Author Topic: Don't you just love found pictures? (Read 11698 times)

Francois · « **on:** June 16, 2013, 08:36:48 PM »

Don't you just love found pictures?
Often, they're just average... but sometimes you just find serendipity!

This is what happened to me this week. I went to a church basement to see if they had any good stuff and while looking through their little electronics corner, among the VCR's and tape players was this little box containing one of those instant negative scanners. You know, the ones with a 5mpx camera and a backlight that do slightly shoddy work? Well, I thought it might help me speed-up my contact index creation process, so I bought it. It was only 5$, so I figured that if it didn't work, I could probably salvage something from it (the USB cable is good). It's the model with built-in memory that has a little TFT matrix display and that takes the old style SD cards (not the SDHC or SDXC). I came home, plugged it in the USB port. I figured out how to turn on the thing and put it in USB mode to see how it worked with my computer. To my surprise, Windows opened it like a USB drive and there was a file in the folder!
It had been forgotten there by the previous owner and was in negative format. I inverted it and got this little gem of a picture.

I have no idea who's on it, but I like it a lot.

Rafael Morales · « **Reply #1 on:** June 16, 2013, 10:17:34 PM »

Found films are great. I was just looking at http://www.found-film.com/ I follow him on Instagram.

Miles · « **Reply #2 on:** June 16, 2013, 10:51:35 PM »

It's the Kennedy's !

Francois · « **Reply #3 on:** June 16, 2013, 11:31:21 PM »

Not in Quebec!

astrobeck · « **Reply #4 on:** June 17, 2013, 04:31:25 AM »

I love found photos and this is a gem!

It's always cool to see other families with one person not looking at the camera too!

You scored!!!

moominsean · « **Reply #5 on:** June 17, 2013, 08:35:03 PM »

I've found a few cool rolls of film in cameras.

A dachshund party:

Untitled by moominsean, on Flickr

And this was from a Lubitel I got from Russia:

Untitled by moominsean, on Flickr

Aksel · « **Reply #6 on:** June 17, 2013, 10:54:13 PM »

Pretty much across the street from "white trash burger" in Berlin (forget about Sunday roasts) there´s a second hand shop who sells loads of old pictures and albums from what I suspect are dead peoples homes. I tend to spend some time there when in Berlin, guess the Voyeurist in me awakes

Ed Wenn · « **Reply #7 on:** June 18, 2013, 04:57:08 PM »

Lets hope those noodles aren't hot!!

limr · « **Reply #8 on:** June 18, 2013, 05:14:11 PM »

Quote from: Ed Wenn on June 18, 2013, 04:57:08 PM

Lets hope those noodles aren't hot!!

Gah!

Things I love about that shot: the look on the kid's face ("Don't ask. Just...don't.") and the probably-accidental-but-strategic-nonetheless placement of the roll of paper towels.

Things I'm grateful for in that shot: the line of the table cuts the view so that I don't have to see any more than I already have. Oh my eyes!

Francois · « **Reply #9 on:** June 18, 2013, 05:28:47 PM »

Some things we definitely don't want to see...

Aksel · « **Reply #10 on:** June 10, 2014, 07:24:14 PM »

So, another one with a question attached from me:
Not found but bought - came across some kodachrome and these busses caught my eye.
Supposedly taken in Japan, anyone on here who knows their purpose? Transportation of prisoners? Angry kids?

Ed Wenn · « **Reply #11 on:** June 10, 2014, 08:37:47 PM »

That's a great picture, Aksel. Looking forward to reading the answers.

Francois · « **Reply #12 on:** June 10, 2014, 09:30:34 PM »

I personally vote for angry kids

though it could also be for transporting the security forces to the scene of riots...

Bryan · « **Reply #13 on:** June 10, 2014, 09:55:39 PM »

You can also re-discover your own photographs from years ago.

http://lens.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/06/10/a-photographers-summer-of-luck-in-san-francisco/?_php=true&_type=blogs&_php=true&_type=blogs&_r=1&

zapsnaps · « **Reply #14 on:** June 10, 2014, 10:20:11 PM »

Security transport - for the transportation of digital photographers through landscapes and interesting street scenes?

