4/13 – Escape from Stetson St.

Argus C3, Portra 160VC expired.

I have a love/hate relationship with my local camera shop. I want to support them because they’re the only place in the metro area selling darkroom supplies. Their selection and prices may not be as good as the Internet, but they have most of what I need NOW.

I recently went in for a hardware repair, though, and my experience was not what I had hoped. Instead of repairing or replacing Mrs Mack505′s damaged lens, they tried to talk me into an upgrade. I fell for it.

I later found I could purchase a replacement on eBay for a fraction of what I paid, or get the repair parts for even less. Grrrrr.

Buyer beware.

They do sell Portra and Velvia, though. They can’t be all bad.

Photo: Argus C3 with Portra 160 (expired)

I’ve been passing time in the car of late with the Film Photography Podcast. Michael Raso and the gang are a lot of fun to listen to. With 57 episodes (and counting) and an average show length of about 90 minutes, I can get lost in the back catalog for a long time. Well, approximately 75 hours to be precise.

A little over 20 years ago I lost a good friend to cancer. A brain tumor took Dave before he could finish college. It wasn’t my first experience with death, but it was the first time I lost a friend instead of an older family member. There is no adequate description. Sometimes I wonder what modern medicine could do for him today. (Another good friend is a cancer survivor. Would he have died 20 years ago? Would Dave survive today? Life goes on.)

How do the two facts relate? Simply this:

The other day I was listening to an episode (somewhere in the 20′s) when the gang read a letter from a listener by the name of Dave. This Dave has the same slightly uncommon last name as my friend. He drives a truck in America’s heartland and stops to photograph disappearing bits of roadside Americana.

My buddy would have loved that. Here’s to you Dave, both of you, wherever you are. Thanks for the memories.

A century ago, Kodak hit upon a formula. Photography could be a huge market if only it could be expanded from the professionals and placed in the hands of the masses. A cheap and easy-to-use camera was the solution, and the Brownie series was born. For more than half a century Kodak would sell its Brownie cameras extremely cheaply, even giving them away in some cases. Much like today’s cell phone companies, Kodak expected to make its money on the after-sale services and support.

The average Brownie had few if any settings. It was simply a box with a lens and a shutter, which the photographer would point at his subject and trigger. I’ve shot a manual 35mm SLR for years, so the notion of a point and shoot camera with minimal settings is foreign to me.

My first Brownie arrived yesterday courtesy of eBay and the USPS. It’s a Hawkeye flash model from 1953

My first impression is that it’s cute. Somehow it’s smaller than I had expected. It’s a little brown Bakelite box with a handle, lens, viewfinder, and a winding knob. Initially it had a problem with a sticky shutter, but a quick disassembly and cleaning seems to have solved it. (One latch, two screws.)

I loaded it with Portra 160 and have only had time to take a few shots. It’s definitely different, but I think it’s going to be fun.

4/17 – the new Brownie Hawkeye Flash

4/16 – Cemetery wall @the farm. Holga/Portra.

This afternoon Scott Kier (@MedicSBK) asked the following on Twitter:

Question for the masses: Just because you “Follow” someone on Twitter, does that mean you support their cause/beliefs?

My initial reaction was, “Of course not!” I believe that maintaining an interest in a person’s views and statements can be valuable without implying endorsement. It’s a ‘keep your friends close and your enemies closer’ sort of thing.

Then something changed. Shortly after Scott’s tweet, my timeline slapped me. A self-identified EMS professional re-tweeted a blatantly homophobic tweet from another paramedic. This tweet referred to on-duty, patient care related conduct.

I won’t say I was shocked. -Isms and -phobias are alive and well in the real world, but these people lacked the most important -ism: professionalism. I was left doubting the integrity and judgement of both.

I don’t care what consenting adults do in their own time as long as I don’t have to pay for it. If you care, that’s your business too. Leave it at home. We have a job to do, and we don’t get to pick our patients.

I was left feeling guilty by association. I can’t change these people; I can change my association with them.

Should it matter who I follow and read? No.

Does it matter? Yes.

Will I keep following this person? Right now I’m not sure.

Scott is an EMS supervisor and author of EMS in the New Decade. In the grand scheme of life he lives pretty close to me, but we have never met.

Week 2 is in the can, and all but one of the themes are back from the lab.

 

#SHADOW

#TOOL

#JOHNNY APPLESEED

#STAR

#BLING

#EASY AS PIE

#ANGLES

#IDES took a bit of extra thought and work. It’s still in the camera(s). Color shots this week were with the Holga 135BC shooting 400ASA (think it was Kodak but I don’t remember); B&W work was with the Nikon FM2/20mm lens/Ilford HP5. I’m much happier with the Holga results as I learn its quirks.

I confess I don’t know the whole story. I wasn’t there to see the children or the conditions involved. What I do know is this:

Social Services does not take removing a child from a home lightly. I rarely see it done, and I’ve NEVER seen it after midnight. It’s always tragic and traumatic for everyone involved.

Calling 911 after the fact with a fake emergency symptoms we cannot treat or rule out in the field, adamantly insisting on going to the hospital where you know think your children were taken, refusing to be registered and causing a scene in the middle of the ED will not get them back.

Maybe you were framed. Maybe the cops have something against you. Maybe Social Services is a heartless bureaucracy full of uncaring screwups. Maybe it’s all part of a Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy. Maybe there was a second gunman on the grassy knoll. I don’t know, and at this hour I don’t really care.

What I do know is that your little performance isn’t helping anything. What’s done is done, and the solution lies in court in the morning not in the ED at 04:00. What your tantrum will do is earn you an escort off the property from the friendly security guards. If you play your cards right, you might even get a nice hospitality suite courtesy of Suburban PD.

Man up, go home, and call your lawyer. You are not helping your cause.