Fourteen Years Ago Today

Fourteen years ago today I married the love of my life. On the first night that I met Ami, I told my Mom that I was going to marry her. I knew that I would somehow. Something deep down told me and the feeling never wavered. As we dated, we became best friends. Since we met, the longest we've been apart was a week when I had to go out west for work. I can't imagine my life without her. She's my world.

Happy anniversary, Ami! I love you with all my heart!

Happy birthday to the love of my life!

Today is the birthday of the most important person in my life. Ami and I have been together almost 18 years, but it feels like just yesterday that we met. I can't get through a day without her and I'm so grateful that our circumstances allows us to spend every day together. My life is so much better with her in it.

I love you, Ami!

From Oldies

Fed 2 Test Roll

I got the test roll from my Fed 2 developed tonight! You might remember this camera as the one that I bought from The Ukraine and had to send to Fedka in New York City to have repaired. I think it (and I) did pretty well. This camera is fully manual and I used the "sunny 16" rule to take the pictures.

From Kroger, before they told me to stop. I love the color reproduction the I-61 does.

From Fed 2 test roll

From Fed 2 test roll

Target

From Fed 2 test roll

From Sam's

From Fed 2 test roll

From Fed 2 test roll

From Fed 2 test roll

The love of my life with some flowers

From Fed 2 test roll

From Fed 2 test roll

From Fed 2 test roll

From Fed 2 test roll

Ice on the trunk

From Fed 2 test roll

I like taking pictures of these chairs to show how a lens/film handles red.

From Fed 2 test roll

Oliver before he came inside.

From Fed 2 test roll

From Fed 2 test roll

I'm really loving this camera!

You can't take pictures in Kroger

Today I found out that you can't take pictures in Kroger. I had no idea, but an assistant manager told me it was forbidden. Sorry, I thought your produce looked fresh and inviting! I was just shooting a test roll in my Fed 2. This was the first time I have ever been told I couldn't photograph somewhere. I just shrugged it off, but it does make a milestone!

I took a picture with my Yashica GSN in Kroger a while back doing a test roll in it. I just love the way things that are put on display take on a pattern. I think patterns, man made or in nature, can be very beautiful and fruit is so colorful and inviting I like to take pictures of it. Oh well. I'd like to go to a farmer's market and take pictures. I don't think they'd mind so much.

From Yashica Electro 35 GSN Test Roll 2

Keep your booger hook off the bang switch!

I've seen a lot of people in pictures online lately with their fingers on the triggers of guns. This is the way accidents happen and people get hurt or killed. I know it's probably the fault of TV shows and movies where the actors aren't trained in gun safety so they just run around with fingers on triggers and people get the idea that that is what you're supposed to do! There are notable exceptions, and those make me happy. It's also comfortable for your finger to rest on the trigger when you pick a gun up. They are designed for your finger to go there, but not until you're ready to actually pull the trigger. If you follow these rules, written by the incomparable Jeff Cooper, you are very unlikely to have an accident with a firearm:

RULE I: ALL GUNS ARE ALWAYS LOADED
RULE II: NEVER LET THE MUZZLE COVER ANYTHING YOU ARE NOT WILLING TO DESTROY
Rule III: KEEP YOUR FINGER OFF THE TRIGGER UNTIL YOUR SIGHTS ARE ON THE TARGET
RULE IV: BE SURE OF YOUR TARGET

When someone says "The gun just went off!" someone's finger was on the trigger. The only time guns go off without the trigger being pulled is when they're in bad mechanical shape (oftentimes because someone modified something) or it's a Japanese Nambu type 94.

Look who's back

After a pretty brief trip to New York City my Fed 2 is back!

From Fed 2

I sent it to Fedka for a CLA. CLA stands for Clean Lubricate and Adjust and it's pretty normal for these cameras to need it. Mine was made in 1959 and probably sat on a shelf for years before being put on eBay by a Ukrainian seller. While it was there I got a new set of shutters put in as well. I'm currently shooting a test roll through it which will be the first roll I've been able to shoot in this camera.

Fedka was extremely fast with this service and Yuri kept me in the loop on what was going on. If I ever need any more service on a classic camera I'll be sending it to them. If you want to get a good Former Soviet Union camera, I'd get it from Fedka rather than eBay.

This camera has no light meter so I'm having to learn about the Sunny 16 rule. It makes a lot of sense, it's just something new to learn. It's not perfect, but neither are meters, even the expensive ones and ones inside of digital cameras. Even if I was just shooting with my Yashica GSN, that has a built in meter, it's a good technique to know.

Good mail day!

I got a new camera bag, a Leaper's UTG Tactical Messenger Bag.

From Camera bag

It's normally used for "tactical" things, like as a range bag. I think it would be great for that but that's not what I'm going to use it for. I cut all the zipper pulls off of it since they make a TON of noise and replaced them with paracord.

I stuffed my Yashicas in there, the LM and the GSN and they fit just fine with a microfiber cloth between them just to keep them from banging together.

From Camera bag

It's also got a water bottle pocket and I was able to stuff eight rolls of 35mm film into various pockets with room to spare. I also got some Arista Premium black and white film that's short dated but it'll keep a long time in the freezer.

From Camera bag

I'm glad I got some more black and white film since I also got a developing tank!

From Camera bag

I just need to get some chemicals and I can get started developing my own black and white!