| 1997 | The 1990s | 1999 |
|
| Keep Your Subjects Comfortable: Ruth, one of my cousin's kids from Britain, and boyfriend Tim, stopped by for a visit so I took them to Lake Superior. Having swum in the English Channel, they were disbelieving about how cold this might be. We stopped down by the entrance to Duluth Harbour. Go ahead, I tell them, take your shoes off, have a paddle, I'll get a snap. Splash! Argh! *Snap* Mamiya 6, 75mm f/3.5 lens, Fuji NPS 160 |
Try out Nikkor 25-50 f/4 lens but, while sharp enough, the lens seems flare-prone which reminds me of old Vivitar 28mm. Decline to purchase. It would have been my first additional piece of Nikon gear since 1985. Still wouldn't mind trying 50-135 f/3.5. Go up north of Lake Superior with English visitors, mostly use Mamiya 6, also some Nikon slides. Mamiya is discontinuing the all metal collapsing Mamiya 6 camera in favor of the plastic (er, polycarbonate, sorry, you M7 owners can leave me alone now) non-collapsing Mamiya 7. Having just shot eight rolls of 120, discover that processing is going up, to nearly $12 with tax per roll of 120. Hey! This is getting to be kind of expensive! Also, with emergence of computers/internet/scanning etc., I am distressed to find how expensive it is to get scans of 120 negatives, especially as I have many years' worth in archival files in my house. Start thinking about going back to Nikons more.
Take some more pictures on Mamiya. Take film to Image-Tech. Now it's $15.75 a roll to get processed! Ouch! That's a 74% price rise in about 6 months. Do they think this is Russia? I can take a hint. Call around to other places for pricing. Buddy Dave Dahms rescues a Nikor color enlarger head out of neighbor's trash, sends it to me. I'm now on the prowl for a Nikor enlarger to put it on.