[Leica] New acquisition

[pklein at threshinc.com (Peter Klein)]

Douglas:  I took the liberty of adjusting the black and white points on 
your photo find to give it a full range, and converted to B&W:
http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/pklein/album170/Douglas-WindsorCastle.jpg.html

Which gives me an idea of how you could have your cake and eat it, to.  
Get the photo copied on a really good, high-res flatbed scanner, or on 
medium-format digital--whatever will preserve the detail and tonality of 
the photo at print size. I'm sure there are services that would do this 
in the UK. Digitally restore the resulting file by doing something akin 
to what I did above, plus some cloning to remove the spots.  Then get it 
printed, perhaps on good silver paper.  Keep that print. Sell the 
original. 

This of course presupposes that the process of making a copy costs 
significantly less than keeping the original

Just a thought. If the original object itself is what gives you joy, 
then, well, it's between you and your wife...  :-)

--Peter
> Here's a picture - Windsor Castle from the Thames by Robert Vernon Heath.
> OK, it's not my own work but it is interesting - to me anyway! The 
> picture
> is 26 inches by 20 inches and was taken in the 1860s by Vernon Heath 
> who had
> been commissioned by Queen Victoria to photograph the interior of the
> castle. She also got him to take the last photograph of her husband
> (consort) Prince Albert just before his death in 1861. Vernon Heath 
> was one
> of the most prominent early photographers in Britain and exhibited along
> with the likes of Roger Fenton and Julia Margaret Cameron. Picked this up
> last week at a sale where nobody seemed to realise what it was. Have a 
> look
> at it in large detail and yes I realise it is tired looking but it still
> holds its magic for me.
>
> http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/DouglasBray/Oddments/WindsorCastlefrom+the+Thames_VernonHeath.jpg.html
>
> I'm now agonizing over whether I should sell it on in Sothebys, 
> Christies,
> or Bonhams. She who must be obeyed says sell it, but I want to keep 
> it. For
> some inexplicable When I look at it a great tranquility descends upon my
> soul