Fort Stark

One of Battery David Hunter’s empty 12-inch disappearing gun mount, Harbor Entrance Control Post (HECP) in background.

I’m always on the lookout for abandoned sites to explore, and I discovered Fort Start while looking for things to shoot in the Portsmouth NH area. This fort was part of a greater network of seven forts that protected Portsmouth Harbor, home to the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard. The port played a vital role throughout WWI and WWII, servicing the Navy’s submarine fleet. The shipyard continues to be the primary location for the overhaul, repair, and modernization of the active duty submarines.

The fort was first established during the Revolutionary War, with armaments secured from the nearby Fort William and Mary after capture from British forces. The fort continued to serve a role in harbor defense up until 1983 when it was turned over to the State of New Hampshire. As it stood during WWII, there were 4 batteries: Alexander Hays, Edward Kirk, David Hunter, and William Lytle. A mix of 3-inch guns and two 12-inch guns (long since removed) made up the primary firepower and were eventually outclassed by the 16-inch guns of nearby Fort Dearborn. The main feature of the fort was the Harbor Entrance Control Post (HECP) which directed harbor defenses from Biddeford, ME to Cape Ann, MA. A collection of other buildings, none of which remain, surrounded the parade field to serve the needs of soldiers stationed there during WWII. Only the concrete bunkers and machine shop still stand, the latter converted to a small museum.

12-inch Gun Mount at Battery Hunter, showing the rails upon which the gun carriage would ride.

Walking through the remaining concrete bunkers, it’s easy to get a sense of the sheer scale of the 12-inch guns that once sat atop Battery David Hunter. These guns were never fired at the enemy, but were primarily a deterrent to minesweepers that might try to clear the main protective measure in place at Portsmouth Harbor – a vast minefield that was controlled from Fort Stark. The HPEC still sits atop Battery Kirk, which was painted “battleship gray” during WWII to disguise it from enemy observation. Other buildings at the fort were masked by camouflage netting supported by telephone poles.

While I was unable to visit the museum at the park due to COVID-19 restrictions, I was able to pop my head inside and take a brief look around. The one remaining 3-inch gun, an original search light, and other artifacts from the fort can be found inside. It doesn’t take much time to lap the entire park, but it’s fun to climb around the concrete bunkers and imagine what life was like for the soldiers stationed there. The park has limited hours and parking is only available past the entrance gate, but is worth a visit if you’re in the area.

A 3-inch gun mount added during WWII slides toward the ocean.

Graflex Speed Graphic

Every time I pick up a new film format, I’ll tell myself I don’t need another one: 35mm was first; I don’t need medium format. Then came 6x4.5, 6x6, and now 4x5. I’ve been trying to build out a kit for my WWII Signal Corps Photographer impression which started with the PH-324 I picked up last year. While 35mm was used during the war, especially with Leica II cameras, 4x5 was still king. And an SPC photographer was almost guaranteed to have a 3 ¼ x 4 ¼ or 4x5 Speed Graphic on them for official portraits or more important work. Bigger negatives mean sharper prints and the Speed Graphic was the most portable large format camera of the time. You could either shoot cut film or use a film pack for quicker exposures (not sold anymore). Luckily companies like Kodak and Ilford still make 4x5 film and this camera can still be used today.

 I got relatively lucky when I picked up my Speed Graphic on eBay, winning it in an auction for about $350. I couldn’t tell much from the pictures posted but the lens looked clean which is the most important part on these old cameras. A lens that’s been etched by fungus and mold is useless, but a slow shutter can usually be fixed. I pulled an all-nighter to completely disassemble the camera and put it all back together again using a combination of PDFs including old service manuals and WWII training manuals for similar cameras. The unique feature of the Speed Graphic is the cloth focal plane shutter which allows exposures between 1/10 sec. and 1/1000 sec. This was probably the hardest feature for me to overhaul because it requires oiling small bearings and setting the curtain at the right position so all the shutter speeds work correctly. I also had to refocus the lens, fix the infinity stops, and calibrate the rangefinder.

