My Non Camera Collection
Wednesday, August 06, 2025
I am not a gearhead
Before we came to Vancouver in 1975 I had only two cameras,
A Pentacon-F which I had purchased in 1958 when I was in high school in Austin,
Texas from Adorama and a used Asahi Pentax S-3 I had purchased used in 1962 at
Foto Rudiger in Mexico City.
Just before we left I was doing a booming business taking family
portraits of wealthy Mexicans. I would process the b+w rolls at home and print
them in my little darkroom. I dry mounted the photographs on good cardboard.
Once we were in Vancouver I upgraded (I hate that word!)
with a couple of newer Pentaxes. Once my career was established with magazines,
particularly because I had bought a Mamiya RB-67 from Adorama, I would buy
cameras when I saw that they had features I needed to remain competitive.
But there is another reason why I have many cameras which I
do not call a collection. In Vancouver it was the kiss of death to fail an
assignment. When I went to do them I had two of everything. I have three Mamiya
RBs. Why? I always took two to the jobs. The third one was for parts in case
the other two had to be repaired.
Because I emulated Annie Leibovitz’s American Express
campaign with portraits taken outside at sundown with synchronized flash I
bought a Nikon FM-2 which synced at 1/250 of a second. The second FM-2 was just
in case that first one failed. And of course my Mamiya’s synched at 1/400 for
my synchro/sunlight (that’s what they were called) shots.
The real prize in my camera equipment (note I am not using
the term collection) is a140mm
(equivalent to an 85mm in 35) Mamiya lens that is particularly sharp because
its floating elements.
Lenses are designed to be sharp at infinity and the image
begins to deteriorate as you focus closely. Close focusing lenses(only very few
of the very good ones) and true macro lenses (more on this later) are built to
focus closely and the image deteriorates as you focus towards infinity. A true
macro lens is defined as a lens (as an example) that will record a 1 inch stamp
(as an example) as one inch on the film (or in a digital camera) or sensor
plane. The RB has bellows between the lens and the camera body. With these
bellows I am able to focus my RB on my thumb nail and record it actual size. In
photographic lingo this is called 1 to 1 reproduction. That's how you define a
true macro lens.  | | Werner Herzog & the 140 mm lens |
Some cameras before you want to upgrade have features that sometimes are not replicated. I have a compact and
well-used Pentax MX (its flash synced only at 1/60sec) which I use frequently.
Pentax for their MX built what they called M-Lenses. They were compact and very
sharp. The 20mm wide angle that I have pretty well permanently mated to my MX
is a wide angle lens that if used carefully you would never suspect it is such
a wide angle. Those gearheads who collect pristine cameras, they mostly never use, would eschew my black MX with all its brass showing as it has been well-used. My proof to the pudding is this photograph I took of Bronwen
in my Kerrisdale garage inside my Chevrolet Malibu. I had the MX loaded with
Kodak Portra800 colour negative film. I was sitting right next to her on the
driver’s seat. Can you notice any wide-angle effect/distortion?
No, I am not a gearhead.
That Crease in My Life
 | | Rosemary 1969 |
Not so desganadoTembleque, Desganado en Enclenque
No matter how I try to distract myself by feeding my cats,
taking Niño for a walk, going on my bike to Jericho Beach, scanning my plants,
writing my blogs and fiddling around in the garden I cannot get my Rosemary’s
presence from my mind.
Everything in the house, with all those family portraits on
the walls, all those Mexican curios that Rosemary and I bought when we
lived Mexico City, take me to those
moments that I know cannot return.
Every day I long for a phone call from one of my granddaughters.
That does not happen. Rosemary and I did so much with them but somehow
grandfathers in this century are simply old men.
One of my distractions is to throw stuff. As an example
Rosemary kept envelopes with all our boarding passes, restaurant bills, etc
from our many trips to Mexico, Argentina, Uruguay and to France, England and
Italy. I threw them knowing nobody in my family would have any appreciation for
what they represented.
I look at my roses in the garden and think of what Rosemary
thought about this rose or that one.
It is impossible for me to watch a film noir on TCM because
this was a happy event for us. With her gone I feel desganado. In Spanish to “tener
ganas” is to “want to do…”Desganado is a sort of synonym for listless which
means there is little I want to do without sharing it with someone.
I have angst and family problems and doubts about my
continued existence. The only person I know I could compare notes with would have
been Rosemary.
Today I figured it out. My 52 years with Rosemary are like a
crease on a paper. Once the crease is there it cannot be undone.
Luckily that crease was for 52 years. That is something
to treasure.
