My brother-in-law Gordon is a bière connoisseur.  He makes regular pilgrimages to Vermont to frequent a specialty store there that stocks micro-brews from around the globe.

Last year I decided I’d accompany him on one of his beer runs to Vermont via the quaint Quebec countryside so that I’d have an opportunity to shoot with my folding medium format camera.  If I did all the driving, I’d have control over where we stopped for a photo op.   I am pleased with how the camera performed.  I enjoy the vintage feel of this shot, marred only by the snout of the more modern vehicle peering out from the rear of the truck bed.

This scene reminds me of the subject matter that my late friend Earl Bennett was attracted to when he painted.  He studied with Thomas Hart Benton in the 1930s and for the most part painted works that dealt with small town, mid-Western life.

This image was shot on HP5, processed by dr5. I wish I could say the shutter speed was 5 and the f-stop was 5, but no such luck.  The f-stop was 32, handheld at 1/100th.

The camera was created by Sam Smith, fusing together two 1950s-era AGFA Isolette II folders.  It has AGFA’s intermediate-level f4.5 Apotar lenses on S-Prontor shutters.  When folded shut, it fits into a jacket pocket.  It’s resplendent in faux ostrich skin.  I wanted to name it “The AGFA Stereo Smith-O-lette”, but Sam liked the sound of “Sam-O-lette” better.   For some reason, when I say “Sam-O-lette” I think of Frank Zappa’s “Camarillo Brillo” and the lyrics; “She had a snake for a pet, and an amulet…”, so since Sam told me to name this camera “whatever sounds good”, I’ve named it “The Samulette”.