I did my best to date the camera based on the lens serial number using Kodak’s CAMEROSITY dating system. Because the serial number started with EO, I could tell the lens was manufactured in 1946. I think the camera body might be a bit newer than that but I don’t have a definitive way to tell. I’ve been shooting Ilford FP4 Plus at ISO 200 because it lets me use a faster shutter speed of the focal plane shutter. The test shots in this post are from a long drive I took out to the Delaware National Water Gap, a favorite place of mine to shoot because of the abundant abandoned buildings. The last shot I took of the lumber mill was actually overexposed two stops (if you open the lens up to use the ground glass, don’t forget to stop it down!). I’ve found FP4 Plus has great latitude and produces excellent negatives when developed in DD-X. While the Speed Graphic and 127mm Ektar lens don’t allow you to do all the movements normally possible with a 4x5 camera, I still enjoy shooting handheld large format. I’ll probably look to get a 4x5 rail camera at some point in the future, but no other setup will beat the Speed Graphic for portability.

Edison NHP

Thomas Edison National Historical Park (NHP), located in West Orange NJ, is home to Thomas Edison’s laboratory complex and nearby residence. While I didn’t get to see the house on my first visit as they don’t offer tours in the winter, I plan on taking a trip back sometime this summer when things start to open up again. There are a few different things to see at the NHP: Edison’s machine shop, the laboratory where he attempted to synthesize synthetic rubber, a mockup of the “Black Maria” built as a moving film stage for motion pictures, and his private office/library. The weekend I visited actually had a presentation from an archivist with the Library of Congress who worked to restore nitrate film held by the library and sound recordings obtained from Edison NHP.

It’s actually interesting how the film and sound recordings became separated in the first place – but first a little history. Edison NHP was created shortly after WWII when Edison’s descendants shut down the laboratories and donated the property to the federal government. They had left everything as it was when Thomas Edison died, including his personal office and library. The National Parks Service sent the unstable nitrate film negatives they found to the National Archives for safekeeping but neglected to send the associated wax cylinder recordings. Many years later the curator of Edison NHP found they wax cylinders and worked to restore the complete films. 

One of the major drawbacks to Edison’s phonograph was the recording technique required to produce master cylinders that could be copied for commercial distribution. The technology required actors or musicians to practically shout at the recording horn if a usable master cylinder was to be obtained. In fact, you can sometimes see these recording horns used to produce the sound for Edison’s motion pictures dip into shot as the phonograph operator tried to pick up their voice. The end result produced very uneven audio, and the quality of the audio-motion picture sync was almost entirely dependent on the operator projecting the completed product. The projector and phonograph would be connected together by an extremely long string that was meant to sync sound and picture together. The projector operator had to manually adjust the wax cylinder when the picture and film went out of sync. Sometimes the very long string which connected the projector and phonograph would break, sending the two wildly out of sync. Edison built the “Black Maria”, a revolving sound stage, to produce his motion pictures. The entire building spun to follow the sun, which produced the intense light needed to expose the film negatives.

Stepping into Edison’s office and private library, you can’t help but marvel at the four stories of book shelves and belongings strewn about the room. This building was home to a heavy machine shop for prototyping, a recording studio above Edison’s office to produce the master cylinders for his phonograph business, a photography studio, and drafting rooms. I always joke that fixer smells good, but I find it funny that 100 years later you can still smell the fixer in the darkroom that occupies the top floor of the building. The large 8x10 Eastman View camera still sits in the studio, ready to make some glass plate negatives.

Empire State Plaza

Sometimes you just get the urge to get out there and photograph something without having a particular subject in mind. It was a frigid Saturday morning and I was sick of sitting inside, so I grabbed my shoulder bag and stuffed my Mamiya C22 and 65/80/180 mm lenses inside with a roll of T-Max from my film fridge. I didn’t have a destination in mind but I knew I needed to photograph something. After doing a bit of digging online, I settled on Empire State Plaza up in Albany NY. It’s a few hours’ drive for me but the trip reminded me of Ohio where an hour’s drive minimum separated you from the next biggest town. There wasn’t snow on the ground when I left, but about an hour north flurries dashed across my windshield. I was lucky because by the time I reached Albany the snow had subsided and I was in the clear to shoot.

Empire State Plaza is the home of various NY state government agencies and is reminiscent of Rockefeller Plaza in New York. The capital building, pictured above, is quite beautiful. I lucked out by grabbing an ISO 400 film because it was freezing and hand holding the camera was tricky given just how much my hands were shaking. I ended up lapping the plaza to finish off the roll of film, though I had one more exposure left by the time I was finished. I want to make a return trip in the summer months but there’s many interesting buildings in the plaza: a bowl-shaped auditorium, a small plaza cafe, matching “Agency Buildings” which loom over the concourse, a seasonal skating rink, and the NY State Archives opposite the capitol building.

