Wednesday, April 27, 2016

a sweet goodbye

My Pentax K1000 is going to a new home in Arizona.  I decided to run one last roll of film through the camera, the cheap but colorful Lomography 100 which has always given me good results with the Unicolor C-41 color negative chemistry kit.

The 36-exposure roll includes two trips to the Rio Grande bosque, a walk in the Sandia Mountain foothills, and a brief visit to Santa Fe.











I haven't made a lot of pictures in the past year.  The outings with the K1000 were a good reminder of what I like about photography.  While making pictures is the goal of the effort, the bigger reward is the opportunity which photography provides to become totally immersed in the moment; I am able to focus my attention completely on the details of my surroundings with no other concerns of life crowding my consciousness.  Photography allows me to partake in a small way in the Navajo aspiration to walk in beauty.

6 comments:

Jim Grey said...

Always good to pass on the cameras we won't use anymore to people who will.

Mike said...

It is a little hard to give away my old cameras. I have a sentimental attachment to them due to the fact that nearly every one has made good pictures for me. I'm thinking that I could probably live with the idea of giving away one camera per year. At that rate, I won't feel excessive pain in parting, and I will be able to finish up the task sometime before the middle of the 22nd Century.

Jim Grey said...

I've been giving away and selling my cameras off and on for a couple years now. I've had as many as ~150 cameras stuffed into every spare storage spot in my little home. I'm trying to get down to just that group of cameras I'll actually shoot sometimes, at least once every couple years. It *is* hard to part with some of them, but I have to be ruthless or I'll end up like the crazy cat lady.

And the gear just keeps accumulating. A friend's father just gave me a Certo Super Sport Dolly, a Retina IIc, a Yashica-D, a Kodak Pony Model B, and a couple Minolta point-and-shoot cameras. They had been his; the Retina had been his father's.

JR Smith said...

Mike,

Wonderful series of images here and a narrative I really identify with. Oh...and I am sure your Pentax is going to a good home.

Mike said...

The Super Sport Dolly was a lot of fun. I'll look forward to seeing what comes from that new acquisition.

The K1000 is going to my grandson. Someone gave him one with a faulty meter and the counter reset was stuck. I traded him for that one as mine is pretty much faultless.

Angela said...

Absolutely beautiful photos Mike. I am sure the camera is going to a good home. I am not sure if I could let go.