I had it 27 years but I found the owners. . .

[Philip]

In 1991, I bought a Kodak Autographic 3A Special. That's the model of 122-film folding camera with the coupled rangefinder, and -- being 122 -- gigantic negatives, about 5 1/2 by 3 1/2 inches. There was a roll, partly exposed, in the camera when I bought it, so I developed it. That wasn't easy -- the old dip-and-dunk method -- but it worked. There were three images, all of them good, and one especially lovely. They showed a family apparently on holiday. I couldn't tell where they were but it seemed pretty clearly somewhere in Newfoundland.

Lately I've been scanning all my old negatives, more or less in sequence, and yesterday I was doing 1991. When I scanned the three 122 images I thought to put them on Facebook. Maybe I'd find out who the people were.

Overnight, 385 people "shared" my posting and by mid-morning this morning I knew who the family were. They were not tourists, but a local family. (The 3A camera had been stolen from their weekend home forty years ago.) I have broached the idea of doing a reenactment of one picture later this fall. That should be interesting -- not least the developing (which I do not relish).

If I do the reenactment, it will be with one of the three rolls of 122 film that Erie Patsellis (one of our colleagues here at Photography Today) sent me six years ago.

I think this Facebook link will work even for those without Facebook accounts but, if it does not, I will try to post the pictures here.

[jamesmck]

What a heartwarming story, Philip. Good for you.

[LarryD]

You did good.

[Philip]

Thanks. Here is a link to the local news story they did on it. . .

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/newfound ... -1.4829438

[jamesmck]

Thanks. Here is a link to the local news story they did on it. . .

What a nice experience for them and for you. Well done!

[PFMcFarland]

There's something to be said for social media, and that is it's a good tool for connecting people from the past to the present. Good work there, Philip.

PF

[LarryD]

Well at least they did not want the camera back.

[Brazile]

Wonderful story and a great ending. Hope you are able to pull off the reenactment!

[Philip]

Larry, I was just talking to my wife about that -- giving the camera back. I think there may be one person in that family who has a big interest in photography, and especially in her father's stuff. So if she wants it, she'll get . . . after I shoot the rest of Erie's film.

.

[LarryD]

Good thought.