Kodak Vest Pocket - The soldiers camera
I took a WW1 Kodak Vest Pocket camera to Plymouth Hoe to photograph the Poppies on tour display with Ashley. He was helping me with the settings and how to use the camera, as this was my first time using a folding camera. The camera is significant to the Poppies on tour display as it was made around the World War One period and some soldiers used them during the war. The camera had no light meter so Ashley showed me how to use a hand held meter. I had never used one of these before. I set the meter to 100 asa. Ashley showed me how to load Ilford FP4 into the camera. The camera was small and easy to carry, the shutter was easy to use. The viewfinder, although being slightly misted, was still clear to see through even though the camera was about 100 years old. One thing I learnt through my eight shots was to have a steady hand. When you push the shutter the whole camera tends to move so you need to apply even pressure to both sides. I would like to thank Ashley for all his help on the day, and I really enjoyed shooting with this camera.
By Roma Soper, aged 16.
