The History of Photography: 1994

Move to Twin Cities. Buy a Nikon 35Ti, use it on a business trip to Britain, disappointed. Manage to go with Karla without discovering she's pregnant for a change. I return Nikon 35Ti, get a Yashica T-4 based on Carl Zeiss lens reputation, and a Sekonic L-308B light meter which can do flash metering as well as light metering. Continue to use Mamiya 6 primarily. I'm taking pictures of our new house, my cute kids, etc. while buddy Dave Dahms is published in the National Wildlife Federation's desk calendar on the next page from a John Shaw photo. I get a Yashica T-4 for mother in law, who is going to Germany on trip. Move darkroom from parent's basement up to St. Paul. Friday night I'm in New York on CNBC, Saturday afternoon I'm in Dad's basement pouring out lurid red 10 year old Dektol. Buy a Schneider 80mm f/4 enlarging lens from someone other than B&H, am treated badly. I have trouble up here with processors as one is continually dusty and finally actually gets little half-moons in the negatives (which I know from experience comes from manhandling the film when loading it onto reels), another is expensive and has trouble with contrast, printing either very contrasty or washed out. Why is this so hard?

You Don't Need Fancy Equipment: A Fuji 617 panoramic camera? Nonsense! Pass the scissors! This is a cheap and stinky way to do panoramic photos--take several pictures and then carefully cut 'em up, line 'em up and glue 'em down. I have a Rollei pan head which will do 360 degrees in 10 shots. With the Mamiya, I usually do three frames. It is worth noting that the Mamiya 6 with the 50mm lens will give the perspective of a normal lens on a 35mm camera on a negative 56mm wide, and the Mamiya 7 with the 43mm lens will do virtually the same thing as the Hasselblad X-Pan if you mask the negative. This is Lock and Dam 12 on the Mississippi River at Bellevue, Iowa, February 1994. You can see the big one if you like but it's 218K. Mamiya 6, 75mm, Dahle Rotatrim