Box and TLR section done

That's all. Let me know if this is annoying.

Three Down...

OK I've now revised the Lenses section, the Meters and Accessories section, and the Folders section. All links in those sections should be current and in many cases the text has been updated, revised, and/or spelling-corrected.

I'm now working my way through the TLR and Box cameras section. I know you're riveted, that's why I'm keeping you posted ;)

Processing...processing...

I'm going through my site (Folding Cameras section now) and checking links, I'm happy that so many pages are still around with extensive info on cameras. Yes, some have changed addresses, some have disappeared, and some new notable sites have popped up in the meantime. One notable 'new' site is Mischa Koning's redo of Chris Eve's old Kodak pages, props to Mischa for taking that over, it's a great resource! Another one I hadn't heard about is camerapedia.org, a wiki for camera info. Between that and wikipedia I hope to see this type of info continue to be more comprehensive and made more accurate as people continue to contribute to the history of all these great cameras.

Links:

camerapedia.org
wikipedia.org
Mischa's Chris' Kodak pages

I'll work these in somewhere, no worries!

Taekwondo Leg

I found a description of what happened to my leg, it's a fairly common injury in people my age and usually referred to as "Tennis Leg". Here is the description of the injury and rehabilitation at about.com. It's pretty much spot on.

Tried taking crutches to work today, it was more of a hassle than simply walking slowly. Got attention though. I'm telling people I got the injury sparring a 3rd Degree Black Belt, which is essentially true. We just weren't making contact at the time. :P

Also found the time (how? where?) to take a few pics with my semi-new refurbished LOMO LC-A, hope this roll turns out better than my last failure with the camera. It's no XA2, you have to read the instructions. DOH!

Guitar Plug

OK so this is a little off-topic but I wanted to put in a plug for the place I just bought my latest toy -- an Epiphone Les Paul Special II electric guitar: samedaymusic.com. No tax (except in NJ), free shipping on most orders over $49, great selection, great prices.

I had settled on the LPS II as the best guitar for the least amount of money after trying out what must have been 15-20 guitars at 5 different local music stores, including the crowded Bananas at Large, the great Magic Flute, and the overwhelming Guitar Center. Then I was waylaid by injury. So Tuesday morning (8/15) I ordered the guitar and it arrived the following day via FedEX Ground (free)! I couldn't be more pleased. I've been playing nearly nonstop ever since.

FYI instead of the starter "Player Pack" (I already have a tuner, dvd, picks, etc.) I went a-la-carte with a little Marshall MG10CD amp, which sounds fantastic. Anyway if you're in the market for some instrumentation, I highly recommend samedaymusic.com, I was very happy with my experience with them. I also recommend the guitar for a beginner, it's very solid with good sound, good sustain, and a fairly fast neck. Also I have to say I LOVE the fat humbucker sound!

And yes, I'm still working on the website. I'm going through some stacks of old prints looking for overlooked images for the gallery sections. Being couchbound is boring!

Lenses Section Revised

As predicted I'm making progress on my guitar (I'm getting E Minor Pentatonic down) and on my photo site as my couchbound calf heals. I've just gone through the lenses section and made sure all the links are current, and fixed a couple problems with sample pages. A lot left to go but at least I'm making progress :)

Ouch

WELL I guess I'm guetting old, I seem to be able to injure myself without much effort these days. Last night I tore my soleus (calf) muscle at taekwondo doing absolutely nothing out of the ordinary but landing a small jump kick. Guess I should have stretched better, or something!

So I'm couchbound for at least a day and I guess I'll take the opportunity to catch up on email (my apologies to those who have waited so long they have given up on me!) and work on the website. Too bad (for me, not the rest of the family) that the electric guitar I have on order won't be here in time to noodle on while I recover. Ah well, I still have the acoustic.

I think I'll shoot more medium format

Shazam -- I developed a roll I recently shot with my Yashica 124, after developing a roll from my Minolta XD5, and was completely blown away by the difference in detail. I know it's been a while since I shot & developed any MF, and granted the 124 has extremely nice lenses (not that the lenses I was shooting with the XD5 were slouches) but whoa! The leaves on the trees, the crinkles of the fabric, the tiny print on the books in the shelf that I shot handheld in available light at 1/15... Yes, I think I'll be shooting more medium format. Don't know what else to say about that. Except wow!

