Still haven't finished developing my NYC film, I'll get around to it soon. I'm off to Winthrop for a mini vacation with the family then later next week I'll get back to developing film.

Speaking of film, I had a guy in NYC come up to me and ask to buy film from me. It was the week of Sukkot and the main photo shops were closed, and even though he only wanted 35mm b&w film he was having problems. I couldn't help him because I was shooting 120 film.

Photo: Paris'07
Camera: Mamiya 6

I still have lots of darkroom work but I hate being in the darkroom during the day, especially when the weather is nice and sunny as it is in Seattle this Fall. So, I did a little scanning this afternoon, but not before a nice long fall bike ride this morning. Here's an example from Paris this summer; more coming and already on my web site.

Early this week I tried upgrading my scanner software from Vuescan to Silverfast. What a mistake that was! After testing the demo version and deciding it was better I paid the bucks and got the serial number. Problem is the serial number doesn't "stick" and I still have watermarks on the scanned images. Silverfast, I found out, has terrible customer service. They only do it by email and I'm still waiting for a response from Tuesday!!! So, it was back to Vuescan, which is a bit buggy but workable.

Photo: Paris
Camera: Mamiya 6, 50mm lens, tri-x film

In these days of the ever new digital improvement I find it rather amazing that I'm still shooting film; and quite a bit of it at that. I haven't shot color film in years but I shot a lot of black and white film, although my beloved Leica MP gets very little use even for B&W. I am, however, shooting a lot of medium format B&W film through my also beloved Mamiya 6.

Two nights ago I finally finished developing my film from Dresden, Frankfurt, and Paris projects from the summer and tonight I will start developing the 50+ rolls of tri-x from my most recent NYC trip.

I think NYC must be the best city in the world to shoot street photography. As much as I love Paris, Berlin, Los Angeles, et cetera, they just can't compete with New York as a location jam packed full of interesting people. It's also an amazingly safe city to walk about with a camera dangling about one's neck. I never felt concerned in New York, not downtown, uptown, LEV, Brooklyn, Queen. True, I didn't go this trip to The Bronx but the current NYC is nothing compared to my first NYC visit in 1984. Then, even with my M4 hidden under my coat I was fearful, I poked into shops to look at my map, I was told not to walk more than halfway across the Brooklyn Bridge, I avoided the subway when possible. Now, well, now New York is wonderful, simply the best. I think I would move there, at least for a year, if I could talk my wife into it. Well, at least I have my yearly photo trip, and perhaps with time I can increase that to twice a year.