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Showing posts from April, 2013

Cayadutta Tanning Company: Inside Gloversville's Dead Tannery

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The Pink Flamingo on Harrison Street Whether it is a dead mill or tannery, a car will always be sitting in a discrete corner.  Gloversville, New York, earned its name for a reason. For decades, it was the undisputed glove capital of the world. But today, the massive tanneries, dressers, stitching factories, and dyers that built this city are quietly disappearing. One of the most fascinating casualties was the former Cayadutta Tanning Company Inc. Locals called it the Pink Flamingo. Before that, it was E.S. Parkhurst & Company, a place workers simply knew as the Hair Mill. Sitting at the southwest corner of Harrison Street and NY-30A, the property spanned two parcels. A private owner held one piece of the land, while the city owned the other. Visiting the abandoned site felt like stepping into a forgotten tannery that just needed a bit of TLC and elbow grease to restart operations sans a pocketed overhead roof. Just outside the main tanning building, a junked Mercedes sa...
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Fenced In

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A quick test of the Quantaray 70-210mm 1:4.5 M42 mount lens using the Canon T3i neutral setting. Quick touch-up in Lightroom 4 (Lr) and exported. I gave it a gritty 1960s feel to it. More to come!
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Buds of Spring (2013)

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Canon 600D/T3i w/Vivitar 135mm 1:2.8 Telephoto Lens w/LR Punch Preset  Took a few snaps of budding greens from my window using a Vivitar 135mm 1:2.8 Telephoto lens w/a  M42 mount. So far the lens offers great bokeh at f /5.6 and cropped you can still the vivid detail lines of green on the leaves and bark of the bush on the side of my house. I can see this lens really opening up a bit during the nighttime in a busy city with all the flashing lights in a composed photo with great nice round balls of bokehlicious deliciousness. Too bad I am in the wilderness up here in the suburbs. The cropped image above. I think I'm having a bad case of G.A.S. (Gear Addiction Syndrome). I have bought three more lenses since I debuted on here the Samigon 35mm lens . I need to catch a grip or my wallet might go on strike. Lens Gunner More testing and reviews are coming up. Stay tuned!
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BEWARE of Vintage Lens Fungus

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A fallen Yashica ML 50mm 1:2 One thing to be aware of when purchasing from Flea Bay (eBay) and other places is looking for any instances of fungus matter inside the lens elements. It can be either in the front or the back. You can't clean fungus easily with these lenses since the cost to have them cleaned is not proportionate to how much they cost. The expense is more than the purchase price. Nothing makes you feel worse than a huge spot of fungus or the beginning of fungus growth. So make sure you double-check and look over more than twice over pictures by sellers online and in person. There are remedies out there that say you can destroy it by placing the lens on a windowsill and letting the sun take care of it. This can be met with some success but in actuality may cause the lubrication on the aperture blades to run or even leak causing the aperture mechanism to stick and lock up rendering it useless. So take these words of wisdom and inspec...
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Samigon 35mm f2.8 Manual Focus Prime Review

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We have here the Samigon 1:2.8 35mm M42 mount lens with an M42 to EOS adapter for the Canon Rebel T3i. As you can see the lens is all metal construction. The light pro-consumer T3i succumbs to the hefty weight of the well-made almost indestructible Samignon lens. Made in Japan means quality. This lens will be in use for my summer photography gunning. Unfortunately, the weather is still a bit windy and cold for me to take my precious DSLR outside to really open the aperture on a bright sunny day like today. I am amassing a nice collection of vintage glass for my camera bag and personal collection. The quest for cheap vintage glass for a modern DSLR is really making my wallet happier but a little bit slimmer. Shipping is a killer in the final price. Nifty Fifty is in focus with an aperture of f22. Playing around with the lens today showed me the lens is sharp with enough surrounding light it brings out great detail. It has a bit o...
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Inside the Abandoned St. Michael and St. Edward Church in Brooklyn

