2021 Reboot

Well, after having done better in 2020, the blog has once again gone silent and the website has languished for months without any kind of attention. What can I say? Life has been crazy lately and I never established a really good routine for keeping things fresh here. Alas, that’s a recipe for blog/website neglect. Something to better in the new year, hopefully.

If I’m being honest, there’s not actually very much that I would have been posting anyways. Between the pandemic and life changes, I haven’t been terribly active photographically. I’m hoping I can change that in the new year as well.

One thing that I’ve decided is that I’m going to go Marie Kondo on my camera collection. There are way, way too many cameras that I’ve accumulated over the years and many of them don’t really spark joy in me. Additionally, the collection is getting a little crazy in some respects. I’m sporting a trio of 8×10 cameras now. Two Koronas and one Kodak 2-D. The 2-D has become my main large format body (more on that below) and I keep one of the Koronas because I have an extension for it so I can use it for long lenses and close up work. The second Korona has basically just been sitting idle and I’ve hesitated selling it because I feel an emotional connection since it really rekindled my interest in large format. Still, at this point, it would better serve another photographer and it could potentially put a little lens spending cash in my pocket. So I think I’ll have to shake off the feelings and be a little more pragmatic about it.

Speaking of pragmatism, I’m aiming to stick to a few cameras this year and focus on making images not running half of a roll of film something and then forgetting about it for months or even years. To that end, this is what I’m going to be using, why I’m using it and what I’ll be using it for:

• Nikon Z7 – This was a new addition to my kit in December. My old D800 had a lot of clicks on it and I had been hankering to get a new body for awhile. I debated between the D850 and the Z7 for a long while before landing on the mirrorless Z7. Driving my decision were the ability to adapt a host of old manual focus lenses to it, an appreciation for the optical wonders that the new Z lenses have proved to be thus far and the benefit of having sensor based image stabilization with any lens I put on the camera. I’ve only found myself missing the optical viewfinder a couple of times and really, really like the Z7 quite a bit. This is my general use camera and will be the one I pick up when I need the benefits that a modern digital can offer or when I don’t have a specific film look in mind.
• Rolleiflex 2.8D Xenotar – I talked about this camera in this blog post. To put it simply, it’s just my favorite film body to go shooting with. I’ve always liked using TLRs and a Rolleiflex is the embodiment of everything that is wonderful about them. The Xenotar is a doozy, too and makes some of my favorite images. I’ve added a Rolleinar 1 close up lens to the kit and it’s made it even more versatile and enjoyable. If I just want to sling a camera over my shoulder and go wandering, this is that camera. I’ll be pairing this with a lot of Ilford XP2 and maybe some color film from time to time.
• Kodak 8×10 2-D – I mentioned this one above. Ned Bunnell, former president of Pentax USA, was kind enough to send me this camera when he was cleaning some of his camera stuff up. The tolerances are much better than on my Koronas and the controls are much easier to use. I really love this camera. This is the one I’ll be taking with me when I want to really spend some time doing “contemplative” photography. I’ll be using Ilford FP4+ for most stuff with this camera but I decided that since I had a Kodak lens (12″ f6.3 Kodak Commercial Ektar) on a Kodak camera that I needed to have a little fun with it. I picked up some 8×10 Kodak E100 thanks to the efforts of Keith Canham. I’ve been pretty picky about what I shoot with the E100 so far (at $30 a photo between film and developing, one needs to exercise a little restraint with the shutter button!) but I look forward to using more of the Kodak/Kodak/Kodak combo this year.
• Every once in awhile I may throw another camera in my bag for fun. Maybe it’ll be my Coolpix A that I still think is an underrated and forgotten gem and makes a wonderful travel companion if one can live with the limitations of its fixed wide angle lens. Maybe it’ll be the Nikon FA that Jim Grey so kindly sent me and that I have decided will be my sole film Nikon body since I like it so much (it even displaced the mighty F4S which will be looking for a new home with the Marie Kondo downsizing). Maybe it will be the delightfully quirky Zeiss Contaflex that a good friend gave me last year that I need to run more film through. Whatever the case, the cameras in this group won’t see quite as much use as the three above but they all bring me a lot of joy when I use them.

So there it is. New year, new blog post, new outlook. Hopefully I have a little more of the drive of mid-2020 and less of the lethargy of early and late 2020. I hope the new year brings all of you great happiness and lots of wonderful light!