old friend, broken
the journal of Michael Werneburg
twenty-seven years and one million words
When I was nineteen, my father gave me a Minolta SRT-101 with two lenses and a malfunctioning electrical system.
I learned little about photography with that camera, and slowly. When I finally realized that the wonky meter wasn't just due to a stuck needle but rather that the meter simply didn't work, I put the camera away. A couple of months later, my friends promptly bought me a new Minolta body to go with my humble lenses (a Vivitar 28mm and a Minolta 55mm). I donated the 55mm lens to charity in ~2005 or so, and the Vivitar remains in the closet (I've never really got the hang of 28mm, and mostly shoot either 20mm or 35mm).
But the body's seen regular use all along. Too much use, in fact. When Kenny was very small, I took him to the park and brought the camera along. I'm very glad I did in respect to some of the photos I got that day, but sadly the camera took a bad ding that day when I dropped it. It was either the camera or the boy, you see.
The camera developed a nasty habit of smearing a great gob of light down the height of some photos, about 1/3 of the way from one of the short sides. It's been happening with greater and greater regularity since, despite two rounds of fixes with camera shop.
Given the overhaul that the second shop gave it, I was sure that it was fixed. I went around running rolls of film through it with abandon during my early months back in Canada, and enjoyed having it back in my hands. Until I noticed that the problem wasn't fixed at all.
camera is defective
Sadly, I've taken quite a few decent pics with the camera in this state. I'll be sharing them, too. But anyone looking is going to have to "look around" the problem, and that bugs me. Shoulda been more careful.
Ouch!
That's why I'm now cautiously going to run one and only one roll of film through the beast after a recent, third (and final) attempt at getting it fixed. If this roll fails, I'll have to say goodbye to the camera that went with me to Ireland, Fiji, Australia, and New Zealand. The camera on which, more than any other, I learned what I know about photography. I remain cautiously optimistic.
In fact I stopped at Downtown Camera today and picked up more film. And to my happy surprise, while I was there I found a folder for negatives that will hold my Japanese-style strips of six rather than the Canadian strips of four.
Good things that happened today:
1. I remembered to mention sausage partners! What a great name for a deli/caterer.
2. Something finally went well at work for the first time in weeks.
3. Mari and Kenny had a fun day with friends.
4. I found a film folder system that I can use with my Japanese negatives!!