Mikeinlagardette's photos with the keyword: 6x9

My last post of this year, taken yesterday on a quiet little road near our home. Frankly, not the best year I can remember by a long way - the continiuing insanity in Syria and Iraq, not to mention the horrors in Nice and Berlin, the Brexit nonsense and then Trump, and finally the news that Ipernity will likely fold, so I will not be sad to see this year end !! If Ipernity does go, I have more or less decided that I will not return to Flickr, I've paid a few visits there since the news about Ipernity broke, and I'm not impressed, so I think I will restart a dormant blog I have about the Kodak Tourist, and also try to use that camera a lot more in 2017. I'm not very familiar with blogging, and I don't do any of the social media stuff, but maybe I will be able to make something of it, and perhaps spend more time taking photographs !! What I will miss is all the many friends I have made on Ipernity, and the inspiration of your beautiful photos, and so I still hope Ipernity will survive somehow. Ever the optimist ! Happy New Year !! 1948 Kodak Tourist, f4.5/105mm Anaston lens, x2 yellow filter. Foma 400 in divided D23 5+5mins @21C, scanned @1200dpi on Epson V500

It is strange that France, which played such an important role in the development of photography, should have produced so few notable makes of cameras - but on reflection, I suppose one could say exactly the same of the British! Almost all French made medium format folding cameras were 6x9, there were a few 6x4.5, but I can think of no 6x6 French folders, although I'm sure there must have been some! This is a 6x9, a Kinax Junior, made by Société Industrielle de Photographie et d'Optique, Paris & Montreuil sous Bois, I think, in 1953. Well made and well finished, this version shared the same body as the more highly specified models, but has only a modest f6.3/100mm triplet lens in a simple 4 speed shutter, 1/10th to 1/150th + B. It uses 620 film, which is why I have only ever taken a few rolls of film with it, and the lens has a strange 29mm diameter mount for push on filters and hood, so I had to machine up a little adapter ring to allow the more normal 32mm fittings to be used. The camera is like new, seems to have been hardly ever used, and now I have sorted converting 120 to 620 without re-spooling, I will put another roll through it, but the f6,3 is a bit limiting, as is the top speed of 1/150th, so I'm not optimistic - really, just a Shelf Queen! Mamiya RB67, 645 back, f3.5/65mm Mamiya Sekor lens. Foma 100 in divided D23, 7+5 mins stand @21C, scanned @1200dpi on Epson V500.

Church and State! Here is the church seen from the main street, and you can see the way that it is the most prominent building in this part of town. The tower was built at the beginning of the 15thC, as much for a fortification as for religious purposes, and indeed, for some time it served as a prison during the middle ages, as well as the base camp of the feudal lord and his entourage! The houses are much later, 18thC I guess, and the one nearest us actually has a pathway to the church running beneath the bedrooms, although there are the remains of what I think was an old bakery behind, so maybe it was the baker's house - who knows! 1948 Kodak Tourist 120, f4.5/105mm Anaston lens, x2 yellow filter. Foma 400 in Thornton's Two Bath, 6 mins stand in A & B @21C Scanned @ 1200dpi on Epson V500.

The church of Saint Sulpice was built in Romanesque style in the 12th century, but has since been extensively altered, most notably by the the fortification of the choir and eastern gable sometime in the 14thC, and the construction of the massive tower around 1400. Like most of these small villages and towns in the area, the church is the dominant building, but there are quite a few other interesting old buildings in the town. More play with stand developing two baths, this time with the Kodak Tourist for transport! 1948 Kodak Tourist 120, f4.5/105mm Anaston lens, x2 yellow filter. Foma 400 in Thornton's Two Bath, 6 mins stand in A & B @21C Scanned @ 1200dpi on Epson V500.

To get to Parsac-Gouzon the line must first cross the deep, densely wooded valley of the river Creuse, and it does so on this spectacular structure. Opened to traffic in 1863, the steel girder viaduct carries the line from the junction at Saint Sulpice Laurière to Montluçon, and onwards across the Massif Central towards Lyon. Built by the Paris Orleans Railway, the total span is 339m (1,112ft), and the height above the river Creuse is 56.5m (185ft). Local people often understandably attribute this work to Gustave Eiffel, but it was actually designed by another eminent civil engineer, and contemporary of Eiffel, Wilhelm Nördling. When it was built it had two tracks, but one of these has now been lifted. Taken with a 1948 Kodak Tourist 620, converted to 120 film. f4.5/105mm coated Kodak Anaston, X2 yellow filter, Rollei RPX400 @800 in Caffenol C + iodized salt, 20-20-6-6 Scanned @1200dpi on Epson V500

