Christmas 2017

[David Brown]

I got a very quiet and small air compressor for dusting negatives in the darkroom.

 

[Down Under]

For many years at home we have ignored the more crass commercial aspects of the Yuletide season (which began at the end of September this year in suburban Melbourne shopping centers, o the shame!) in favor of the more pagan aspects of the event, good food and wine, celebrations with family and friends, and enjoying the moment without stressing out at end of year junk product sales or breaking the bank to buy gifts for people who don't need or want the stuff anyway.

We prefer to buy one another (and of course ourselves) suitable gifts at various times of the year, generally when goodies we have been lusting after come available either locally or online.

This year, however, my partner and Santa (aided and abetted I suspect by the Incarnate Lucifer) entered into a sly agreement between themselves and with me. In return for selling a shipload of unused/unwanted/unloved camera gear on Ebayduring the year, on Christmas Day morning I was rewarded for my sacrifices by finding on the dining table (nowhere in our civilised abode will you find anything as crass as a Christmas tree) by small parcels containing equally small but treasured gifts -

Two supplementary exposure kits, a 16 and a 24 for my Rolleicord Vb. Both complete and truly beautiful light brown F&H (Rollei) leather cases.

A lens hood and B&W filter kit for my Voigtlander Perkeo I.

Thirty rolls of (not long) outdated 120 roll film my partner found at a closing down shop sale in August and cunningly hid away for me until an appropriate moment.

My own gift to me was a Mont Blanc fountain pen circa 1990 I lucked into in a secondhand shop in Tasmania.

Earlier this year I gave myself a Rolleiflex 2.8E kit and a Rolleicord Vb. Both not cheap, but at very good prices.

I did sell off ten cameras during the year, and a large box of accessories. So I will end the year with (slightly) less and not more.

Loved One was given a super wonderful gift earlier in the year, a Leica M3 kit with three lenses I lucked into at an astonishingly good price from a local deceased estate.

If one enjoys the season, well and good. In my retirement years, blessed with good health, enough disposable income to let me travel two times a year for extended periods to exotic places, and a virtually endless supply of cheap photo goodies online, in charity shops, at fetes or garage sales if I want (which I don't, but well, you know), to me every day can be Christmas. I have been blessed and I know it!

Next year I will be selling off at least thirty items, including about ten cameras. So the unloading goes on.

 

[removed account4]

nothing for me, but i got a retina IIa from an apug member (darinwc ) and the
RF CLA'd from Zacks and after i run a roll through it because
i always wanted one! i'm going to probably be giving it to someone as a gift