Thank you for the kind comment, Simon, and for your interest in my equipment. Yes, I still have the Veriwide 100 (the 100 refers to the angle of view of both the viewfinder and the f/8 47mm Super-Angulon lens). Plaubel made several variations , some without the optical viewfinder (using instead a collapsing wire frame as a sports or news finder).
Another very useful accessory on my luxury model consists of three factory-installed spirit levels which enable me to precisely align the vertical and tilt for architecture shots. Those levels are not on the model shown here. I originally had two Veriwides, color film in one, and B/W in the other. A roll of film produces only seven frames, and it was too awkward and time-consuming to shoot a couple of angles on color, reload with the B/W and reshoot the same angles. The Veriwide is an all-metal construction, no batteries. The Compur leaf shutter's speed range is 1 sec. to 1/500; it has to be cocked before each exposure but is blocked afterward until the film is manually advanced to the next frame, so there's no danger of a double exposure. Unfortunately, one of those cameras was lost in a home burglary, together with an Asahi Pentax 6x7-cm rollfilm SRI with a Takumar 150mm, f/2.8 lens, a Canon AE-1 35mm SLR with three lenses (including a special 35mm f/2.8 tilt/shift lens), and my original 1938 Automatic Rolleiflex twin-lens 6x6-cm rollfilm camera used to take my first three shots in this Challenge. I had to modify that camera with an outboard solenoid so I could synchronize a flashgun with the Compur shutter in 1949.

Today, beside the Veriwide, I still have a Plaubel Peco Jr. monorail view camera (4x5-inch with three lenses and various accessories), a Crown Graphic 4x5 press camera with one lens, a 1958 Automatic Rolleiflex TLR, f/3.5 75mm Zeiss Planar lens, a Nikon F-1 35mm SLR with two lenses, and a Pentax Spotmatik 35mm SLR. They are all in a glass-door cabinet, a gift from my daughter. Unfortunately, my hands are now too weak and deformed by arthritis so I can't even hold a camera, much less operate it.

I loved working in the darkroom but I was always out shooting and sending my films back by mail for developing and printing. Many times I never saw my work unless it popped up in a magazine I was reading. I didn't own the negatives. But I still have hundreds of my own negatives, many of which have not been printed but are carefully stored in glassine envelopes. Of course, I'm deluding myself in thinking I'll sort a few out and make up an exhibition.

I almost forgot about this shot, photographed on a flight to Jamaica, W.I., around 1974, using a German/American Brooks-Plaubel Veriwide 100 rollfilm camera, 2-1/4"x3-1/2" negative, with a fixed 47mm f/8 Schneider-Kreuznach Super-Angulon lens. The camera was designed in the 1950s by an American engineer employed at Burleigh-Brooks, the company which distributed Rolleiflex as well as other top German brands, but they had to wait until the 1960s before they found the right lens (which matched a Leitz finder). The Plaubel company in Frankfurt built only 2,000 of this camera in 1962/63. I bought mine at the factory in 1963.

P 19 The fourth frame is especially outstanding, Karin!

This is a fun photo made without a camera, using only the scanner and computer. The subject is off-center so I hope it qualifies as "cornered" ???

Peek-a-boo!

Here's another "two-cornered" submission, again with no interest in the center. This one of my rare ventures into 35mm photography. Nikon F, Micro Nikkor-P Auto 1:3.5, 55mm lens. Kodak color negative film.

Kitties enjoy a free floor show

This could be a scene from an old German witches tale. The Challenge's "cornered" object, I think, is the poor woman collecting firewood in the lower right corner, although the eerie tree branches in the upper left corner are also compelling. But there's nothing to draw the eye to the center, so I rest my case. My composition is basically a diagonal from upper left to lower right. The scene was photographed in Bavaria in 1946, near an ancient monastery/brewery.

P 25 Simon, I envy you your certainty in colors and shapes, starting with a subject that would often be final for most photographers, but which you turn into other-worldly visions. Your creativity and skills are awesome.

