Personal Post

Rain, rain, go away... no, seriously

By Jason Schupp
10 Feb 2007

All us JPG folks have been making forays out into the blocks surrounding our office in downtown San Francisco pretty regularly on our daily lunch break. This includes the Urban Outfitters on Powell, which I had never been to before our visit. A couple weeks ago we had gone to see if issues of JPG had hit their stores yet, and at that point, no such luck. But we lingered in the store for a few minutes, checking out the wares, and when I hit the Lomographic Society table, I went soft in the knees.

Toy cameras are a weakness of mine, ever since my first Lomo back in 2001. Foolishly, when I dropped it and broke one of its mechanisms necessary for regular use, I never got it repaired. I don't know what I was thinking. Laziness of the worst degree.

And here, unexpectedly, was a table full of them. Action Samplers, Fisheyes, Oktomats, the Holga CFN deluxe package. Oh so kitschy and tempting. Would I? Should I?

I didn't, in an attempt at fiscal responsibility. And I already had a Holga SF, why did I need another one? But I had been thinking about them since, so at the beginning of this week, I went back with the intent of getting the Holga. I walked out with a Holga, an Oktomat, and a canvas bag to carry them. So much for fiscal responsibility. I wrote it off as birthday presents to myself, a convenient justification for any action.

Later at the office, between bug fixes and working on new stuff we have cooking, I'd read the instruction pamphlets that came with each camera. Even with the flash, the Holga loved bright sunlight. The Oktomat practically demanded it. No problem. Spring is right around the corner and, even though it's February, the weather that particular day was dreamy and bright. I hoped that the next week would provide ample opportunity to play with my new toys.

The next day, it was overcast and drizzly. The day after that, it started raining in earnest. Damn!

And so it's been all the rest of this week. What a drag. So far I've only taken a few shots with the Oktomat: mostly indoors of Paul and some other friends, and one of some poor person dressed up like a cartoony soft-serve ice cream cone we passed on Market Street coming back from lunch, which I had some suit walk right into, so I don't even know what will come out with that shot. With the Holga I've only shot a few things, experiments with the color flash and multiple or long exposures. We'll see how those go. In the meantime, I'm hoping for sunnier skies to come back soon, and to find a place that sells Fujicolor 120mm.

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