Δαφνη Ευτυχια Αρθουρος

A week ago, two guys were up on my roof with rolls of roofing paper and cans of tar.

Right now it's raining buckets in Baltimore, very noisily on that roof.

It's a real relief to be looking at dry ceilings and floors upstairs instead of trying to guess how often I need to check the placement of the buckets. Much nicer than the last several rains.

In other news, I've got a new expensive time-sink. Until the owner needs it back, I've got use of a folding 4x5 camera. I get to learn how to use tilts and shifts. Now I already know how I feel about "big" negatives (and even better, slides) from anniemal's 1939 box camera, which is medium format, so I'm looking forward to seeing a four-inch by five-inch (approx. 10cm by 12.5cm) piece of exposed film. And I've got control over the shutter speed and aperture, unlike the box. (OTOH, I can reasonably use the box camera without a tripod and a black cloth to put over my head. (And if I want an assortment of different focal lengths and a built-in meter, I haven't lost my enthusiasm for 35mm.))

I've wanted to try large format -- 4x5 or 8x10 -- for a while now, but didn't expect to get a chance for a long time. This is gonna be fun. I wonder how long it'll take me to get used to loading the film holders. (The other challenge will be paying for developing ... or for chemicals if somebody lends me developing trays. But worst-case, I empty the pouch of quarters I hang on my belt when I'm in garb.) I think I know what I want the first photo I take with this camera to be, if Perrine will be patient enough for me to set up the shot when the light is right. Boy, do I need to find a way to make money with large-format, to come up with both the money to pay for it and the excuse for spending that money on it.

Basically, this is going to be fun. The money angle just determines how much fun. Now I get to learn how to make the camere movements useful. I've got a smidgen of theory, but I never expected the application to really click for me until I had a chance to spend a lot of time fiddling with the camera while staring at the ground glass. Now I have my chance. Now I can find out what folks were talking about when they told me tilt could help me with a tricky macro shot I've wanted to do.

Finally, I have no clue how I'm getting to either of my rehearsals this week. Wheee.

I am rather tired, but my brain keeps shouting, "Look! A 4x5 camera!" and waking me up.