Hi, William! Thanks for your comments! I had to do a little digging for your request. The camera was a 2-1/4"x2-1/4" 120 rollfilm 1938 German twin-lens Voigtlander Brillant (correct spelling), the first halfway decent camera I bought -- with cigarettes! The Bakelite body was sturdy, and had a few odd characteristics, including a little door on the side with clips for two filters! The viewfinder didn't have a ground glass screen, except for a small focusing circle in its center. Instead, the image finder was clear glass that was brighter than the usual ground glass finder, hence the Brillant name. The shutter was a Compur but had a limited range of speeds. I used Kodak Super XX film. The lens, I think was a 75mm Skopar Of course, I was avidly searching for an Automatic Rolleiflex and was lucky enough to find one in perfect shape (price:12 cartons!) with a 75mm f/3.5 Zeiss Tessar and all its accessories, including two sets of close-up lenses, the sheet film back with holders, the 35-mm back, filters, leather case,etc. Later, I even found the 300mm Zeiss Magnar telephoto lens. I brought it all back (together with a 5x7 Linhof plate camera) but eventually had to sell various items to set up a working darkroom I used to finance some of my GI Bill college costs.

As a staff photographer for Interstate Photographers, from 1955 to 1959, I schlepped a 4x5 monorail Graphic View and three lenses all over the USA, shooting advertising illustrations. Today, my rheumatoid arthritis ha crippled both hands so I can't even cock a shutter, less hold a camera.

P2 I especially like the pensive mood you caught in the third frame, Pat!

Since the postings have trended toward peaceful locations this weekend, I thought I'd contribute one I shot in Bavaria in 1946, when I was a GI in the Army Air Force.

My dad wore a snap-brim hat whenever he put on a suit for church or other dress-up occasions, so when I was discharged from the AAF in Occupied Germany, I decided on buying an Italian Borsalina snap-brim for my first civvy hat in 1947. After all. the style was promoted by Hollywood in countless gangster films throughout the Thirties, Forties and Fifties! Viva Bogie!
None of the German stores had anything to sell (this was before the Deutsche Mark was issued) but the Frankfurt PX had Italian and French brands at bargain prices. Nobody would buy anything made in Japan at the time. After a few years I replaced it with a series of American brands, until my daughter brought back a chic German Alpine style felt hat and the straw model, which I believe is Italian.

The Mounted Constabulary shot is from the archives of the U.S. Signal Corps. They are wearing the
plastic "helmet liners", not the metal combat helmets which would be strapped on top of them. The horses were trained for riding by the Nazi troops before we "liberated" them.

Stare-down during promenade on French Riviera (1946)


Impromptu "hat" in French city (1946)


U.S. Mounted Constabulary in American Zone, Occupied Germany (1946)


"Hard-hats" mandated by OSHA for certain industrial projects (1964)

I've been kind of sidelined as a computer correspondent during the past six months but I hope to get reorganized soon. I'm still here, but remember that at 92, all bets are off!

That cowboy promo "still" features Buck Jones, Tim McCoy, and a sidekick, whose name I forget.

A Notre Dame sister in front of the cathedral (April, 1947)


My portrait (by my daughter, 2010)


Monogram Pictures promotion from 1930s


Our "overseas caps", standard uniform in 1946 in Europe

Hi, Ed! I happened on your Industrial Photography page and thought I ought to touch base with you, since I am a long-retired (1994) professional who worked in that field. Attached are some samples, admittedly out-dated by modern digital photo standards. But I'd be happy to share comments with any of your section who are curious about the nature of this field. A little background: I'm 92 years old and living in Colorado. Most of my work (color and black/white) was done with sheet-film using a 4x5-inch monorail view camera and/or medium-format roll-film in an Automatic Rolleiflex or a Plaubel Veriwide 100. I specialized in onsite illustrations for magazine advertisements and annual reports. Cheers! RichardQ.

A few VERY close close-ups from many decades ago.

Mother with blind baby - 1951


Sasha, our guru kitty - 1980s


A German colleague - 1962