New Friend

New friend, just joined the ranks.  It's a Leica M2, anodized black (it was made in chrome silver), and in a more or less good shape.

The top looks a bit chipped.  I have repaired some of the finish with a permanent black marker, but this camera will definitely need a better, professional black paint job.

Here is the front; notice the two small screws next to the viewfinder window.  They're not original of the camera.  Let's hope it's not a banged up job of rangefinder replacement or some such thing...

By the way, these photos are not mine; the seller, Ken Hansen, took them and used them in the eBay auction in which I bid and won this camera. 

However, the camera isn't too bad of a picture taker.  I put a nice Zeiss Biogon 35mm lens on it, and then loaded it with some B&W film (which I haven't developed yet).  Later, I also used some color film with it, and here are some of the results.

Violin practice: part of our daily routine here in DeKalb.

My in-laws backyard.

The Chicago Apollo Choir, singing in front of the Art Institute, right after Thanksgiving.

Skater at Millennium Park (prefocused shot, exposure at 1/250, f4, on ISO 400 Kodak color film)

For the moment, I've yet to scan some of my film "production."  I just don't feel like scanning... because I'm afraid it's going to take forever and I won't be happy with the process or the results.  But I must try, sooner or later, and it's not like I don't have negatives...

Some time soon, this camera will leave for the Leica Spa in Oregon, WI, with Don Goldberg.  I want him to repair it or at least check it before I send it to Youxin Ye in March 2015, for its paint job.  In the meanwhile, I'll keep you guys posted!

After a long absence...

It's been so long... and I don't want to look it up, because it's slightly embarrassing to have abandoned this blog for so long.  In any event, having these amateurish photographs stolen made me angry and blew the wind off my sails so bad that I simply didn't even want to look at this blog or share them again... ever.

But here I am anyway.  Readers or not, this will be an active blog, just the way I wanted it to be in the past.

In the meanwhile, let's get to the images:

This image is Miller St in DeKalb, IL, in early January, after a very snowy night.  Of course, I used my M4-2 and Hexanon 35 f2 lens, and Ilford XP2.

Possibly that same day, this fountain in Huntley Park, looked attractive enough to deserve a shot.

Tree shadow in my neighborhood.  I gave a two or three-stop compensation exposure (from f11 to f4), for this shot.