsj.com/chinajournal/2008/05/13/in-mianyang-street-lights-lit-relative-calm/

Please visit my Mianyang and Chengdu, 1997 photo set where you can see more photos of Mianyang and her people.

Alexander Gardner’s Burnside Bridge Photos

Alexander Gardner took a series of photographs of the Antietam Battlefield beginning just two days after the battle where 23,000 soldiers were killed, wounded or missing in a single day of combat.

Gardner’s photographs were the first time an American battlefield had ever been photographed with many of the dead still on the field. Gardner, 41 years old at the time of the battle, was employed by Mathew Brady's studio in Washington, DC.

Library of Congress Image cwpb 04327 from Gardner Negative.


Gardner’s photos include four taken of Burnside Bridge. I have attempted to discover Gardner’s camera position and recreate those shots. The results provide a glimpse of how much (or little) the area has changed in nearly 150 years.

Gardner’s Burnside Bridge (follow link to Gardner’s photo)

This would be the same view seen by many of the attacking soldiers in Burnside's command.

Clicking on the photos will take you to its page in my Flickr photoset where you can see a full size image. You can also locate the camera position on a google map or satellite image by following the “Taken in: (map)” link found under Additional Information on that page.

Clicking on the link that is the photo's title will take you to Alexander Gardner's historic photo for comparison.

Gardner’s Burnside Bridge 2 (to Gardner’s photo)

Now that I know the spot, I can return with my tripod and attempt to duplicate Gardner’s long exposure time.

Gardner’s Burnside Bridge 3 (to Gardner’s photo)

I believe the fence is a bit closer to the bank of the Antietam creek in Gardner’s shot.

Gardner’s Burnside Bridge 4 (to Gardner’s photo)

I have found Gardner’s position for this shot but I have missed on the time of day.

You can see 30 of Gardner’s photographs on the National Park Service Antietam webpage here:

Historic Photographs by Alexander Gardner

The photos can be seen as a slide show or in a gallery of downloadable 3000 x 2400 pixel images.

Follow this link to see a slideshow of some of my recent Antietam Battlefield photos:

LostBob’s Antietam Battlefield Photoset

Explain This

Which end of this tree was in the ground?

Burnside's Heron Revisited

He's in there. He won't let me get much closer than this.



Click on the picture to enlarge to see the heron.

You can see more photos of thus guy’s neighborhood around Burnside Bridge and Antietam National Battlefield here:

http://flickr.com/photos/lostbob/sets/72157604154649292/

I have a Pentax weatherproof 35mm I used to carry on canoe and backpacking trips. It has optics comparable to the Olympus C5050. I could get a good shot easily with the old Pentax zoom90-WR. It had feature that my Olympus lacks. A sensor for the remote control on the back of the camera. I could set the camera on a tripod and focus on the Heron’s favorite spot. I could then hide in cover behind the camera and wait for him to return. I already know it takes only about five minutes for him to return if I am out of sight.

The Olympus has a sensor only on the front of the camera. I would have to hide under the water.

Burnside's Heron

I spotted this Great Blue Heron a few days ago while walking on the Antietam Battlefield. Note: Clicking on the pictures will take you to my Flickr photo sharing site where you can see full size images as well as more photos of feathered friends on the Antietam Battlefield.

The Heron fishes the Antietam Creek just below Burnside Bridge and he keeps me just far enough away to almost get a picture out of this old Olympus camera.

Almost, but not quite. Or maybe it’s just that I am not smart enough to get closer to him. In either case, it’s more about soaking up some sunshine, breathing some fresh air and trying to hang onto whatever is left of my sanity than about the picture. Or the bird.


I have posted some more photos of this guy on my Flickr photo-sharing site. The full size images seen there are cropped from a 2560 x 1920 pixel original off the camera. I can get higher pixel density off the camera but I can’t do anything to improve the little piece of glass that sits in front. I need a real telephoto lens. Like the 300mm auto stabilized one in my 35mm camera bag.

I need a new camera (and a new life). It’s time for a digital SLR.

My Olympus C5050 has been a good camera (mostly) and I have a history with Olympus digital cameras starting with a C2020 when it was one of only about half a dozen 2 mega pixel cameras on the market. That one was replaced with a C4040 after I bounced the 2020 off the seat of my jeep. I loved the C4040. When it was stolen, I replaced it with the C5050. I don’t like the C5050 as much as I did the 4040 because of changes to knobs and controls etc.

When I bought the C5050 my Canon EOS-A2 35mm SLR was still my primary camera. There were digital SLRs on the market then but only one with a large format, full frame CCD and that one cost over 6 grand.