Longines & Kalamazoo Time
Tuesday, August 05, 2025
Roldorf Kalamazoo Last Friday I went to an interesting event featuring the
about to be introduced new German Widelux inspired by actor Jeff Bridges. The
event was in a place in Gastown I had no idea it existed. It is called Roldorf. The owner, Jason came to Vancouver
in 1975. The shop was full of all kinds of watch repair equipment.
Around 1970 in Veracruz, Mexico I won a lovely Longines
pocket watch in a card game. Through the years, when I remember, I wind it up.
Today it did not work. On a lark I went to Roldorf. In under 3 minutes Jason (he calls himself a horologist) had it working.
And there was no charge!
I knew I had to do something to thank him. In the past I
wrote a blog where I scanned my Longines and pushed it slightly during the
scan. I also scanned it with sheet music of my Filipino great aunt who was a
concert pianist.
I went to my blog search engine. I put all kinds of
combinations of watch, clock, blurred, scanned, moved but found nothing. As
last resort as I post my blog links into Facebook so I tried their search
engine. Yes! The blog which is strangely is associated with
Kalamazoo is in the link above.
Because I used all my inkjet paper to print Widelux
photographs for the Friday gathering I wondered what I could do. I printed both
image on inkjet transparency and mounted them on silver coated cardboard.
Unfortunately Jason was not in at Rodlorf so I left my work with his assistant.
It felt good to quid pro quo. And to prove to myself that I remembered how I had scanned my Longines I did it again while writing this blog.  | | The repaired Longines 6 August 2025 |
She Talked As Girls Do
Monday, August 04, 2025
 | | Rosa 'Dainty Bess' 4 August 2025 |
We talked as Girls do – (392) – Emily Dickinson
We talked as Girls do –
Fond, and late –
We speculated fair, on every subject, but the Grave –
Of our’s, none affair –
We handled Destinies, as cool –
As we – Disposers – be –
And God, a Quiet Party
to our authority –
But fondest, dwelt opon Ourself
As we eventual – be –
When Girls, to Women, softly raised
We – occupy – Degree –
We parted with a contract
To cherish, and to write
But Heaven made both, impossible
Before another night.
In that past century were I am from we often talked about
feminine women and of the concept of femininity. In this century it is
virtually verboten to discuss the subject.
My Rosemary was graceful, dainty, beautiful, lovely and
tiny. These were adjectives I often used in describing feminine women. When I
had the opportunity and pleasure to photograph Audrey Hepburn (to me a paragon
of femininity) I was struck by how tall she was. I asked her if she had ever
been in a film with a shorter actor. Her answer was, “Yes with Humphrey Bogart”.
Another factor that I included in my definition of
femininity was that for me the woman had to be blonde. Why is this? When in
1958 I saw the film Raintree County at the Varsity Theatre on Congress Avenue
in Austin, Texas with my mother my eyes were all on Eva Marie Saint and I
mostly ignored Elizabeth Taylor.
And so it was, sometime around 15 December 1967, when I
was walking out of a school I was teaching in Mexico City, I spotted (from the
back) on the street a woman with straight blonde hair, a miniskirt and lovely
legs, Rosemary became my wife a month and a half later.
Every day, it is obvious to me I must somehow transfer my
melancholy and longing for my now gone wife, into a blog. Her roses, our roses
give me a good excuse to scan them and associate them with her.
She loved this rose, Rosa ‘Dainty Bess’ which is not a
showy multi-petalled old or English Rose. It is a single rose, barely pink. Its
prominent red stamens are lovely if you get close to look at the bloom.One of
its claims to fame are its prominent More Emily Dickinson I stepped from plank to plank When everything that ticked has stopped Doubly Grateful A Slash of Blue
For I - inhabit Her In Ceaseless Rosemary The Morns are meeker A Favourite Just Noticed All the Witchcraft that we need It only gives our wish for blue My heart is laden Of bronze and blaze The red and the white A Lady Red Hands I took my power in my hands That clarifies the sight Nature rarer uses yellow
Rosemary white and a bit of yellow Nature rarer uses yellow Luck is not chance T is iris sir The white heat
I tried to be a rose nature rarer uses yellow The Tulip Nor would I be a poet November left then clambered up
You cannot make remembrance grow
November
the maple wears a gayer scarf
A melancholy of a waning summer
Just as green and as white
It's full as opera
I cannot dance upon my Toes
a door just opened on the street
Amber slips away
Sleep
When August burning low
Pink Small and punctual
A slash of blue
I cannot dance upon my toes
Ah little rose
For hold them, blue to blue
|
