SolaresLarrave
My M5s need red dots!
On Friday, after checking out a couple of things at the office, I decided to take the rest of the day off. My wife went to her exercise class, and I slowly ambled to DeKalb downtown with my Mamiya C220 and two lenses, ready to shoot some facades and store fronts.
Probably the date had nothing to do, but our local liberals were protesting in the small park at the beginning of the main drag, while the three only daring conservatives raised their signs across the street. When they saw my camera they were apparently mistified, and for some reason assumed I was with some newspaper. Lemme tell you, nobody ever told me that carrying a TLR would be this much fun! People approach you and say the most outrageous things... or show how knowledgeable they are.
In any case, I did photograph both sides and went home. The sun was gorgeous and shadows were very long...
Saturday: my wife had her heart set on a literary festival in Aurora, IL, and I wanted to see the downtown... and look for a spare battery for my Leica bodies (I prefer the lithium 3V batteries instead of loading the camera meter with 2 S76). To make a long story short, we listened to Billy Collins, US Poet Laureate (I got photographic proof!
), went to a session about self-publishing and, while my wife was in another, I went to a pawnshop (I had never seen so many cheapy assorted SLRs and Yashica rangefinders together), and ended in a small store called Assell Photo and Card shop. The owner, a very old and agreable man, saw my camera and gave me a free lecture about the benefits of guesstimating exposures. Turned out he worked for newspapers with a Graphic camera and, according to him, if he had needed a rangefinder to focus his lenses he wouldn't have been hired at all. "We worked with 4X5 sheets, guessing the exposure, and the fastest film we had was ISO 100."
He also showed me tanks and reels for film developing... and told me he was slowly selling his darkroom equipment to a guy from Guatemala whose photo and video studio was around the corner. Since he had one of the batteries I needed left, I bought it and he only charged me $5. Then he also added that he was closing the store at the end of this month.
"Digital?" I asked, a bit concerned.
He just nodded.
"I can work digital" he added. "In fact, I have used Photoshop since it was in version 5, and I just got the version 8. But I wanted to learn more, so I took a course at the local communnity college, but the computers were Macs; I hate macs, and I spent more time trying to figure out the computer and I took very little notes."
Then he went on about how a lot of his work was simply copying documents and photos, asked me if Leicas were still in production, told me he used to own an Elmar lens, which he used with a Tower body... And yawned.
I asked him about darkroom hardware, and he showed me what he had, told me about developing tanks and almost invited me to his darkroom in the basement but then somebody must have reminded him something (he also yawned) and I decided to bid farewell, offering to return before he closes down.
Back outside, the sun was beating down hard, so I had no problem doing some hipshots with Scala. My other camera was loaded with Ektachrome 200. There were very few mentions of 9/11 in the air, but the poem by Billy Collins on the subject was incredibly touching and eloquent, without being longwinded or overloaded.
And, speaking of poetry, I attended a poetry slam. Nice experience! I'm planning to go to some of the local poetry slams in town... with my camera loaded with Fuji B&W 1600!
That was my weekend... And I simply wanted to share it with you. Enjoy your ebay watching session tonight! I may be lurking there too!
Probably the date had nothing to do, but our local liberals were protesting in the small park at the beginning of the main drag, while the three only daring conservatives raised their signs across the street. When they saw my camera they were apparently mistified, and for some reason assumed I was with some newspaper. Lemme tell you, nobody ever told me that carrying a TLR would be this much fun! People approach you and say the most outrageous things... or show how knowledgeable they are.
In any case, I did photograph both sides and went home. The sun was gorgeous and shadows were very long...
Saturday: my wife had her heart set on a literary festival in Aurora, IL, and I wanted to see the downtown... and look for a spare battery for my Leica bodies (I prefer the lithium 3V batteries instead of loading the camera meter with 2 S76). To make a long story short, we listened to Billy Collins, US Poet Laureate (I got photographic proof!
), went to a session about self-publishing and, while my wife was in another, I went to a pawnshop (I had never seen so many cheapy assorted SLRs and Yashica rangefinders together), and ended in a small store called Assell Photo and Card shop. The owner, a very old and agreable man, saw my camera and gave me a free lecture about the benefits of guesstimating exposures. Turned out he worked for newspapers with a Graphic camera and, according to him, if he had needed a rangefinder to focus his lenses he wouldn't have been hired at all. "We worked with 4X5 sheets, guessing the exposure, and the fastest film we had was ISO 100."He also showed me tanks and reels for film developing... and told me he was slowly selling his darkroom equipment to a guy from Guatemala whose photo and video studio was around the corner. Since he had one of the batteries I needed left, I bought it and he only charged me $5. Then he also added that he was closing the store at the end of this month.