Skorj · « **Reply #15 on:** June 11, 2014, 07:47:20 AM »

Quote from: Aksel on June 10, 2014, 07:24:14 PM

Transportation of prisoners? Angry kids?

They are anti-riot buses. They hold police, and are used to get themselves through riot lines. I pass a set every day on the way to work. Any more on the roll? SKj.

Aksel · « **Reply #16 on:** June 11, 2014, 08:31:30 AM »

Quote from: Skorj on June 11, 2014, 07:47:20 AM

Quote from: Aksel on June 10, 2014, 07:24:14 PM
Transportation of prisoners? Angry kids?

They are anti-riot buses. They hold police, and are used to get themselves through riot lines. I pass a set every day on the way to work. Any more on the roll? SKj.

Thank you Skorj, that makes sense.
The ones you pass on your way to work, do you ever see any action or are they merely a proactive thing?

Yes, I`ll do a quick scan of the other snaps I got tonight, gmt+1

Aksel · « **Reply #17 on:** June 11, 2014, 10:02:52 AM »

Could not help myself, a few other (unedited, from the scanner) Japanese frames;

Skorj · « **Reply #18 on:** June 11, 2014, 10:45:28 AM »

Wow! These are just gorgeous! Makes me want to see them all, regardless of their art merit or not, they're pretty cool!

Quote from: Aksel on June 11, 2014, 08:31:30 AM

The ones you pass on your way to work, do you ever see any action or are they merely a proactive thing?

Both.

They are parked at strategic locations mostly in central Tokyo - the Diet, US & Russian Embassy - and get quickly deployed around Police HQ & similar of the Loud Bus gets out and about. They regularly close the major intersections to inhibit Loud Bus activity with either the riot vans, or barriers & road-spikes. They're pretty serious!

They are also used regularly to steward protest marches and similar too. I've never seen them really do anything other than look impressive though. Skj.

Aksel · « **Reply #19 on:** June 11, 2014, 11:45:25 AM »

Quote from: Skorj on June 11, 2014, 10:45:28 AM

Wow! These are just gorgeous! Makes me want to see them all, regardless of their art merit or not, they're pretty cool!

They are parked at strategic locations mostly in central Tokyo - the Diet, US & Russian Embassy - and get quickly deployed around Police HQ & similar of the Loud Bus gets out and about. They regularly close the major intersections to inhibit Loud Bus activity with either the riot vans, or barriers & road-spikes. They're pretty serious!

They are also used regularly to steward protest marches and similar too. I've never seen them really do anything other than look impressive though. Skj.

Hahah, the Land cruiser! Talk about making oneself a target

Interesting to hear they are out and about on a regular basis though. My impression of Tokyo and Japan in general are that it´s rather civilised, except for the odd protest now and then.

Aksel · « **Reply #20 on:** March 30, 2015, 10:27:08 PM »

Another frame that arrived with a bunch of postcards and other prints I bought years ago. I rediscovered it just now, I guess some cleaning can be rewarding after all

Looks like someone got a pretty bad headache...

Bryan · « **Reply #21 on:** March 31, 2015, 04:19:23 AM »

That's an interesting one Aksel. My brother has a box camera purchased at an antique store. When I found out there was film in it I told him to bring it over. I developed it last night and got six pictures off it, the last two were never exposed. It was shot on Kodacolor-X 616 film which was produced between 1963 and 1974. It definitely looks like they were shot in the 1960's. I semi-stand developed them in Rodinal 1-100 for 1 hour. They came out amazingly well considering how old they were. this is my favorite of the six.

Flippy · « **Reply #22 on:** March 31, 2015, 10:34:55 AM »

Somewhere I have some slides from Japan taken in 1948. I was able to figure out the year from photos of an ocean liner in the set and looking up when it visited Japan. Mostly just scenery but a few interesting photos of life in occupied Japan too. I'll try and dig them out and post a couple.

