Resale Value Is A Scam...

November 02, 2023

I was wandering around the Castro, as I sometimes do, carrying my old Leica M2, as I almost always do. It’s what you might call a “user” camera. She’s got miles on her, built in 1962, acquired by me in San Francisco around 2008. I’ve got a Zeiss 35mm that basically never comes off on the front. It’s modded up and marked up with a white paint marker for zone focusing and aperture. It’s dirty and scratched and beat up and I love it.

It’s also a bit of a conversation starter, especially for the gear heads chasing the latest equipment that haunt the City. So it gave me a little chuckle the other day, when some kid strapped with the latest Sony A7 and some massive lens that looks like a howitzer struck up a conversation. He asked me what it was, and I told him. He asked me what I’d done to it, and I told him. Then he says, without any hesitation whatsoever, “man, you totally killed your resale value.” I laughed and told him they’d probably bury me with it.

For what it’s worth, here’s what I’m carrying…

Leica M2, built around 1962. Modified shutter dial and film counter. Aftermarket quick rewind crank. Original vulcanite replaced with grip-tac. Carl Zeiss Zm 35mm f/2.8 Biogon.

Leica M3, built in 1959, aftermarket quick rewind crank, original vulcanite replaced with grip-tac, Voigtlander 28mm accessory finder. Sporting either a Carl Zeiss ZM 50mm f/1.5 Sonnar or a 28mm f/2.8 Biogon.

Hasselblad X-Pan, build around 1999 / 2000. On the front is usually a Hasselblad 45mm f/4 lens, sometimes I use a Fuji 90mm f/4. The camera shoots a full panoramic 35mm frame as well as a standard 35mm frame, and can switch formats mid roll. Amazing little machine...

Not Dead Yet...

September 20, 2023

I was notified about a large spike in traffic to this website over the course of a few days a couple weeks back. I’m not talking server crashing volume, but significant, to say the least. I’ve been busy, not posting much of anything, sidetracked by summer and children and other obligations. Seemed strange that I should be seeing any traction online. After a bit of digging it wasn’t immediately apparent where the traffic was coming from; it wasn’t a link or some social media post or anything direct. With a little more research, I quickly determined that a fine art photographer based in Washington D.C., with a name very similar to mine, was killed in cold blood, and a bunch of the search traffic of his name ended up at my website.

C'est la vie. I suppose there is no such thing as bad publicity. My condolences to the family of Joe Shymanski.

Here is a photograph from Slovakia last summer, that does not necessarily prove that I am alive.

Still behind, as always, suffering from a perpetual backlog of unrealized photographs. Sitting on twelve roles of film from Paris in June. One day soon they’ll end up here….

I'm A Lousy Tourist...

May 13, 2023

I care little for churches or monuments, I think walking tours are silly. I like to wander around and sit in cafes and eat and drink and watch other, more serious tourists fumble about. Though I’m always with a camera, always looking for pictures.

I thoroughly enjoy and embrace the pleasure of being idle. It makes me a lousy tourist and it drives my wife crazy, but it works for me…

A few snaps from Prague. Prints upon request.

There Is Something To Be Said For Trains...

April 09, 2023

It’s silly when you think about it, trains being so ubiquitus in Europe, and somehow still such a past novelty in the States, but there is something to be said for trains in general, a subtle romanticism, some small sense of adventure, even if it’s just a really big bus with a bar car.

panoramic photograph taken in the slovakia country side — Somewhere in Slovakia…

We arrived at the train station in Budapest at 9am for a 10am train, quickly realizing that the 10am was canceled and the only train to Prague that day left in 4 minutes. Running ensued, we literally stopped the doors from closing as we piled into the last car. We met a nice kid from Ukraine fleeing the war. It was an interesting morning.

Through Hungary, Slovakia, into Czechia and Prague, it was a long ride in the same car as a bachelor party that was traveling with a cooler full of what looked like high-proof cough syrup. Anyway, there is something to be said for trains…

I've Never Actually Been To Frankfurt...

March 12, 2023

Technically speaking, I’ve passed through Frankfurt twice, en-route to Budapest and back home again by way of Prague. I can say, in no uncertain terms, that I do not recommend Frankfurt International Airport. It felt like one of those older small airports that wants to be a big airport but just ends up being a poorly run bus station with no logical layout and everyone was completely, utterly rude. Avoid at all costs…

Running for a connecting flight, Frankfurt International Airport.

Budapest on the other hand was a riot… “took the waters” as they say, at the Gellert Thermal Baths, and a cruise down the Danube, wandered around the Great Market Hall, got a box at the National Opera House to see a Tchaikovsky ballet, and eventually found our way to some random collection of divey bars built up in an old factory while surrounded by chain smoking 23 year olds that made us feel just a little bit ancient…

It was the first leg of a decidedly random but ultimately pretty epic little trip. In a few days we’d hop a train to Prague (an adventure in itself) for a wedding of all things. Never ceases to amaze me, the way things turn out sometimes.