"Digital?" I asked, a bit concerned.
He just nodded.
"I can work digital" he added. "In fact, I have used Photoshop since it was in version 5, and I just got the version 8. But I wanted to learn more, so I took a course at the local communnity college, but the computers were Macs; I hate macs, and I spent more time trying to figure out the computer and I took very little notes."
Then he went on about how a lot of his work was simply copying documents and photos, asked me if Leicas were still in production, told me he used to own an Elmar lens, which he used with a Tower body... And yawned.
I asked him about darkroom hardware, and he showed me what he had, told me about developing tanks and almost invited me to his darkroom in the basement but then somebody must have reminded him something (he also yawned) and I decided to bid farewell, offering to return before he closes down.
Back outside, the sun was beating down hard, so I had no problem doing some hipshots with Scala. My other camera was loaded with Ektachrome 200. There were very few mentions of 9/11 in the air, but the poem by Billy Collins on the subject was incredibly touching and eloquent, without being longwinded or overloaded.
And, speaking of poetry, I attended a poetry slam. Nice experience! I'm planning to go to some of the local poetry slams in town... with my camera loaded with Fuji B&W 1600!
That was my weekend... And I simply wanted to share it with you. Enjoy your ebay watching session tonight! I may be lurking there too!
Last edited:
GeneW
Veteran
Sounds like a very fine weekend. Just one question: what's a poetry slam?
The images that come to mind ...
Gene
R
Rich Silfver
Guest
Hmmm MUCH better than mine...
Friday: worked really late.
Saturday: Had contracors put in new front door, sold four bookshelves that I wanted to get rid off so had to stay home to be here for that, installed a bike rack for a trip up North this week.
Sunday: It's past noon and I'm lazy. About to load up the Jeep with a lot of junk and drop it off at the dump. Gonna get some film, run errands.
Nothing fun for ME!
Friday: worked really late.
Saturday: Had contracors put in new front door, sold four bookshelves that I wanted to get rid off so had to stay home to be here for that, installed a bike rack for a trip up North this week.
Sunday: It's past noon and I'm lazy. About to load up the Jeep with a lot of junk and drop it off at the dump. Gonna get some film, run errands.
Nothing fun for ME!
SolaresLarrave
My M5s need red dots!
Gene, a poetry slam is a particular event in which people stand in front of a microphone and read their poems to a somewhat appreciative audience... of poets (usually). It's meant to give exposure to writers and their work, and also promotes the writing and reading of poetry. I had heard a lot about these events, mostly that they (apparently) started in NYC, in the Puerto Rican neighborhoods. Now, most college towns have places for poetry slams in which you may be lucky and hear some very good works, or witness lunatics reading their incontrollable rants.
Yesterday, we had a bit of both. However, since I was running out of film, I used the last two shots of each roll in my cameras to record two contestants. Let's see what you guys think when I'm able to post them here!
Yesterday, we had a bit of both. However, since I was running out of film, I used the last two shots of each roll in my cameras to record two contestants. Let's see what you guys think when I'm able to post them here!
taffer
void
Francisco, sounds like you had a fun weekend ! That photo store and your conversation about film processing looks promising
GeneW
Veteran
Kinda like a folk music open-stage night -- you sign up and get to perform two songs?
I'll keep my eyes out for one of these in the Toronto area.
Gene
I'll keep my eyes out for one of these in the Toronto area.
Gene
SolaresLarrave
My M5s need red dots!
Exactly, Gene. I've seen the same for music, called here "Open Mike Night"
Mike, of course, standing for "microphone."
Mike, of course, standing for "microphone."
I was at Home Depot yesterday for one of their Do-it-Yourself clinics, not that fun. But today I went to an orchard to pick apples and peaches, fun. I always want to give myself time to walk around New Haven, CT though to do some shooting. That is where Yale is, and I am sure there always is something going on down there.
Last edited:
T
Todd.Hanz
Guest
Out of town with my boys (8 and 11) to prepare my hunting property for the upcoming duck and goose season, ended up watching them shoot cans off a barbed wire fence with BB guns for two or three hours.
Sunday, took my boys to ride four wheelers (ATV's) all day, aint dad great! Good weekend for spending time together connecting while my wife worked.
Hope you all had a good time too.
Todd
Sunday, took my boys to ride four wheelers (ATV's) all day, aint dad great! Good weekend for spending time together connecting while my wife worked.
Hope you all had a good time too.
Todd
jdos2
Well-known
Mastic. Mortar. Tuck-pointing.