In Which I Venture to Port Townsend With My Diana Camera

Saturday, the day being slightly less rain-filled and soggy than those preceeding it, I ventured over to Port Townsend with two goals in mind. The first goal was to visit my friend Karen's antiquarian bookstore and exchange my duplicate Edward Gorey books for some Roycroft books. The second goal was take my newly acquired Diana camera along and take some photos of the picturesque Victorian crumble that lurks behind storefronts in back alleys and obscure corners. I was successful in achieving both goals.

Parking my automobile in the bank parking lot, I went directly to Karen's antiquarian bookstore and presented her with the five duplicate Edward Gorey books. She was quite delighted with them and asked how much I wanted for them. I named a suitable sum, essentially what I was selling them for when I had my little cabinet at Retroville Cottage. She accepted and said I should look over the Roycroft books she had on the shelf. Devoted readers will remember that the week previous, when William and I were in PT, I picked up two Roycroft books. On this day I picked up three Roycroft books:

A Christmas Carol, by Charles Dickens, published by the Roycrofters, 1902.
Green suede yapped-edge covers, silk moire end covers, decorations by Samuel Warner. This edition features the Roycroft colophon stamped on the front cover.

Respectibility, by Elbert Hubbard, published by the Roycrofters, 1905.
As the frontispiece says, Respectibility is a satire inspired by Hubbard's reading of Thorstein veblen's Theory of the Leisure Class and William Morris's News From Nowhere. Marvellous Arts and Crafts typography and decorations by an unknown Roycroft graphic artist.

The Doctors, by Elbert Hubbard, published by the Roycrofters, 1909.
A Drama In Four Seizures as the frontispiece says. Hubbard's scathing satire of the medical profession ... after reading this indictment, one wonders what he'd think of Big Pharmaceutical driven medicos ... features several tipped in illustrations and mottos, all intact, which make this a most valuable edition.

So not bad for an exchange of books!

After leaving Karen's store I began the second half of my mission ... toy camera photography! The weather was cooperating in that it was not raining and only slightly windy. I searched for alleyways and back streets and no end of interesting subjects for photographing. Lots of Victorian brickwork and peeling paint, old doorways and drain pipes. There was, though, one problem. As I finished the last exposure and was winding the film up, I noticed that the aperture ring was partially over the shutter mechanism ... the Diana has three changeable apertures: one for bright sun, one for partial clouds and one for overcast. The middle aperture has a ring which slides into place between the shutter and the lens. In this case, the aperture was not set correctly and at least half of it was blocking the exposure! Drat!

Fortunately I had not photographed anything transitory, no one-in-a-lifetime street photography, just archtecture. So I loaded my second roll of film and re-traced my steps ... this time making sure the aperture was set correctly. I photographed some alleyways and decided to go uptown and photograph some of the late Victorian and early XXth Century houses. My second goal being accomplished, I returned home.

I'll take my properly exposed roll of film in to the camera shop tomorrow and have them develop the negative and make a contact print. I'm excited to see what the photos look like! Anything worthwile will be scanned and posted here, so stay tuned!