Battle Pass- Prospect Park Brooklyn Photo Assingment

Saturday September 4 was a perfect day. I started painting in the studio but decided to go out to the book store to clear my head. As I got outside and walked I noticed how great the weather was. Bright sun with fat clouds and gusty winds. I thought what a nice day to get some pinhole panorama shots. The moving trees would create a nice soft focus effect. This is the perfect chance to get some shots of Battle Pass in Prospect Park. This is part of a larger contemporary photo project about sites around New York city involving the Battle of Brooklyn.
 I ditched the bookstore idea & headed back for film & cameras. I loaded the Holga panorama pinhole camera with some T-Max 400 B&W. I took along the Holga 120N loaded with T-Max 100 B&W. This time I made sure that this camera was not still set on bulb! More about this later.  Thinking my main camera would be the pin hole camera, I thought that this would be a good chance to experiment with the Holga N120. So I did not completely tape up the top and bottom of the camera body just to see how bad any light leaks would be. Of course I taped the side clips. I also removed the masking box on the inside. Just to see what the vignette would look like.

View looking up the wooded heights on the left side of Battle Pass or Flatbush Road. (The American right flank). The American troops under General John Sullivan defended these heights against Hessian troops commanded by General Leopold Philip De Heister

This first group of pictures are taken with the Holga N120 with T-max 100, developed in D-76 1-1. The first image looks a little like a stereo photo. Because I had removed the inner masking piece I forgot to compensate by advancing the film far enough to get separate pictures. I also thought I might have moved to much snapping the shutter so I took a steadier one resulting in the double image.

View from heights of the American right flank looking in the direction of the attack.

The above image shows the woods looking east towards Flatbush. I was lucky that no one was around & had both sides of the pass to myself. Previous trips to this area have been thwarted because of all sorts of activity happening in these woods. Judging by the amount debris littering the ground, used condoms, drug perihelia, etc. I was lucky to seal a few moments for myself.

 Dongan Oak Monument by Frederick W. Ruckstull 

Researching this monument I have discovered that this is the third eagle. F.W. Ruckstull sculpted the first one. It was stolen in the 1970’s, as was its replacement. Making this the third eagle. On this site at the base of the pass a large oak tree that marked the Flatbush road was fell by American troops to slow up the British & Hessian advance.

Over all I was pleased with my experiments with the old 120N. I discovered that I did get a number of light leaks along the top.  I'm not sure if this was because the camera was bouncing around on my neck or what. But it was bad enough to ruin a number of frames. Next time I will mask all the way around the camera back with black tape. More experiments will have to be made to figure out how far I need to advance the film in order to get separate pictures.