Annual Pilgrimage to Woonsocket, Rhode Island
Summer means a trip to Maine, and—for two years in a row now—a trip to Maine means a side-trip to Woonsocket, Rhode Island, home of S.K Grimes. This year I brought three large format lenses up with me to take down to Woonsocket:
- Perken, Son & Rayment 3¼ x 4¼ “Optimus” Quick Acting Portrait Lens
- Wollensak 10 Inch (254mm) f/4.5 (W) Raptar Lens LE-2(2)
- Wollensak 10 Inch f/5.6 (W) Raptar Telephoto Lens
All three barrel lenses were mounted on lens boards for, respectively, a 5x7 inch “Competitor View” from the Seneca Camera Manufacturing Company (Rochester, NY), a Sinar Norma monorail camera fitted with a behind the lens Sinar/Copal shutter, and a Graflex RB Super D 3¼ x 4¼ inch SLR (Single Lens Reflex).
S.K. Grimes, “The Photographer’s Machinist,” 32 Mechanic Ave, Unit 222, Woonsocket, Rhode Island
Woonsocket Industrial Mill Complex
The Clock, S.K. Grimes Camera Repair
Joel Dau reams out a
Sinar Norma lens board on a PROTO TRAK TRL 1440P Lathe in the machine shop at S.K. Grimes
The machine shop at S.K. Grimes
Woonsocket Industrial Mill Complex
Perken, Son & Rayment “Optimus” Quick Acting Portrait lens (Hutton Garden, London) mounted on a 5x7 inch “Competitor View” from the Seneca Camera Manufacturing Company (Rochester, NY) —
“‘Optimus’ Quick Acting Portrait Lens. Aperture F-4. Specially constructed for short exposures in Portraiture. They are second to none, definition being maintained by their perfect optical qualities.”
Inverted view of the
Sarah Farmer Inn at Green Acre Bahá’í School in Eliot, Maine, on the ground glass of the Seneca 5x7 inch “Competitor View”
Wollesak 10 Inch (254mm)
f/4.5 Raptar Lens LE-2(2) mounted on a Sinar Norma 4x5 inch monorail camera
Wollensak 10 Inch
f/5.6 Raptar Telephoto lens mounted on a 3¼ x 4¼ inch Graflex RB Super D SLR (Single Lens Reflex) camera