Exposures On Billboards - Philadelphia

The image above was taken from the back of a billboard on the roof of a building at 4th and Florist Sts., Philadelphia, PA.  What you see is a cut-out with angle iron kickers. City Hall, the PSFS building are in the distance.

I was always afraid to carry my good quality cameras to work. I did lots of climbing in and around the angle iron frames of the sign structures. The cameras I used to earn money, a Mamiya 1000TL and a Mamiya 645 1000TL, were just too, big and heavy to carry and valuable to risk damage.

Source:Classic Cameras and Photography

I was given an inexpensive Ricoh 35mm rangefinder by a friend who moved up to a Pentax K. That rangefinder was light weight and at that price, free, I didn't worry about it getting damaged. It had its own fitted leather case that easily unsnapped and snapped and was small enough to carry in my nail pouch. There was no built-in metering system. For exposures I used the sunny 16 rule.


I carried it at work for a short while capturing my fellow rotary drones at work. At least until the Ricoh fell 70ft(21.3m) to the ground. The camera was a goner. I couldn't even save the exposed film.

Jim "Bergy" Barndt emerging through a roof hatch.

This image, if I remember correctly, was taken atop a building just west of 23th and Chestnut Sts. The Philadelphia Electric Building can be seen in the background. The rooftop of the Armory is in the near background.

©Damyon T. Verbo - all rights reserved