Photo: Hasselblad 500cm, Mystic, Conn.

I'm geting mind and bags ready for a holiday trip to Germany. I will take my Mamiya 6 and Nikon D70s but I worry about the weather. Berlin, as is most of Germany, VERY dark and grey in winter; and cold. I fear it will be too dark for much street photography of people and so I expect to focus more on store fronts, signs, and patterns; where I could use a tripod. Photo: Hasselblad 500cm, New Jersey

Well, my goal was to upload photos on a regular basis, like daily or at least weekly. Mmm. I bought some off brand films not long ago: adox, astra, all East european brands that have nothing imprnted on them. Can't say I'm impressed and it now all seems silly considering I could have bought Fujipan or Ilford for little more! Photo: Hasselblad 500cm, Munich, Germany

So I got all that fresh film and then Fall showed up and I realized I needed to get some bike rides in (not that put my bike away during winter). So yesterday, when I should have been downtown taking photos I was out on a glorius sunny fall day bike ride. Wonderful. I'll get around to photos soon.

Photo: Seattle Hempfest'05
Camera: Mamiya 6

Finally a photo from the Puyallup Fair with my new Mamiya 6. This was taken with the 50mm.

Man oh man, I got carried away a bit with ordering film. I guess I sort of panicked when I ran out of film abit over a week ago and ended having packages of film delivered pretty much every day this week. From Adorama I had fujipan and Illford film, from Freestyle I got Arista.edu, and from J&C photo I got adox and classicpan (what ever that is). I now have like 100 rolls of various brands to use/test. So what's the first outing? Well I think I will head over to Fishermen's terminal begining of the week, and I haven't been down to Pike Place Market in a while.

I did some Puyallup Fair scanning on Friday but didn't have time to upload any of it. That was my first shot with my new Mamiya 6 and they look great. It's such a nice camera I almost hate to use it; for fear of scratching it.

PHOTO: Leica M6, Paris

Went to the Puyallup fair yesterday and used my new Mamiya 6, with the 50mm lens. Haven't developed the film (Fujipan 400 and a couple old rolls of Verichrome (I'm out of 400). I already know the camera works fine but I do need to change my technique a bit from shooting with my 500cm. I have the Mamiya high around my neck where as with the 500cm I had it high on my shoulder griped in my left hand.

The Hasselblad actually has a quieter shutter, with the mirror pre-released, but that means one can't use the ground glass. I started my people on the street series, back in '89, with my, now sold, Plaubel Makina (50mm), and I had that camera hanging around my neck and a cable release hanging down. I'm just using my hand on the shutter release with the Mamiya; and no body seems to notice. The Mamiya is quieter than the Plaubel so that helps.

Just ordered some Adox 400 film from J&C Photo. Not sure if it will be Canadian Adox, Elfke film relabeled, or Illford HP5 relabeled (as I've read most recently). I also have 20 rolls of Arista EDU 400 on the way; which is suppose to be relabeled Czech film (Foma?). I'm looking forward to testing!!!

PHOTO: Hasselblad 500cm, Hot Springs, Arkansas

Photo: Fuji S2

Wasted much of the afternoon dealing with a dead Samsung I-330 mobile phone. Telephone support was a dead-end. I got a person, or at least the voice on the other end claimed to be human (yes I asked), that asked me "if I needed any other help" right after asking me for my phone number (naturally I had already entered my phone number at the begining of the call). I got no where with "her". I should have been downtown taking photos but instead there I was dealing with one of Sprint's finest robotic tele-service monkeys.

Ordered 20 rolls of Arista edu 400, a czech film from Freestyle photo (L.A.). It's cheap cheap cheap which sounds good as I need to order heating oil on Monday and I know it will be pricey stuff.

PHOTO: Nikon F3

Developed my first roll of film through my new Mamiya 6; and it looks great. Sharp, well exposed and spaced. I used Fujipan 400 developed in Rodinal 1:25 for 6.25 minutes and fixed in Photographer's Formulary fixer (great stuff).

PHOTO: local crit race, shot with Fuji S2.

Just added a new camera to my collection last night, a very mint Mamiya 6 with all three lenses (complete with boxes). I didn't really need it, as my trusty 23 year old 500cm works quite well for my street work but I have been searching for a Mamiya 6 for some time now. It will be great for winter work when low handheld shutter speeds make the Hasselblad not the 1st choice. I'll use the Mamiya 6 next Monday at the Puyallup Fair and get some photos posted asap.

I don't seem to find much time for my darkroom in the last year but I do love shooting film and so I've been scanning my work, for now, and will get around to printing one of these days. I'm not convinced about inkjet prints; I'm sticking with wet processing for now. I've been shooting fujipan 400 for the past few years but I'm now (re)testing HP5 and Tri-x to see if one scans better than the other. I sort of like the scanned look of HP5 but I don't like the way they cut the film short. It may work ok in my new Mamiya but in the 500cm one must start the film a bit early to be sure not to cut off the last image. Why Illford?

PHOTO: Lisbon, 500cm