Sidebar -- we were just at a wedding in San Diego and I talked to the photographer at the reception, in an interlude between getting drinks and waiting for the toast. He was shooting with a combination of digital (Canon DSLR) and film (Hassy of course), and we were discussing the virtues of both. No point really except to say that I was happy to see a professional still appreciating the qualities of MF film (I believe it was Fuji he was shooting) and that there are pros that still know that digital isn't the end-all be-all. Convenient, no question. But not always the quality you want in your final product.

More New Pages

Been busy! New pages are up for several lenses and teleconverters, and a few new sample pages including one for the Yashica Pentamatic, a relative newcomer to my collection. I will continue to update pages and for the most part, mark notable additions on this blog.


Sears 28mm Minolta MD
Soligor 28mm for Minolta MC
Lenmar 2x for Minolta
Kiron 2x for Konica A/R
2x for Kiev 88
Vivitar 2x for Pentax K

New Camera Page Up!

I finally added a new camera page: the Nikon N6006. A couple more are on the way, plus I have some lenses that will be getting their own pages soon and several more sample photos to post. I'm also still considering various images for the 'new work' section.

Developed another roll of film today that I forgot about, a roll of Konica Infrared 750 that I was working on in my XA2. I'm a little surprised it came out at all but I see images so I'm waiting to check it out on the light table later.

I do have a new page up on the Canon Classic 120, it's not finished or revised at all, in fact it's more of a placeholder till I have a chance to go and flesh it out/finish it. I don't usually post pages before they're done but it was linked to from the revised 'additional notes' page so I left it. On the other hand, I did go through the meters/accessories section and update all the links there so that's one section done!

I forgot how time consuming website management can be, bear with me as I work my way through it all.

More Progress

As some of you have noticed, I'm well along in the mechanical and cosmetic portion of my site upgrade, and am getting closer to the final phase -- content review. That's when I'll go back and check broken links, add new ones, update any pages that I have new info on, and all that.

Prior to that I'll be updating my 2-year-old (what!) "new work" page and some of the galleries. Looks like I need to do some new nudes, wonder who I can talk into posing...

In a Darkened Room

Developed a roll of black and white film today for apparently the first time in a while, I actually had to look at my own notes! It was FOMA Pan 100, a nice value film that compares well to TMAX 100, though I use the Plus-X instructions for developing. Pictures from our visit to UCSD and to a beach near Del Mar.

Before we left for our vacation, Ellen was pushing to scrapbook last year's trip to Oregon and Washington, so I went into the darkroom for the first time since last summer to make some prints. Like today it took some acclimation but it sure was nice to get in there working with the hands, making prints the old fashioned way. Didn't take long to get back in the swing. Nothing like the smell of developer and fixer to get the juices flowing!

Before I got busy tearing out the kitchen last summer, and started using the darkroom for storing Christmas presents last fall, I bought an Epson Perfection 3170 scanner. The idea was that I would scan negs instead of printing and scanning the prints, and that it would be easier and faster. The 3170 scans 35mm strips and medium format to 6x9 with the included adapters, but is tedious work. Scanning negs is like watching computer-generated grass grow. No offense to the heralds of the new era, I prefer the hands-on darkroom work for most printmaking. As for the prints, they all got cropped and mounted in the album before I could scan any for the website :)

Back from Vacation

Ah it's good to be home, no matter how much fun we had in San Diego (or Sandy Eggo as we used to say). I did settle on a couple of cameras to bring, it wasn't an easy choice! I was happy with it though: Minolta XD5 with 45mm Rokkor, 28mm Sears for MD, and 2x doubler; and Yashica 124.

My two older kids actually shot much more film than I did, Bailey shot 4 rolls and Casey shot 6, while I only shot 1 roll of Kodak Black & White, two rolls of FOMA pan 100, and almost a roll of Macophot 100 in the Yashica. I did take more pictures than that though, with the family digicam, though most of the nearly 600 digital pics were taken by Ellen. I'll see if I got any good ones after I develop my film and add them to the upcoming 'new work' update.

One of the highlights of the trip was a visit to and tour of the Stone Brewing Company's new location which just opened in Escondido near the Wild Animal Park, if you're a lover of bold craft beers you owe it to yourself to drive a couple miles north after visiting the Park, and check it out! It's near the I-15 and 78 interchange on the top of a hill. You won't be sorry.

SO... the trick now will be remembering where I left off with my site updating. Should have left myself more bread crumbs. Here's a pic from where else, Legoland!