porchside in portland...

Our autumn respite in Oregon following Uganda, October 2004.

Of some personal "historical" interest, these images are from my first use ever of a twin lens reflex camera (TLR).

Yes, I am a slow learner.

As it happened, my early explorations with this camera were tempered by a brief episode of sheer horror. When I saw these negatives under the loupe the first time, I found dozens and dozens of mysterious shadows and twisting spirochetes, infecting the images like alien viruses from the edges of the frame. What was going on here?

Soon enough I figured it out. The shadowy intrusions were caused by emulsion shavings, neatly sliced from the film into thin beautiful spirals, cut by a tiny sharp snag in the metal film rails.

A few light touches with a fine-toothed file followed by some aluminum metal polish quickly put the camera in good order. The Ricohflex has been solid ever since. (The spirals have been cropped out of the images shown here.)

Ricohflex Diacord, Delta 100, PMK.