I didn’t do much research ahead of time since this was a spur of the moment trip. I had no idea the ice rink or cafe would be there, but I was thankful for the large hot chocolate I bought to warm up my hands. I tried to focus on the architecture and chasing the available light which was fleeting due to the storm front passing through. Satisfied with the pictures I took and with one shot left on the roll, I ended up dropping by the Martin Van Buren NHP on my way back downstate. The house was closed, and I’ll need to make a return trip when it opens for the season, but I thought the house really stood out amongst the snowy backdrop. I was quite happy with the negatives once I developed them and for an impromptu trip, I couldn’t ask for more.

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Kodak PH-324

As a collector of historical objects, especially WWII era, I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to pick up this Kodak PH-324 on eBay. Despite the camera being billed as “operational” it took a ton of work to get it back in near-perfect order. I was hoping the camera would be accurate out of the box but instead I ended up with a shutter stuck at the fastest setting. I would've just returned the camera but the glass was in perfect condition - something that’s hard to find with an old camera such as this. I was able to completely disassemble the body, clean out the leaf shutter, and refocus the elements so the focus scale was (mostly) accurate by using a piece of ground glass off an old Canon F-1n focusing screen.

The PH-324 was issued throughout WWII to US Army Signal Photographic units as the standard 35mm camera. Included with this camera was an enlarger, photo paper, film, and chemicals needed to develop both in the field. Kodak produced the camera, a standard Kodak 35, in OD green exclusively for the federal government during the war. The camera used a leaf shutter and basic three element design to produce images on either Kodak Mircrofile or Kodak Super-XX film. A +2 Portra lens was included for copying documents with the accompanying stand in Photographic Set PH-261. The viewfinder and lens are decoupled so you can only get a general idea of what the final picture will look like. The images in this post are from the test roll after I completed the restoration.

WWII Weekend

I’d first heard of the annual WWII weekend event at Gettysburg while visiting the Eisenhower farm back in 2017. Part of the Gettysburg National Historic Park, Eisenhower’s former home sits on acres of farmland just beyond the many granite monuments erected to honor the fallen soldiers of the Revolutionary War. As a photographer and WWII history fan I knew I’d have to make a return trip to see the reenactment for myself. There was no way I could pass up the chance to shoot some film and find such unique subjects to photograph. I planned everything out and expected to visit the next year in 2018 but unfortunately it was rained out. When the fields become too wet the various vehicles and foot traffic tear up the turf around the Eisenhower home, which caused the NPS to call the event off.

I fell down a rabbit hole of message boards and training manuals as WWII weekend got closer, eventually picking up a PH-324 (basically a Kodak 35 in OD green paint) to shoot some 35mm film of the encampment. While I wasn’t able to get it functional in time for the trip, I’ve managed to fix the shutter mechanism (still need to readjust the focus). With my main camera out of action, I settled on my Mamiya C33 and a Canon A-1. Film-wise I grabbed a roll of Tri-X 400 for the C33 and some Ektachrome for the A-1, but more on the film below.

WWII weekend was full of great photo opportunities and interesting people. There was no shortage of vintage equipment and expansive displays, including the Sherman tank below. The reenactors themselves were incredibly friendly and willing to talk with just about anybody who would listen. My favorite shot from the weekend is the first in this post, showing an independent war correspondent reading a LIFE magazine with a Leica rangefinder around his neck. He was actually an Army photographer during the Korea/Vietnam timeframe but didn’t continue with a career in photography after he came back stateside. He mainly shot a 2x3 Graflex during his time in the service, and even had an example with some old film packs to show me.

The drive from NY to PA was long but so worth it. There was a great USO style dance Saturday night which was a blast, though I’m planning to come in more period appropriate attire next year. I had a chance to talk with some of the guys from the 167thPhotographic Unit who were set up at the encampment and did they have lots of information to share. The truck in the above set of photos was restored by a few of the guys and painstakingly replicated to match multiple reference photos they had of a similar truck in use by the 167th during WWII. Don, who rebuilt the unit’s canvas tent himself, was especially helpful in explaining their setup to me and what life was like during the war for someone taking photos in the Signal Core.

While I’m not a big fan of color film, I brought one of the two launch day rolls of Ektachrome I had sitting in my film fridge just to play around with. I had the film developed at Bleeker Digital Solutions in NYC and I’d highly recommend them to anybody who needs E6 film developed. This was also my first time shooting slide film so I was amazed to see the results when I picked up the positives from Bleeker. Below are some of the scans from that role, and I have to say I’m impressed with the film Kodak has resurrected from the dead. Now we just need it in 120 rolls…