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!!
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!!