I told myself that I would hold out for digital SLR until Canon’s large format CCD was available in a camera body that sold for less than 2K and was compatible with my EOS lenses.

It looks like the EOS-5D is getting there.

I am interested in hearing from anyone with experience buying Canon camera bodies online.

Any advice about pitfalls to avoid? Things to look out for?

Grandma

Today is Grandma's birthday, April 8, 1894

I can still recall the smell of the sand tarts she baked when I was a kid.

....and the grandfather clock circa 1973.

Grandma passed away in June of 1978

My Grandfather’s Clock

Actually it’s my mother’s clock


It’s an English longcase clock
In the early sixty’s my grandfather was an antique dealer in Lancaster County, PA. My uncle, his only son, became a dealer in the mid sixties. This clock was acquired by my uncle and sold to my parents with help of a small loan from my grandmother. That is pretty much the full history of the clock as I knew it until yesterday.


We were fairly certain that it was an English clock but knew no more than that. There were no identifying marks anywhere on the clock. We knew that there was a painted dial under the engraved brass dial but had never seen it.

My mother has recently moved and the clock has taken a trip to the clock shop before being relocated. The clock shop has exposed the painted dial as they perform fifty year maintenance procedures.



The clock appears to made by an English clockmaker named James Edwards of Stourbridge. Stoubridge is an industrial area 12 miles west of Birmingham (and place of manufacture of the first steam locomotive ever to operate in the United States, the Stourbridge Lion ).

I don’t yet know when Mr Edwards of Stourbridge manufactured his clocks.

The painted dial reveals that the clock originally had a movement with only two winding spindles protruding through the dial. Three additional holes have been drilled in the painted face to accommodate the three spindles of the current eight day movement. It is likely that the clock originally had a 30 hour movement which was replaced with the eight day movement with the chimes to make life more comfortable and convenient for the owner of the clock. A little Google time tells me this was not uncommon.

The engraved brass dial makes the story a little more interesting. While almost imperceptible from the front, the brass dial was also drilled to fit the original two spindle movement. Those older holes were carefully plugged, filled, and polished and then the engraving detail was carefully replicated. These plugged holes show clearly on the back of the dial. It appears that the brass dial was added some time before the clock was upgraded to the current movement. It would seem that whoever installed the movement now in the clock was skilled craftsman.





So that’s everything I know about the clock today. I am hoping to learn more and will share it as I find it. Meanwhile, if someone should stumble across this site who can tell me something about this clock or its clockmaker or who could point me along the way, I would appreciate hearing your comments.

Addendum; 3 April

I have learned a little bit more about the clock today. The back of the painted dial contains a “falseplate” used for attachment to the movement. The falseplate is stamped “S Baker Birmingham”.

A Google search yielded this interesting site with information on dating painted dials and an index of dialmakers.

…the people who made the dials which the clockmakers used. The clockmaker's name is usually on the dial, but the dialmaker's name is often stamped on the reverse of the dial or cast into the "falseplate".

BAKER, SAMUEL - BIRMINGHAM - clock dials 1823 to 1850

http://www.dialrestorer.co.uk/7.html


I have posted a few more pictures of the clock on my Flickr photo sharing site. You can view them as a slide show or download full-size images there.
Check them out.

Thurston Griggs Trail

Click on the trail marker to see the trail map.

(While not shown on the map, there is a parking lot at the trailhead.)

The equinox and the full moon provided a good excuse for a hike to Black Rock and Annapolis Rock overlooks on the Appalachian Trail. The forecast was almost perfect, cool and windy with mostly clear skies, sunset at 7:23 PM. The moon, 99% illuminated and just 20 hours from full, rising at 6:34PM.

With no foliage on the trees I could watch the first sunset of spring from Black Rock then hike a portion of the trail by the light of the full moon.



Walking silently through the woods under the light of a bright moon. Pretty good way to welcome springtime if you ask me.

Sunset and Graffiti

Click the Pics. to see More

Sunset at Black Rock

The closest access to Black Rock overlook is via the trail that follows the old Bagtown Road roadbed, parallel to Black Rock Creek up the mountain to intersect with the Appalachian Trail near the site of the old Black Rock Hotel. That trail, with the lower portion re-routed to the south bank of the creek is now known as the Thurston Griggs Trail.

Moderately steep, rocky and wet the trail climbs for just under a mile until it intersects the AT near what is now the Pogo Memorial campsite where the Black Rock Hotel once stood. Turning south on the AT the trail climbs less steeply for about a half mile to Black Rock overlook (short side trail marked with blue blaze).

