what do you tell your wife?

Even though we earn equal amounts in our household, my wife manages the finances, her being an accountant and all... I never know how much money is available, so I always assume we're broke. We ought to be, because I am always spending it. I can reasonably get away with about 50 bucks a month for the camera addiction with no questions asked. But it's a good thing I have some self-control, because my wonderful esposa just will not tell me "no" when I come up with some outlandish expenditure. I mean, if I REALLY wanted a Leica M7,and could come up with some kind of plausible reason why it would be a good thing, she'd let me do it. But then she'd go off in the bathroom and cry. So I exercise the self-control. LOL, self control, right---- that's why I've spent $3500 on cameras in the last 12 months. And my wife still loves me!
 
Doug said:
Gee, Doug, you had a GREAT school to teach about bimetalic strips, and presumably differences in thermal expansion for different materials -- in second grade! And amazing for you to be so knowledgeable as to know she had it backwards...(snip)

Well, it wasn't exactly metallurgy and thermodynamics:D, but for whatever reason it was being discussed. The fact that I realized she had it backwards owes more to her clear explanation of the process than any prowess on my part. Nevertheless, I believe she hated me from that day on! (She was also the teacher all the schoolboys had a crush on)

D2
 
Kind of a weird attraction/repulsion thing, eh? The way like poles of a magnet attract eachother.:D
 
This is a neighbor of my mother-in-law in Englewood, Colorado. He collects farm tractors. His wife lets him display two on the front lawn, the rest are out on his farm. He periodically rotates new tractors through the display. He also decorates them with Christmas lights (in season of course) and gives rides to the children in the neighborhood.

After seeing this, my family decided that camera collections were comparatively innocouous.

By the way, this was taken on Fuji Neopan 400 with a Kiev-4A and a Helios 103. 1/500@f11.

-Paul
 
Paul

How do you like the Neopan 400? I love the stuff. I've always felt that if I leave the Pacific Northwest, that I would return to the Front Range (Fort Collins, CO) a wonderful area. Not as conducive to street shooting though. (Not even Denver). Cool shot. Are you living in that area?

Russ
 
This was just a visit. I picked up a half dozen rolls of Neopan 400 at an out-dated film sale for half-price. (one-month expired) and have been trying it out. It is a nice film. The scan and subsequent re-sizing above doesn't do justice to the tonal range that is actually on the film. I may buy a 100 foot roll of this film. I think I may prefer it over Tri-X.

-Paul
 
pshinkaw said:
This was just a visit. I picked up a half dozen rolls of Neopan 400 at an out-dated film sale for half-price. (one-month expired) and have been trying it out. It is a nice film. The scan and subsequent re-sizing above doesn't do justice to the tonal range that is actually on the film. I may buy a 100 foot roll of this film. I think I may prefer it over Tri-X.

-Paul

Paul

Tri-X and HP-5, are very good films. I grew up on the stuff. But ever since I discovered the Neopan 400, ( 6 years ago) I have completely abandoned the other one's. I burn my Neopan 400 @ 320, usually through a deep yellow (#15) filter, and I get the most beautiful negatives. The Neopan 1600, is also very good. The Delta 400 is a close second, in my opinion. The grain & tonality of the Neopan 400 is unbeatable. B/W Photography did a review of the seven 400 speed B/W films, and guess which one won out handily?

Russ
 
What do you tell your wife? Well, today I thought I'd try NOTHING. We went out to see some tall ships that were visiting the city, and took our daughter to see some trains. I took my new black Bessa R along for a test run without saying anything about having an new camera. My two other rangefinders are silver. She kept looking at it hanging on my shoulder but never asked if it was new. Plus, it certainly looked different from my other cameras as it had the 25mm viewfinder on it. Maybe it worked. We'll see . . .

Steve
 
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SRMC said:
What do you tell your wife? Well, today I thought I'd try NOTHING. We went out to see some tall ships that were visiting the city, and took our daughter to see some trains. I took my new black Bessa R along for a test run without saying anything about having an new camera. My two other rangefinders are silver. She kept looking at it hanging on my shoulder but never asked if it was new. Plus, it certainly looked different from my other cameras as it had the 25mm viewfinder on it. Maybe it worked. We'll see . . .