Aksel · « **Reply #23 on:** June 27, 2016, 11:28:37 PM »

More of the not found but acquired trough other camera purchases.
I went to a older gent advertising a camera collection near my home. Bad pictures, what could be seen in the ad was anything between consumer folders of the 30´s to plastic EOS bodies and a few polaroids. Of the hundred or so cameras there was really only a cupel interesting ones. Polaroid Land 195 and a Rolleiflex EVS that both appeared to be working. I made him an offer for the two and got them. Now his wife started to interrogate me as she got to know I lived on a street she knew and from there I ended up with a stack of about 50 glass plates + lots of Soundscriber discs with recordings of "dad speaks from Rio, 1962", "Uncle Odvar´s music" etc. I need to get those discs digitalised.

Judging from the images I gather they are all shot at someones summerhouse south of Oslo. Who I don´t know but I have the name of one of the photographers and will try to get the images back to who ever should have them.

Francois · « **Reply #24 on:** May 07, 2019, 06:36:30 PM »

Reviving a very old thread here.
While at the rummage sale last Saturday, I found some negatives of unknown origin. So I thought you'd enjoy them

BTW, does anybody know that the heck those antenna like things are?

Bryan · « **Reply #25 on:** May 07, 2019, 07:06:15 PM »

Those could be HAM radio antennas, they have many different designs. That looks like a remote arctic community, I'm sure there's plenty of communities like that in Canada's North. They would probably need something like that.

Francois · « **Reply #26 on:** May 07, 2019, 09:02:45 PM »

Could be, but why so many of them? And why put baubles on the ends like on the second photo?

Bryan · « **Reply #27 on:** May 07, 2019, 09:33:42 PM »

Quote from: Francois on May 07, 2019, 09:02:45 PM

Could be, but why so many of them? And why put baubles on the ends like on the second photo?

Those help listen in on Soviet communications.

I have no idea, maybe it's a scientific experiment. The first one looks more like an antennae than the second one.

Francois · « **Reply #28 on:** May 07, 2019, 10:24:05 PM »

I know it's a scientific experiment... but what kind of experiment?

Kai-san · « **Reply #29 on:** May 08, 2019, 01:50:32 PM »

Quote from: Francois on May 07, 2019, 09:02:45 PM

Could be, but why so many of them? And why put baubles on the ends like on the second photo?

You put tea in the baubles and add hot water.

Francois · « **Reply #30 on:** May 08, 2019, 02:44:59 PM »

It would be perfect for a nice fir tea. Just add a few million liters of hot water and let it steep

Francois · « **Reply #31 on:** May 08, 2019, 10:19:19 PM »

Here's some more from the same series

Bryan · « **Reply #32 on:** May 08, 2019, 11:33:39 PM »

Maybe they're measuring solar radiation or cosmic radiation. In the first and third photo's above that stand has a metal band mounted to it. The way it's configured looks like it would block direct sunlight from hitting the sensor throughout the day. They seem to be getting some kind of electronic data from those globes. There's probably not many people that could tell you exactly what they are doing unless they did work in the same field with similar equipment. This stuff could be very specialized. It's fun to speculate though, thanks for sharing these.

Francois · « **Reply #33 on:** May 09, 2019, 02:36:47 PM »

Does make sense.. that black band had me scratching my head. It reminded me of a sun dial but but in reverse..

Sandeha Lynch · « **Reply #34 on:** May 09, 2019, 03:07:33 PM »

If you're not following Andrew Sanderson on Instagram you probably should. He has somehow dug into a box of old glass negatives which threw up this gem - washing day in Palermo, dated 2nd May 1899.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BxM_B-mAXLe/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

Francois · « **Reply #35 on:** May 09, 2019, 09:29:16 PM »

Clothes lines always make for some good photos.

I still have some more where these came from.

Francois · « **Reply #36 on:** May 09, 2019, 09:30:31 PM »

And for some reason there were also tropical plants on the roll!

Francois · « **Reply #37 on:** May 14, 2019, 11:26:03 PM »

Here's the rest of another strip I found. This one takes you back to the glorious 70's in all it's color goodness.
On one of the pics, it looks like it was one heck of a Christmas party!

Francois · « **Reply #38 on:** November 07, 2019, 10:55:42 PM »

Just reviving this old thread because I just found another picture!
I found it at the bottom of the box of a slide viewer I got for the box art

The text on the slide mount is in a hard to read handwriting. But I can make out that it was in Scotland. I think it says "at Scotland Beitz in car".

