Found Friday – Tiny Ties Edition

Just one pic for Found Friday today, but it’s a good one. I bought a stack of old photos at an antique mall this winter, but mixed in with all of the prints was this one 4×5 negative that had absolutely nothing to do with any of the other photos. These four guys are full of awesome, from the high waisted pants to the tiny ties, to the straw hats, to the corncob pipe(!) So. Much. Win. It looks like they’re standing in front of some gas pumps, but I definitely got the same feeling Katie did (on Flickr), where it looks like these guys were getting ready to head on down to the track.

In other news, Travis and I survived the big camera auction, although our bank account may disagree with that. We scored some things that rock:

And some things that made us go “What the hell were we thinking?!!!” as soon as we won our bids. Travis is kicking himself for spending more than he wanted on a military 4×5 Speed Graphic camera, although I had absolutely no problem with what he spent on it – I mean, it’s a working 4×5 camera. How wrong can you go? That doesn’t compare at all to my auction shame.

I only spent $30 on it, which isn’t that much money to piss away in the wind, if one were so inclined. (I have, on occasion, been so inclined). However… this?

Oh, it may look like some sort of gigantic monster camera, but it’s not. It’s really an albatross. (Obligatory link to Monty Python here). Sure, it only cost $30, but how much will it cost my SOUL to have this in my life now??!!

First of all, it weighs roughly 14,000 pounds. Secondly, it somehow weighs more when the camera is taken out of the case – it’s like the anti-Tardis. Thirdly, it probably is a roll film camera (I’m guessing for 70mm film), but it’s definitely unusable, since I don’t have a roll film holder for it, or power cords, or an instruction manual. Fourthly, I thought maybe I could just tear it all down and scavenge cool parts and lenses from it, but no, I can’t, because the inside of the camera looks deadly, like it wants to kill you so, so much. Fifthly, I can’t even try to sell it, because, again, it weighs 14,000 pounds, and I can’t even comprehend what kind of postage that would cost.

But it does have some fun buttons and switches, so it has that going for it. /sobs