I blame APUG!!

[Wayne Olson]

So, here I sit with my two B&J view cameras. One 5X7 and one 8X10. The 5X7 is reassembled and waiting for a bellows from Western Bellows. The gray paint is off, the wood refinished and all the hardware restored or replaced and polished up. I'm hunting up a machinist to execute my lensboard adapter designs. Satinshow is working on my ground glass.

The 8X10 awaits a repaint. I thought I'd honor the battleship gray color and just fill holes and repaint. The 300 mm f/5.6 APO Symmar is grotesquely huge but gorgeous. I'm afraid it would break the front standard on my little Tachihara.

My fingers are sore and chapped from scrubbing up the metal parts with lacquer thinner and steel wool. Design improvements come and go constantly. I lurk on Flea Bay, snatching up film holders and developing tanks and every ancillary thing that I know I just can't live without.

Why this anxiety, angst and pain, you ask? It's APUG's fault!! Looking at all the gorgeous work in larger (I already have and love a Tachihara 4X5) format stuff, especially Kerik's Pt/Pd prints, I have succumbed.

The idea of contact printing, toning, learning different processes, living and breathing the large format passion haunts me and, frankly, is starting to pi** off my girlfriend.

"You never caress me like that!" she whines as I run my fingers over the beautiful maple bed of the 5X7.
"Why don't you gaze into my eyes like you look into the glass on that stupid lens?" she shouts.

What have you all done to me? I used to be a responsible, productive facilities engineer. I solved problems, planned and executed huge projects, worked at the forefront of modern industrial progress. I was adored by the Captains of Industry. Now all I can focus on is fall in the High Sierras or the magnificence of the sky during a desert thunderstorm. My dreams are all in black and white, often with selenium or sepia tones.

I blame APUG and all the Agents of the DarkSlide who have lured me away. Fie on all of thee!!

 

[Jim Fitzgerald]

Wayne, looks like the girlfriend has to go! You will have more money for film! When you look at your first good contact print you will understand. The passion of B&W has taken over, give in!

Stay Focused.....or Soft Focused

Jim

 

[PatTrent]

Truly, truly, there is no addiction like the photo addiction!

Life as you knew it is over!

 

[jonw]

I empathize with you. I recently restored my Deardorff V8 and it is wonderful. That wood truly glows back at you.....unlike perhaps one's girl friend. What you need to do is convert your girlfriend to the "darkside"...LF photography. I continue to try to do it with mine, but alas she is only up to handling Medium Format...thus far. I still hope she will be able to move up to LF. Sigh...someday....she will truly see the light...via the gg of course.

 

[DBP]

Obviously it is time to make some LF contact prints of the girlfriend.

 

[erikg]

Yes, exactly! You better start taking pictures of your girlfriend or soon you will have plenty of time to tinker in the darkroom.

 

[cdholden]

You could convince her that you're doing it because you care for her well-being. The air gets thin up there in the High Sierras. She needs to increase her cardio workouts so she'll be in good shape to haul your gear while you compose and expose.

 

[Ole]

Whenever this comes up, I tell her about one of my colleagues.

one just bought his sixth backhoe.

Another has 10 motorbikes, which is down from 14. when he finally managed to get one of the 14 in drivable condition, he crashed and was off work for a year.

Then there's the car collector, or the "ski bum" who hasn't been home for more than three days running in the last six years (except when his offshore trip was delayed for a week by fog).

Or the house restorer: He buys an old house, moves in and renovates, then sells it and starts all over again.

LF cameras are easy to live with compared to those!

 

[JBrunner]

Can't you hear the peal of evil laughter every time an LFr reads the original post?

 

[roteague]

I do just fine with my 4x5, thank you.

 

[raucousimages]

Okay, I just stole the keyboard from my husband, he was laughing so hard that it was easy to do.

Start having her model for you. After all, she's going to have to sit there for quite awhile while you do all the stuff behind the camera (at least that's what happens when I'm posing). It will give you lots and lots of quality time together outdoors (I tend to end up spending my weekends out at the lake, sitting in the truck with a good book or homework and the gear that isn't in use after all, I'm not leaving that much money alone). No, I can't count how many camera's he has but I did get an insurance rider on the homeowners policy after he wrote me up an estimate.

By the way, the wonderful thing about our location is that we can hit the Rocky Mountains and the Salt Flats in the same week.

Stasha,
John's wife
www.shondratasha.com

 

[jp80874]

You could convince her that you're doing it because you care for her well-being. The air gets thin up there in the High Sierras. She needs to increase her cardio workouts so she'll be in good shape to haul your gear while you compose and expose.

Besides with that added muscle tone and lost weight (you don't feed her do you?) she will look better for the nude contact prints. Now there is a play on words.

John Powers

 

[Black Dog]

Once you start down the dark(slide) path, forever will it dominate your life ROFL

 

[Tony Egan]

I feel your pain.....