The slide mount says Ektachrome and Made in England, you don't see that everyday nowadays.
I wonder what model and what year those cars are?

Bryan · « **Reply #39 on:** November 07, 2019, 11:42:04 PM »

The car on the right is a Ford Anglia 100E (1953–59). The other car looks like a Morris Minor from about the same era. Seeing the front grill would help date the Morris better, I think they used that same basic design for several years.

Indofunk · « **Reply #40 on:** November 08, 2019, 02:14:19 AM »

Quote from: Francois on November 07, 2019, 10:55:42 PM

The text on the slide mount is in a hard to read handwriting. But I can make out that it was in Scotland. I think it says "at Scotland Beitz in car".

I know Scottish people are hard to understand when they speak, didn't realize the same goes for their writing!

Francois · « **Reply #41 on:** November 08, 2019, 03:47:46 PM »

Quote from: Indofunk on November 08, 2019, 02:14:19 AM

Quote from: Francois on November 07, 2019, 10:55:42 PM
The text on the slide mount is in a hard to read handwriting. But I can make out that it was in Scotland. I think it says "at Scotland Beitz in car".

I know Scottish people are hard to understand when they speak, didn't realize the same goes for their writing!

The handwriting is worse than mine, and that's saying a lot...

At first I thought it was an Austin and a Morris. But I never saw any of them in real life.

Pete_R · « **Reply #42 on:** November 08, 2019, 04:17:36 PM »

Quote from: Bryan on November 07, 2019, 11:42:04 PM

The car on the right is a Ford Anglia 100E (1953–59). The other car looks like a Morris Minor from about the same era. Seeing the front grill would help date the Morris better, I think they used that same basic design for several years.

You're up on your brit cars Bryan. Dead right on both. The 'moggy thou' might have been a Morris Oxford as the back end was similar on some versions but I don't think there was a two door version which looks like this is.

Quote from: Francois on November 08, 2019, 03:47:46 PM

At first I thought it was an Austin and a Morris. But I never saw any of them in real life.

Here's a moggy traveller I saw in Lake Placid so they do make it in your (general) direction sometimes.

Sorry about the digi pic...!

Pete_R · « **Reply #43 on:** November 08, 2019, 04:45:13 PM »

Here's the same place as it is now (courtesy of Google street view)

And here's the location

which is just north east of Glencoe

Francois · « **Reply #44 on:** November 08, 2019, 09:19:16 PM »

Wow Peter!
That's quite a bit of sleuthing!

It's kind of amazing that the place has changed so little in all those years...

Pete_R · « **Reply #45 on:** November 08, 2019, 09:46:14 PM »

Quote from: Francois on November 08, 2019, 09:19:16 PM

Wow Peter!
That's quite a bit of sleuthing!

When I was at school (many years ago) our geography teacher had a favourite game which involved him picking a point on a map and we had to draw/describe what we would be able to see if we were stood on that spot. It works the other way too. If you want to identify where a picture was taken, identify the key points then find a point on a map that matches. It needs a lot of luck too

Francois · « **Reply #46 on:** November 08, 2019, 10:41:18 PM »

Knowing it was in Scotland was definitely a good start.

I must say I never had a good geography teacher. All the ones I had were egomaniacs who went into teaching to put people down.

Indofunk · « **Reply #47 on:** November 09, 2019, 05:26:47 PM »

That's amazing Peter! You'd kill it at www.geoguessr.com

Pete_R · « **Reply #48 on:** November 09, 2019, 06:25:10 PM »

Quote from: Indofunk on November 09, 2019, 05:26:47 PM

That's amazing Peter! You'd kill it at www.geoguessr.com

Hmm, interesting. Not sure how the leader got within a few metres of the location with only 3 minutes to find it. But I got the correct countries at least. Could be addictive...

Indofunk · « **Reply #49 on:** November 09, 2019, 10:38:12 PM »

I just played a game for the heck of it and it dropped me literally a few blocks from where I played a gig in Barcelona a few years ago, so I got within a few meters of it too

Very rare that something like that happens (though it helps that I've toured the world a few times

)