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For weeks, I had been orbiting the perimeter of the impending demolition of the Church of St. Michael and St. Edward, a once revered church in the heart of Fort Greene, like a moth drawn to a flame. The neighborhood, a patchwork of tight project housing, seemed indifferent to the fate of this historic edifice. The intel I had received suggested that entry was as simple as scaling a wooden fence, yet the timing had never felt right. Until one day, it did. With a mission in New Jersey looming, I knew it was now or never. The demolition was advancing at a startling pace, the church's twin steeples already reduced to rubble. The skeletal remains of timber beams and rusted steel frames peeked out from the ruins, a testament to the relentless march of progress. Summoning a surge of courage, I seized a moment of quiet in the bustling housing project and vaulted over the fence. My heart pounded in my chest as I slipped unnoticed into the church grounds. The once grand entrance now stood as...
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Cayadutta Tanning Company: Inside Gloversville's Dead Tannery

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The Pink Flamingo on Harrison Street Whether it is a dead mill or tannery, a car will always be sitting in a discrete corner.  Gloversville, New York, earned its name for a reason. For decades, it was the undisputed glove capital of the world. But today, the massive tanneries, dressers, stitching factories, and dyers that built this city are quietly disappearing. One of the most fascinating casualties was the former Cayadutta Tanning Company Inc. Locals called it the Pink Flamingo. Before that, it was E.S. Parkhurst & Company, a place workers simply knew as the Hair Mill. Sitting at the southwest corner of Harrison Street and NY-30A, the property spanned two parcels. A private owner held one piece of the land, while the city owned the other. Visiting the abandoned site felt like stepping into a forgotten tannery that just needed a bit of TLC and elbow grease to restart operations sans a pocketed overhead roof. Just outside the main tanning building, a junked Mercedes sa...
Read more

eBay Vintage Lens Buy: Rare Taisei Kogaku (Tamron) 135mm f2.8

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Rare Taisei Kogaku 135mm Twin Tele A remarkable lens from Japan, very sharp wide open, of the famous zeiss inspired design with preset aperture. It's well made, all glass and steel, with excellent color and contrast. The optics in this lens are amazing, it is simple and it works. It's bokeh and colour rendering are brilliant and it's as sharp as a razor. This is one of the mythical lenses of the days of lore, and hard to find even on ebay. There is about 340 degrees of rotation on the focus ring. The lens came with a 2X adapter as well. This series of lenses (model 680) were made between 1962 & 1969. The included tele converter is shown in the picture. This gave the kit the twin tele name.  Sharp Kogaku 135 Also known as the Taisei Kogaku [Tamron] Tamron 680 Twin-Tele 135mm f/2.8. A rare lens with the hard to adapt praktina mount. Mounting this lens onto to a EOS Rebel won't be easy. I have been trying to source an adapter for my Canon 600D Rebel but...
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Inside the Abandoned R&S Strauss Auto Service Center (Photos)

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  I was driving towards what used to be the Consumers Park Brewery when something caught my eye—the wooden gate doors of the old auto parts store were wide open. Someone had broken in. The building had been vacant for years, even as new construction surged all around it. Right next door, a fresh, modern structure had risen, but this place remained untouched—a relic of the past hollowed out and forgotten. I pulled over without hesitation. These moments don’t come often. A while back, another shuttered dealership had been left open for months, its entrance exposed. Graffiti artists had made their mark on the metal gates, turning the abandoned space into an urban canvas. I had thought about exploring it, but before I could, the gates were suddenly chained shut overnight. The opportunity was gone. Not this time. This time, I wasn’t letting the moment slip away. I stepped inside, finally getting a look at what had been hidden behind those rolled-down gates and green plywood barriers. An...
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Potter Hill Mill: Inside Westerly, RI's Abandoned Textile History (Photo Tour)

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  In my extensive ventures across various businesses, churches, factories, and plants, I've encountered a plethora of remnants from bygone industrial eras. Yet, none have left as profound an impression as the sight of the leftover machinery at the former Potter Hill Mill. Nestled amidst its surroundings, these aging relics stand as silent witnesses to a vibrant industrial past, their once-potent functionality now subdued by the relentless march of time. The manufacturing equipment, once the lifeblood of cotton goods production, remains steadfast, firmly bolted to the floor, slowly succumbing to the relentless embrace of rust and decay. It's a scene frozen in time—a rare glimpse into the mechanical marvels of the 1800s, preserved in their original state, untouched and unscathed by modern interventions. As I gaze upon the weather-worn structures and rusted machinery, I'm struck by the poignant juxtaposition of past and present. The former textile mill, once a bustling hub of...
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