Through the Viewfinder - for REAL

This past weekend, I FINALLY had the opportunity to shoot some REAL TtV's!

But before I took the plunge and bought an Argus Argoflex 75 off of Ebay, I did a lot of research and found the BEST instruction on how to do this. Aside from being a wonderful photographer, Andrea (of hulaseventy.blogspot.com) is a genius explainer and I just love her sense of humor.

HERE are her instructions on how to shoot through the viewfinder of a twin lens reflex camera. In her blog post on this subject, she lists some great references - even a place to find a template for the cardboard contraption that goes between your digital camera and the twin lens camera viewfinder (to block out the light). I started making the contraption then realized it was for a different type of camera. So I ended up just cutting up a cereal box, wrapping it around the camera to fit snugly, and taping the crap out of it with black electrical tape. It ain't pretty, but it works just fine.

Shooting this way is a bit awkward at first. You are basically shooting (on the macro setting) the viewfinder of the twin lens camera through the cardboard tube and you can't really see what you're getting until you get home and upload your images. This is what most of my images looked like before processing.

But when you get home, WOW is it ever fun to see how they all came out! These are some of the images I ended up with.

So, needless to say, I'm bringing my little Argus contraption with me everywhere I take my digital camera. I love the way the world looks through the viewfinder of an old camera. This little Argus happened to arrive with lots of dust particles around the viewfinder, even a little bit of crud and I really like all the imperfections. To view more REAL TtV images, visit the Flickr pool HERE. To read TONS more information on this process, visit the Through the Viewfinder blog HERE.

And have fun!

Anna