What with all that printing this morning, and bulk loading 400 feet of Fuji Neopan 400 film this evening, this has been a day of photography. Or at least with the film, working on the materiel aspects of my photographic methods. I left my house for lunch and then hopped the train for some “Fun in Matsudo” which sounds like an oxymoron but thanks to there being a nice little camera shop that rivals those in Shinjuku right by the station, it turned out to be a nice afternoon. The camera shop owner did not say much until after I bought a little 49mm silver lens hood (got to love the junk boxes in camera shops) for my gaudy OM-1, and pulled out my Nikon with it’s 40mm lens with that wicked lens hood. After I left the shop I just stopped and kept looking at his window display and he came out to chat some more.
Next was 3 plates at a kaiten sushi shop after which I headed over to the Matsudo Book Off. Book Off is a used book and everything else media related store (House hold and those sorts of things (hardware) is sold at I kid you not “Hard Off”), and I often stop in to look through their photo book section and for any used copies of the magazine Kimono Princess. Like the Lincoln thrift stores I used to frequent, Book Off is by it’s own nature a store of hits and misses, with mostly misses (espically in the girl’s shojo manga aisle BADA BING) but sometimes you can find treasures- like Araki’s Yoko book with 4 other volumes of Araki’s perfect collection for 250 yen each. That was a good day.
But today the Gods of Book Off must have been upset or something, because there was nothing I was too interested in. They are a fickle sort of beings, and reward frequent visits with better luck. Maybe they were upset because of all the people there just standing and reading. That upsets me too because the second someone opens a book to read their eyes and souls glaze over to the rest of the actual world and they just stand there, with their backpack sticking out and blocking the aisles, people so drawn into their comics (YESS! number Two) that they heed no attention to polite “Sumimasens” and even with a nudge can do no more than give a half hearted 3cm lean forward. Thanks man, whoops my bag kind of spun you a bit when I tried to squeeze past you and that is how physics works.
But yeah, Book Off is great. I have the point card but a corner is missing because once I tried to tighten a lens mount screw on a friend’s FM2 and guess what the Nikon won that one.
As for 90 rolls of film- - they will go nicely with the other 40 rolls in the fridge. Looks like I might be set up till the start of Summer Vacation.
This is a great time of year for printing photographs. The water out of my faucet is about 20C or just a little cooler, and the humidity meand my fiber prints do not curl as much as they do in the winter.
Last night like all other Fridays I was home alone but this time the darkroom was set up and I was in such a groove. I tell you, having a set way of film and development is the way to go. The negatives have been developed such that normally all I need to do it set the enlagrer lens at f16, set the timer to 15 - 20 seconds and maybe do one or two test strips before I get a good print. The only filter I ever use is the Zero filter for the negs that I forgot about while they were developing in the kitchen- 5 rolls were in the soup for almost 20 minutes instead of the usual 10. I think I was reading something, or playing GTA3 at that time.
For developer I use Papito, and one bag (costs like, 4 bucks) makes 8 liters of developer- so last night I used 4 liters, and in about 30 minutes I will spend the next 4 hours using the rest.
I do know, but unless I have my futon hanging out, I never think about it and even less care about those few square meters of dirt. But the weeds, oh how they love my backyard.
There are three apartments on the first floor. We all have 2LDKs (2man5sen a month, Oh Thank You My School) and there are 6 apartments total in my building. Behind my building is a large house but behind the part where my yard is, is that big house’s garden. The older woman who lives to the west of my place is related to the older man who lives in the big house. Sometimes in times past she has requested of him to clean out my back yard. He gets into my backyard with a very old, dare I say, Ancient, looking ladder. I mean, it is made of wood and rope- the verb “Lashed” could be used in describing how the rope and logs have been put together. Well as much as free yard keeping is nice, I had this bad feeling about having a 70 year old man climbing over a fence to cut down weeds that some lazy American (me) has needed to do for a while but did not. But this weekend I did! And Inoue san, the older lady next door popped her head out her back door and said that she had called the man that morning to have him cut down those weeds (can you see the fence in that picture? That fence is about 4 or 5 feet tall, dogg) but since I was doing it, he would not need to but should he help? and I was all like, nah, thats cool. I got here in my hand an 800yen recently purchased (30min before) small hand sickle and some gloves, so I will be fine. And she said, It is hot today so be careful. And I was. And I then in about 15 minutes decimated what I learned was a veritable paradise for pill bugs and earthworms. But Dammit, my backyard is clean now. Here is what it looks like:
Oh what is that? Why, it is the main reason I wrote all that- Saturday I bought another camera. I was helping a friend go camera SLR shopping and she went home with a nice little black number, a Nikon FE2, and at MAP Camera I saw this Pentax 6×7 with a 105mm lens and a waist level finder for a price that was lower than just that lens usually is found for. All I wanted was the lens and that waist level finder but I also got a sweet rear lens cap that also can take pictures. The reason that this whole rig was only 25,000 yen (Just like my apartment each month(!)) was because there is a little chain in the body that is used with the TTL finder. The TTL finder is the one with a meter in it. This one’s chain was broken, which does not matter to me but did to the guys who priced the camera. This is the kind of camera that if you were thinking you wanted to try getting into Medium Format, then gosh this would be a good start. It is not an “apparently boring or without meaningful content Canon digital Kiss SLR” (WTF? Oh… ha ha ha) but it is a good camera. And the camera in your hand ready to go? That is the best one in the world for you. I use different cameras based on how I am feeling, what I think I might be doing with them later. The decision is one made from critical thought or on a whim. Mostly on a whim, or sometimes due to weight issues. That is why my F3HP and Pentax 67s usually stay at home. If all y’all have some camera you love and take pictures with then keep on doing that.
1. The editor of Photo Contest Monthly telling me to bring back 20 photos from the 150 or so I took with me to show him for possible publication as an article in his magazine.
2. After that going with Onishi Sensei in a cab to Ginza to a photo exhibition opening party which like a lot of the other ones I have been to featured free sushi, beer, and a lot of the same people in the Art Photography Community in Tokyo. Folks that I have met at galleries and the like. Making connections and a presence, that is a good time.
3. After that walking to Hibiya station on the main street in Ginza and nearly literally running into Mike Harpending with his F5 around his neck. We scooted over to a Wendys and then after that headed for his hotel in Akasaka where I suprised his wife, my Japanese Mom, Ogawa Sensei. She is one of two ladies who are not my actual mother whom I still have been called “son” by. Takako sensei, the other one, was there as well. Tonight: Dinner and Catching Up!