In contrast to the previous picture, this is how the station at Parsac-Gouzon usually looks! It's a lonely little place, some way between the two towns of it's name, and I think only a couple of trains a day in each direction actually stop here. It is on the single track line from Guèret to Montluçon, which is part of a longer cross country route from Bordeaux to Lyon, although direct services between those cities have been suspended for some time while this section of the route is completely re-signalled 1948 Kodak Tourist I converted to 120, f4.5/105mm Anaston lens, x2 yellow filter. Shanghai GP3 in Divided D23, 5+5 mins @21C. Scanned @1200dpi on Epson 500

Following on from the last photo, this is how I travelled up to Montluçon! Of course, this is not the usual motive power used on this line, (!) but a special train going from Limoges, to the annual Festirail meeting in Montlucon. This locomotive was built by SFCM de Denain in 1932, for the Compagnie des Chemins de Fer de l'Est, it was one of 42 locomotives built for hauling heavy suburban trains in the Greater Paris area, which it did until it was finally taken out of revenue service in 1967. Steam trains cannot go very far before they need to have their water supply refreshed, and here we have stopped at the little station of Parsac-Gouzon to re-fill the tanks, which also gives people a chance to walk about, - and take photos of the locomotive! 1948 Kodak Tourist I, f4.5/105mm Anaston lens, x2 yellow filter. Shanghai GP3 in Thornton's Two Bath, 4+4 mins @21C. Scanned @1200dpi on Epson 500

Another from the Tourist archives! Montluçon is considered to be "The Gateway to the Auvergne", although it is in the department of Allier - it is quite a classy place, so it is not a surprise to see high quality building here, but this is definitely in a league of it's own! I have no idea of the original purpose, - hotel, bank, insurance office, could be any of them, - nor when it was built, but what is certain is that it is one of the most accomplished examples of brickwork that I have seen! The diamond pattern is worked in a darker brick, and would be a challenge in a flat panel, but to have achieved this on the surface of a circular building, is indeed, a class act. Viewing the image at original size will show what I mean, and also demonstrate that the old Kodak is no slouch either! Taken with a 1948 Kodak Tourist 620, converted to 120 film. f4.5/105mm hard coated Kodak Anaston, X2 yellow filter, on Shanghai GP3 @200, developed in Thornton's Two Bath 5+5 mins @21C, and scanned @ 1200dpi on an Epson V500.

This former monastry building is well hidden, despite the fact that is quite close to the centre of the village. The Order of the Word Incarnate was founded by a priest who was born in Azerables, and the chapel was built in 1889, the work of a local architect, Léon Vallet. Following it's closure as a religious building in the 1960's, the main accomodation was turned into a retirement home, which has since moved to new premises, so these buildings were empty at the time this photo was taken, in 2011. 1948 Kodak Tourist 620, converted to 120, f4.5/105mm coated Anaston, X4 Orange filter. Rollei RPX 400 @ 1600, in Diafine 4 + 4 mins @ 21C. Scanned@1200dpi on Epson V500.

This impressive structure is on a long disused railway line which ran from Guéret to Le Chartre, and although the viaduct took three years to build, the line had a very short life, being opened to traffic in 1906, and finally closed to freight in 1952, although passenger trains ceased to run on this route in 1939. Viaducts were always challenging structures to build, and when built on a curve, as this one is, especially so. It is just over 200m long, built on a curve of 300m radius, and the sixteen arches carried the single line 20m above the River Creuse. Built entirely from granite, it is now part of a pleasant country walk. Taken with a 1948 Kodak Tourist converted to 120, on Shanghai GP3 film, developed in divided D23, 5+5mins@21C and scanned @1200dpi on Epson V500

Another from the only Vollenda test roll. This stylish building looks to date from the mid 18thC, but could be later, but whenever it was built, it's got a lot of pzazz! Now a shop selling artists materials and prints, the first floor balcony and the classical proportions give it a very "renaissance" appearance. Although called Kodak, the Vollendas were based on cameras designed by Nagel-Werke, Stuttgart, before the company was bought by Eastman Kodak in 1932. Well designed and built, but they used the wretched 620 films, so unless you are prepared to re-roll 120 films, they are only shelf queens! This one was beyond realistic repair so it became a parts donor! 1935 Kodak Vollenda 620, f4.5/105mm Schneider Xenar lens, x2 yellow filter. Fomapan Ultra 400 in D76H 1+1, 13mins @21C. Scanned @1200dpi on Epson V500