Re: [Leica] B -2nd response and meandering

["Bill Larsen" <ohlen@lightspeed.net>]

Bob writes:

snip snip snip|>>>>when you release the bulb? The shutter closes? Now does
"bulb" make
sense. Needless to say, it's an archaic term.

I am not sure that the term is really archaic ... perhaps Luddite would be a
better description.  You can get a much smoother release using bulb and air
pressure rather than a cable release.  The bulb and air pressure is most like
the electronic infrared (?) shutter releases that you hold in your hand and
point at the camera.  No real physical camera shake.

Then Ted Grant writes:

"Many years ago, (before you were born!) :)  I made an exposure where we
popped 50 flash bulbs all at the same time to make one exposure and used
this exact method with the "bulb B" setting on a Speed Graphic."

The technique is still used in certain types of forensic photography.  Let us
say that you want to photograph an auatomobile accident scence at night and
show skid marks and whatever.  You need maximum depth of field so you need a
small aperture.  You set the camera on a tripod, lock the bulb setting open,
and paint the scene by walking up and down the area you want to photograph and
manually flashing an electronic flash.

My best remembrance of using bulb and time on the exposure settings is from
when I was about 8 years old and talked my grandfather into helping me make
"flash powder."  (That was back in the olden days when you could buy a real
chemistry kit and actually resupply it...you could make firecrackers, bombs,
various other pyrotechnic devices).  My grandfathers's usual response to such
a request was "let's don't and say we did" ... but that was usually in
response to various ideas such as derailing trains, tying down pressure
regulators on boilers, etc.

Anyway, made a small batch of flash powder, a fuse, and bent some steel
flashing to to make a holder and reflector.  We set up a Kodak Hawkeye #2
loaded with ortho film, framed my grandfather's workshop, set the shutter on
"T" rather than "I" (for instantaneous), lit the fuse and poof....flaming
particles went all over the place.  No major fires, but I learned how to stomp
out minor ones.  The photo actually did come out, but not very well.

Long term lessons in retrospect are:  1)  In the olden times, photographers,
even those that are considered "hacks," had a lot of guts;  2)  the concept of
taking photographs in a studio with natural light has Darwinian components to
it;  3)  Dorothea Lange had the right idea in not wanting to change anything
(but see #2);  4) Ted's KISS philosophy is right on; and 5) "Let's don't and
say we did" is not an all bad philosophy towards life, particularly with
children --- but I find it is applicable to a lot of my ideas.

Best of the New Year and New Perspectives,
Bill Larsen