Tuesday, February 17

My back is killing me.

I've sort of been taking a break from knitting. Sort of. All that really means is that I have only been knitting an hour or so a day instead of all day long. So today I decided to finish putting together our summer vacation photo album. I didn't print out the digital shots, it's a collection of all the shots from various film cameras. And it involves spreading things out so I sat on the floor to do it and man, sitting hunched over for hours makes a gal's back sore. But the album is complete and I am totally thrilled to be able to check that project off my list.

As for the camera I picked up in Albuquerque that I mentioned in the last post...the Yashica Electro 35 GSN.

My new friend.

Such a sweet rangefinder camera, but alas, I have come to find that it is not in working order. The guy actually gave me a receipt so I could return it, but you know, for the amount of money spent, it's just not worth going back to Albuquerque. There was a roll of film in it, some Kodacolor VR 200. I shot the roll and had it processed at Walgreen's. Now mind you, the film was discontinued in 1986 so, um, it was a little old. I wasn't expecting much. And I got nothing. It was blank. Not a huge surprise, but it got me thinking more and more about the shutter. I thought maybe it wasn't opening properly and the blank roll made me reconsider this. And sure enough, the leaf shutter is not opening when set on Auto. It opens when on Bulb. But not Auto. I think it is a pad of death problem. I have no desire to open up my camera so I put in an email to an Yashica repair expert. I don't know if it's worth getting fixed. The cameras don't go for that much on eBay, but since the pad of death thing apparently happens to most of these Electro 35 cameras, there's no guarantee that I'll find a properly working one on eBay. I'm kind of bummed, but at the same time, when I picked it up, I knew there was a chance that it would be bunk. If nothing else, I have a nice new paperweight.

Will and I are taking a road/train trip soon and I've been having a hard time deciding which cameras to take. When I got the Yashica, it became part of my plan, but now that it doesn't work...well, I am back to trying to decide. I really want to take the Automatic 250, but I am thinking it's too heavy and bulky for this trip. We're driving out to Milwaukee and returning to New Mexico by train. And it's work for Will so it's not like I can make him pull over whenever I want to take a photo. So. The Holga always goes since it's so light and easy. I think the Polaroid SLR 680 is going to go too. I mean, I have to have a Polaroid camera with me. The point and shoot digital is always packed. And is that enough? Or do I need one more? I am thinking that I'll take the Pentax K1000 since even though I love it, I rarely take it out.

This camera fetish is just too much sometimes.

As for the trip, we're driving a big truck to Milwaukee. Our friends who are moving there hired Will to do the move. I'm really excited to be hitting the road even though it isn't truly a vacation. We did decide to stay one extra day in Milwaukee so we can check some things out, probably the Milwaukee Art Museum and the Miller Brewing Company. I know there are loads of things to do there, but we only have a day. And hey, we have our priorities. Art and beer. Then we're hopping the train back home. I love traveling by train and we actually have the time to do it now so why not? Not to mention that we both hate flying. We're so lucky to have someone to stay at our house here and watch the kitties for us. They're so damn high maintenance!

Good god, I am rambling. And my head is all over the damn place.

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