Steve

This reminds me of the time when the wife killed her husband in his sleep, she then took a ....

Russ
 
She just hit me up for a $2,500 tuition check, due today. I think I am good for a little while.
 
You're lucky Russ. But women are very clever to notice minor changes.

I've just sold a blue Fed 3 today, as I 've been a bit unwise buying recently : olympus 35sp, bessa R , olympus 35 rc, non working olympus 35 ec, yashica 35, russian mir, Kiev 35A and I had before a pentax slr, zenith zlr and nikon coolpix.

I guess I'll have to offer some of them to my father, just to find an excuse for this massive and unexpected need of buying...

It's not easy to resist, there are so many pretty and interesting little rangefinders : petri, canon.... and each of those RF is interesting.
 
My wife and I nearly broke up over the way I didn't tell her anything - especially bad news or money stuff. In fact, a number of years ago we *did* break up. But after 3 months I managed to get back in her good books again. Anyway, after that, I've learnt how important it is to communicate. If I've just GOT to have that camera, sportscar, whatever, then we'll talk about it, work out whether it fits in the budget, and then decide together. I'll never forget the conversation for the Datsun 2000 Sports: "But it's only got two seats". "Yes, and there's only two of us!". :)

Communication works best for me, I've found. But then, we've only a relatively small income, so some weeks, even $50 is a big deal.

Cheers,
Steve
 
Frank, IMO, it's beyond me why teachers aren't as respected as much as doctors. Well, it's not beyond me, but here's the problem: It's too easy to get into teaching, so you get many people doing it and hating it, and therefore doing a bad job.

If you guys got paid what you're worth, of course, the universities could get more selective about who gets into teaching, and the prestige of the role would increase, and therefore you'd get more good quality people *wanting* to do it. However, it would mean more money on schools and less on tanks.

Still, it'd be nice to see the wives and mothers of our armed forces doing a cake sale to save for the next AFV, while our teachers got paid good money teaching our kids how to avoid needing them...

Cheers,
Steve
(hopeless utopian idealist)
 
Well, I didn't tell my wife I bought a 160G Harddisk two days ago. Now the post came.. bad timing.. she was home, I was at work..
Now I'm not allowed to open it until she says it's ok.. :(
And I was seriously considering sneaking in a Bessa .. but I guess that has to wait..

Ah, women... can't live with them.. can't shoot them.. well, you _can_ on photo ;)
 
Don't have a wife (thank gwad), but however I do have one of those girl friend things...
Lucky for me she's in med school and is either too busy learning some new gastly way to die or stressing out. She knows I have cameras and photographic realated stuff, but the exact number is unknown to her and I like it that way. Mind you I'm struggling to remember the last time I saw in the same pair of shoes twice.

But it's the new wargames armies she dosen't like. "You paid how much for it, and YOU have to paint it!".

My parents are very critical of new cameras. My Dad's family is photographically educated and he can spot new camera at 300 yards. When they saw my first Bessa R I got the "You've already got a Hasselblad, why do you need this? And what about the big plate camera (my 8x10) when did you use that last? You should be saving your money to buy a house, so you can start a family... and the silly sports car of yours, you need to sell that and buy nice sensible four door or station wagon, 'cause you won't fit a wife and baby in that, blah blah blah blah blah blah..."
You get the idea.

Mind you the girl friend does share her name with a Contax, this could be a good omen.

Stu :)
 
st3ph3nm said:
Still, it'd be nice to see the wives and mothers of our armed forces doing a cake sale to save for the next AFV, while our teachers got paid good money teaching our kids how to avoid needing them...
Cheers,
Steve
(hopeless utopian idealist)

I think that's how New Zealand's armed forces got their new AFVs and field radios... no wait, sorry. That's right we sold half of the South Island to Shania Twain and rest soon to Cher <shudder> that's how the armed forces do a "Cake Sale" here.

Stu :)
 
Aria Stu? or IIa?

I have to tone down my father about my cameras. He tends to blow my cover. This is one reason I can't buy a Leica, he would make such a big deal about it the wife would definitely know something big was going on.
 
Parents, God bless them, always have your long-term interests at heart... especially in encouraging some grandchildren!
 
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