Hey! Remember me? I’ve been taking a little post 365 break. I definitely have needed the break, but at the same time, in order for me to take pictures with any regularity I need the structure of an ongoing project. Anyway, I took and developed this roll of film a few weeks ago, had some trouble scanning and finally rescanned it this weekend. There were a couple of nice ones, but this was hands down my favorite. The idea is based on an Imogen Cunningham photo (here), it will be a do over, since I don’t like the print of the quilt very much, but I love the cat taking a bath (this was a long exposure, so he is a bit abstract) and the way the light is shining on the wall. Can you tell I read at night?

But not really…

My dad lent me his Nikon and the extra lenses. I have no idea what these lenses do (except for the zoom lens, which seems rather obvious), so one of my goals for the next year is to learn about lenses.

Can we take a moment to appreciate the name? The “Hi-Matic”. By contrast, my digital camera is called “S3 IS”, not quite the same ring to it (even the Canon Rebel doesn’t have that certain futuristic, new technology implication). Hi-Matic. Anyway. This is a great little camera, it’s a 35mm rangefinder. What, you ask, is a rangefinder anyway? Uh, here is a Wikipedia article to explain. I’ve put two rolls of film through it so far and the quality is just terrific. I expect to use this one a lot. This came to me by way of my brother and sister-in-law.

In case you are wondering, yes, I am doing a film camera series. Anyway. This was Len’s father’s camera: a Zeiss-Contax rangefinder. It’s weirdly complex: it has an in-camera light meter (which is off by quite a lot) which operates separately from the aperture and shutter. You point the camera at the scene, play around with setting on one dial until the (not functioning) light meter balances out, then you set the f-stop and shutter speed on the lens. I don’t know how old this one is either, possibly pre-WWII, Len remembers it always being around and his dad used an external light meter, but I imagine an internal light meter was quite a step forward in convenience, even if it didn’t work with the aperture and shutter. I haven’t used this one yet.

Five more days. Yikes. I’m thinking a lot about what I will be doing in the coming year and it’s starting to take shape. It will involve a lot more film, it will not involve taking a picture a day, but hopefully posting several times a week.

Anyway. The cameras are both Argus, which was founded in Ann Arbor. The back one is a C4 and does not work. The front one is a C3 Standard, which was made between 1939 and 1966. I’m not sure what year this one is, the number of shutter speeds was reduced during that time (I’ve been looking at the number of f-stops and don’t have a clear picture of the shutter speed dial). I don’t know if it works, it definitely could use some cleaning, and in any case, I doubt it will be in regular rotation unless the pictures are spectacular. However, it is crazy cool looking, isn’t it?

These might be sedum?