Closing Shop

This was the one that I thought last night was "so good." And you know what - still like it. But it isn't like I remember it - when I was shooting it, the girl on the ladder looked completely silhouetted, and I thought I was closer. What I did remember: her shape, the bright bands on the arms, and the woman next to her. Yes, shot with the 28mm.

Maybe just a male thing, but I don't usually see such good torsos lit that well on my nightly journeys.

Rangefinders Redeux

I returned the CV R3A, and stopped by the used dept. at B&H. I looked at several nice Leica M6's but they were a touch expensive. The sales guy - who I know for many years - showed me a very clean double-stroke M3. I bought it. $850. I know I could probably find an M6 on the web for the same price or close to it, but I like (as I've said before) - doing these transactions in person.

What a strange summer. Backwards through time. Next thing you know I'll be using a camera obscura.

* * *

"When you make an equipment purchase do you look at in terms of how many typical orders or prints that you need to sell to pay for it?" JBee

The short answer: No.

The longer answer: I'm driven by necessity. What is going to get me further along with my prints (which doesn't mean that I'm right). I agonize about the money. I just try to keep it all as even as possible in terms of money outlay. It is a rough estimate. With the trade-in of the old equipment - and switching to Rangefinder equipment and neg. development - I'm probably out about $500. That doesn't include film / developer and wasted testing time.

When I had "a real job" money was of very little concern and I just bought whatever I wanted at the time and had much more expensive equipment than I do now.

More Film

Hooked up the 2nd 250 GB One Touch via firewire without any problems and did a load of copying to it.

::

Last night, I took what may be one of my best shots ever. But it is at the beginning of a roll of film. I was so tempted to just put that roll with four shots into the soup... but won't. That is the major difference between film and digital - and it may be a good thing as you are sort of in the lottery - waiting to see if you won or not. And you have all that time to dream about what you'll do if you do hold the winning ticket.

I won't say what the shot is - because that would surely jinx it, but for walking around stuff at night - real potential if I didn't screw it up. The reason I went out was just testing my theory that the R2A was really easier to focus than the R3A, which is now sitting in it's box waiting to return to the great recycle bin of B&H Photo.