Seawood Photo

I won't say why but over the weekend I had to make an emergency paper developer run and my usual - I should say former - sources were not holding. So I took a drive to the legendary Seawood Photo in San Anselmo, a trip I'd been putting off for years, and had a series of mostly pleasant surprises. The first surprise was that it was so close. San Anselmo had always seemed so far away in my head, and maybe this is a holdover of when we lived in the City and it would have been a good 45 min to an hour. But it's 5 minutes out of San Rafael, putting it about 15-20 minutes from my house. And anyone who lives the Bay Area knows that this is essentially the equivalent of walking across the street.

The second surprise was the camera collection lining the shelves of the store, a treasure trove that puts mine to shame three times over. Cameras I've only read about, cameras I've seen pictures of but not seen in person, and yes several that I own and have used. I just gaped for a bit. Eventually I had to just get my developer and go before I got way sidetracked and filled up the trunk. To be sure, this place is a traditional photographer's dream, between the collection of classics and everything else under the sun, including bins of manual camera lenses, filters and miscellaneous doodads. View cameras. Film! Ha.

Absolutely a must visit for any collector or photographer in the area. Nice folks too, and parking on the side. Watch out for dogs and bicycles once you turn off Sir Francis Drake though. San Anselmo appears to be a conclave of dogs, families and bicycles, all in the street at the same time... at least on the weekend...