I have named him after my father because dad cherished his equipment and I him for giving me my first camera. In scanning through images of us as kids, we sometimes had a toy in our busy hands..... a light meter. An insurance salesman by trade, he loved light and the cutting edge gadgets that were invented to capture it. He played with pin-holes as a child, invented an imaging machine that he sent to Eastman Kodak at age 9. He bought everything that came out, Brownies, Leica's, Poloroids, movie camera's, Olympus' and Nikons.The countless carousels of organized slides he left for us to enjoy were his gift..... Slideshows of his heart, my passion. It is no wonder at all why I do what I do.
Thanks Dad. You live on forever.
If I had a nickel for everyone of these I bought........ 
I showed Alice the dark room where I used to spend countless hours handmaking hundreds of prints for my clients. This had been my favorite enlarger. I can remember christmas card orders of 100 5x7's, which I made individually. Isn't that a riot? The smell of the developer made me dizzy with delight.
they have a huge collection of old gear (not that I don't) that just made me swoon with old memories. When Grandpa was filming Alaska in the thirties he would mail his film to Eastman Kodak on Battery Street in San Francisco for development. I still have those boxes.
Since Alice's gear was also stolen, she needed a replacement as well. She didn't want another SLR, since she can use the school's gear any time. ( The light of my life is in AP advanced digital photography 4 :) She wanted a super high end fixed lens that she can take on safari, to concerts and carry easily. She landed this Nikon P7000. A super fast, ten M with a 7.1 zoom, light capability to 6400, shoots RAW and has hi def movie capability. WTF? Dad is now trying to sit up in his grave.
I went for the D700. I now have a full frame sensor, light to 6400 and a very similar handling capability as my D2x yet it's considerably lighter, cause I ain't getting any younger! I popped on a motor to beef it up a bit and I slide the battery in there. Since I got a deal on lenses if I bought them as a package I went all out.
35Vr F4. Yes, that is not a typo. SIX-FRIGGIN-TEEN. And for those that don't know what that means, it means WIDE! I can see everything and it also means that my dream of publishing the My Town Montclair book is now within my reach. I cried when I looked through this lens. Just sat down and cried like a baby. There is only one suitable name for this beauty and that is Bill, and Im gonna send a link to him cause he's still alive. Bill Owens did a stunningly gritty comical look at Livermore in the 70's. Two of his pieces hang in my house. He shot with a veriwide. I love you Bill!
And here's the Dude that made me ten thousand dollars poorer but a million times richer. His name is Brian and he really knows his stuff. DON'T BUY YOUR STUFF ONLINE. Camera stores are the salt of the earth and we need them to stay www.lookingglassphoto.com
they have a huge collection of old gear (not that I don't) that just made me swoon with old memories. When Grandpa was filming Alaska in the thirties he would mail his film to Eastman Kodak on Battery Street in San Francisco for development. I still have those boxes.Since Alice's gear was also stolen, she needed a replacement as well. She didn't want another SLR, since she can use the school's gear any time. ( The light of my life is in AP advanced digital photography 4 :) She wanted a super high end fixed lens that she can take on safari, to concerts and carry easily. She landed this Nikon P7000. A super fast, ten M with a 7.1 zoom, light capability to 6400, shoots RAW and has hi def movie capability. WTF? Dad is now trying to sit up in his grave. I went for the D700. I now have a full frame sensor, light to 6400 and a very similar handling capability as my D2x yet it's considerably lighter, cause I ain't getting any younger! I popped on a motor to beef it up a bit and I slide the battery in there. Since I got a deal on lenses if I bought them as a package I went all out.Got the 24-70 2.8 for portraiture, which was what I had but this has MUCH better optics than my previous lens and is faster. I named her Dorothea, for Ms. Lange who did such fine work in the 30s of the
immigrant farm workers to illustrate what was going on. Dorothea died swearing she "was not an artist" as Ansel kept telling her, "but a documenter." What EVER! Lets just call her GREAT, shall we?
Got the 70-200VR 2.8 for long distance day in the life. This one works well in the park. The long focal length allows for lovely edge blur. This one shall be named Henri after Cartier Bresson who said in a delicious French accent "Fuck the focus! Get the shot!" He was a lovely man with a lovely Leica.
Then, and now we need the violins, cause this matters a whole heck of alot to me. I got a 16-
35Vr F4. Yes, that is not a typo. SIX-FRIGGIN-TEEN. And for those that don't know what that means, it means WIDE! I can see everything and it also means that my dream of publishing the My Town Montclair book is now within my reach. I cried when I looked through this lens. Just sat down and cried like a baby. There is only one suitable name for this beauty and that is Bill, and Im gonna send a link to him cause he's still alive. Bill Owens did a stunningly gritty comical look at Livermore in the 70's. Two of his pieces hang in my house. He shot with a veriwide. I love you Bill!
And here's the Dude that made me ten thousand dollars poorer but a million times richer. His name is Brian and he really knows his stuff. DON'T BUY YOUR STUFF ONLINE. Camera stores are the salt of the earth and we need them to stay www.lookingglassphoto.com All in all a very emotional day for a mother daughter imaging team. We'll both remember it forever. : )
