Carl Ralph Bonde, Jr.

I am guessing Buddy was home on leave from the Army when he took this photograph.  I’m guessing he had someone fire a flashbulb and another hold the shutter open using the “bulb” shutter function.  Notice that the lamp and his hands cast shadows.

I played with bud’s camera after his death when his sister, my mother, gave it to me in 1958.  The camera was a Kodak with bellows that accepted 120 film, 8 exposures (2.25 x 3.25 inches) per roll.  It had a quality shutter and lens, also a wire sports finder.  I don’t remember what happened to it.  I think I broke it.

The camera had an f3.5 Zeiss lens and shutter capable of bulb, and shutter speeds to 1/100, if memory serves me.  I played with it enough that I knew it intimately.

I printed the above image from Buddy’s negative when I was in the 5th or 6th grade.  I don’t remember any of the furniture in the photograph.

I printed this photograph of Buddy from a negative my mother gave me that he had developed.  I always thought that those animals on the lawn were ducks.  Again, I suppose he had this photo taken when he was on leave from the Army.

I don’t know that Bud owned a shotgun, just a .22 and a 30-30 Winchester and another rifle with a scope.  I did play with his collection of shotgun shells as recently as 1964.  I remember that he had an 8 gauge.  It was, like, an inch and a quarter in diameter.

At first I thought that Bud was hunkered in front of a fruit tree, presumably one of his father’s.  Carl Sr. had numerous apple trees and a few cherries as well.  But that was before I noticed the writing on the building behind him.  I wonder if you can deduce what it says?