K
Krasnaya_Zvezda
Guest
I actually wrote this very early this morning, and when I went to post it, my DSL had gone down. It's just come back up, so here goes:
Went to bed at 12:30. I have a 4 month old little girl who decided her old Dad needed something to do at 3:30 other than sleep.... I was on my way back to slumberland after feeding her when I started thinking about which camera I want to use about 12 hours from now to shoot the get-together at my favorite restaurant/ watering hole. Once I started thinking about the cameras, it was all over, I might as well get up. Well, that's not the only reason. I also have a web page I need to build, I've been putting it off for weeks now. What better time to work on it than the middle of the night?
The camera choice would be easy if my Leica Digilux 2 was available, but I had to send it back to Leica USA for some minor repair to the EVF, and it hasn't made it back yet. I could use my Olympus C5050 Zoom, but it's no fun. After the Leica, I go to the rangefinders anyway, bypassing the now 14 year-old Nikon SLR (too modern). I've been using a black Fed 5C with an electronic flash unit for such situations lately, but I'm leaning towards my Fed 2 with a Jupiter-12 mounted on it. Feel bad about leaving all the others behind, the two Zorki 4s, my beloved Kiev 4, the fine Moskva 5, excluded for not having an accessory shoe... then I have my non-FSU but very exquisite Zeiss Contina and the screaming cool Contiflex, also the beautiful Retina IIIc. I've long neglected all those Argus shooters (7 of them), and I'm not going to consider either of my Zenits. The Practika MTL3 is at the office... Ricoh? Great camera, but again, no fun...the Holga? Not practical for this situation... Certainly not the Holgaroid, either. The Isolette has that great lens, but no rangefinder... if only the Iskra had arrived in time, but it's still on the way... forget about those Baldas....
Who am I kidding? The camera choice, barring the Leica, is made on mood and fancy alone. I'm gonna take the Fed 2 with the Jupiter-12, I'll pack along the J-8 and a couple rolls of Fuji Reala, and fire away. It's the vulcanite, and the smell of the case of Russian leather, that actually dictated that one.
What's the point of this rant? I'm going to be 50 on Monday, so the party is today.
Brain-freeze margaritas the size of goldfish bowls, fajitas you can smell and hear sizzling 10 meters away, and vodka so cold it pours like liquid helium. Besides my best friends of many years in attendance, there's family flying in from the Rio Grande valley... there will be my aforementioned 4 month old daughter and my 2 year old grandson along with me (yes, I know---- my kid is younger than my grandkid) He will have his Agfa Optima with him, which doesn't work (doesn't matter to him, he just likes to look through the viewfinder and say "Cheese!")-- My eldest brother says "That's what you get for being married to somebody half your age, kids younger than your grandkids. But my wife's not really half my age, she's 0.7 of it----
Because of her, I have this wonderful family, the freedom and some discretionary income to blow on this camera jones I have, these great friends I have had all my life, and the new friends I have met through RFF and other portals on the web. I'm half way through a century, I've got a little more around the middle and a little less in the bank than I'd like to have, but all I can say right now is it's 5 am, I'm sleepy as hell, and life has never been nearly so good.
Went to bed at 12:30. I have a 4 month old little girl who decided her old Dad needed something to do at 3:30 other than sleep.... I was on my way back to slumberland after feeding her when I started thinking about which camera I want to use about 12 hours from now to shoot the get-together at my favorite restaurant/ watering hole. Once I started thinking about the cameras, it was all over, I might as well get up. Well, that's not the only reason. I also have a web page I need to build, I've been putting it off for weeks now. What better time to work on it than the middle of the night?
The camera choice would be easy if my Leica Digilux 2 was available, but I had to send it back to Leica USA for some minor repair to the EVF, and it hasn't made it back yet. I could use my Olympus C5050 Zoom, but it's no fun. After the Leica, I go to the rangefinders anyway, bypassing the now 14 year-old Nikon SLR (too modern). I've been using a black Fed 5C with an electronic flash unit for such situations lately, but I'm leaning towards my Fed 2 with a Jupiter-12 mounted on it. Feel bad about leaving all the others behind, the two Zorki 4s, my beloved Kiev 4, the fine Moskva 5, excluded for not having an accessory shoe... then I have my non-FSU but very exquisite Zeiss Contina and the screaming cool Contiflex, also the beautiful Retina IIIc. I've long neglected all those Argus shooters (7 of them), and I'm not going to consider either of my Zenits. The Practika MTL3 is at the office... Ricoh? Great camera, but again, no fun...the Holga? Not practical for this situation... Certainly not the Holgaroid, either. The Isolette has that great lens, but no rangefinder... if only the Iskra had arrived in time, but it's still on the way... forget about those Baldas....
Who am I kidding? The camera choice, barring the Leica, is made on mood and fancy alone. I'm gonna take the Fed 2 with the Jupiter-12, I'll pack along the J-8 and a couple rolls of Fuji Reala, and fire away. It's the vulcanite, and the smell of the case of Russian leather, that actually dictated that one.
What's the point of this rant? I'm going to be 50 on Monday, so the party is today.
Brain-freeze margaritas the size of goldfish bowls, fajitas you can smell and hear sizzling 10 meters away, and vodka so cold it pours like liquid helium. Besides my best friends of many years in attendance, there's family flying in from the Rio Grande valley... there will be my aforementioned 4 month old daughter and my 2 year old grandson along with me (yes, I know---- my kid is younger than my grandkid) He will have his Agfa Optima with him, which doesn't work (doesn't matter to him, he just likes to look through the viewfinder and say "Cheese!")-- My eldest brother says "That's what you get for being married to somebody half your age, kids younger than your grandkids. But my wife's not really half my age, she's 0.7 of it----
Because of her, I have this wonderful family, the freedom and some discretionary income to blow on this camera jones I have, these great friends I have had all my life, and the new friends I have met through RFF and other portals on the web. I'm half way through a century, I've got a little more around the middle and a little less in the bank than I'd like to have, but all I can say right now is it's 5 am, I'm sleepy as hell, and life has never been nearly so good.