After capturing the sunset at Black Rock I continued south on the AT, now level and wooded along the summit ridge, with the glowing remains of the sunset to the west and bright full moon rising through the trees to the east, reaching Annapolis Rock overlook just before the last orange colors of the sunset faded to black in the west.

At Annapolis Rock I watched as the moon to climbed higher through the trees casting a bright glow and deep shadows on the rocks and cliff around me.

It was after 9 PM with the moon high in the sky when I left Annapolis Rock. The light from the moon was more than sufficient to follow the trail safely including watching my footing. I carried a light but ever needed it. I did need to stop occasionally for a brief period while a passing cloud darkened the moon. I made it back to my car by 11 PM including a second stop at Black Rock.

Turns out Thurston Griggs is a pretty interesting character and one who probably deserves to have a trail named after him.

One Man's Window on the Twentieth-Century
(Autobiography of Thurston Griggs)

This autobiography describes some periods and events in the life of Dr. Thurston Griggs, including 3 months spent in Germany when the Nazi party was gaining popularity, and several years spent in mainland China in Canton and Peking (Beijing) before and after World War II. Graduate education at Harvard and his experiences as a Conscientious Objector during World War II are the subject of several chapters. There is discussion of his musical and play-writing pursuits, his ground-breaking invention of a speech-transcription process for voice recognition in the 1960's, and his work on behalf of the Appalachian Trail and the hiking community in the Potomac Appalachian region.

The Irish Brigade at Antietam

In honor of St Patrick’s Day I am posting a few shots of The Irish Brigade Monument at Antietam National Battlefield. The monument stands at the entrance to the observation tower near the end of Bloody Lane.

Irish Brigade Monument

On September 17th, 1862 the Irish Brigade suffered heavy casualties as they crossed the corn field and approached Bloody Lane. The brigade’s casualty list included 113 dead, 422 wounded and 5 missing.

Clicking on these images will enlarge them for easy reading.

How many of those were immigrants or sons of immigrants? How many came to this country simply because there were no jobs and little food back home? Came to perform hard and dirty work for a lower wage than the folks already settled here were willing to accept? How many came simply because it was the only way they could find to feed and clothe their families?

How many were welcomed by their new neighbors in the months and years before they spilled their blood early on an autumn day in a Maryland cornfield?

Just some food for thought as we raise a pint of Guinness in honor of the Patron Saint of Ireland.



Click the Pic. to visit it's Flickr PhotoPage where you can see (and download)high resolution originals. For example, the monument detail image to the left is available at 1500 x 1200 pixels.






Other pictures from the Antitam National Battelfield can be seen in my Antietam Battlefield PhotoSet on Flickr

Cheers!

Padre Pio goes to Doha

I was reading Dubai's Gulf News Online Yesterday when this reference to Padre Pio caught my eye.

The emotional ceremony reached its climax when Cardinal Diaz presented the chalice donated by the Holy Father to the Church and placed a relic of Saint Padre Pio Da Pietralcina in the altar during the dedication ceremony.

It comes from an interesting article on the dedication of the first Catholic Church in QatarPope greets Hamad on church opening

I first encountered the name of Padre Pio while driving around Italy’s spectacularly beautiful Gargano Peninsula (the spur above the heal of the boot on the Adriatic coast) in June of 2002. The Pope declared Padre Pio a saint on the 16th and his name and face were front page headline news on all of the newspapers on the newstands. It could not read the Italian text but it was pretty clear that the folks in the area were quite proud of their local Saint.

Wikipedia has many interesting things to say about Saint Pio of Pietrelcina, The Capuchin Friar famous for his stigmata and the patron saint of stress relief and the January blues.

Padre Pio was assigned to Our Lady of Grace Capuchin Friary, located in the Gargano Mountains in San Giovanni Rotondo. Except for a brief time during WWI, Padre Pio remaned there until his death.

The reference to Padre Pio inspired me to post a few photos taken on that spectacular drive.

Fishing at Vieste

Clicking on the photos will take you to my Flickr photo set of photos from the Gargano Peninsula where you can see a slide show or download full size images.

Gargano Coast

101 Dalmatians

Congratulations to Cynthia Gross, Cast and Crew for a terrific show

Clicking on the photos will take you to my Flickr PhotoSet of pictures from the show where you can see the full size images or view the set as a slide show. For any family or friends of the cast who might happen by, the original images are large enough to identify the cast members. You are welcome to download them if you like.