I got a nice email tonight from another man named James, this James is from San Diego. I am glad the videos are having a positive impact, I need to do a better job producing them in the future. Making vids are another positive way to promote photography, to teach and to show the joys of the darkroom.
James made a camera suggestion in his email that I need to check out. I am looking for something new that might work for me. I spent $86.41 CAD to ship my GR-21 back to Japan today. Unfortunately the LCD on the camera was malfunctioning, I am told I will get a full refund ($950 USD). Hopefully I can get my money back (minus my return shipping charges) and reinvest it some way. After doing some research I found out the GR-21 cannot be repaired so its probably not a good idea to buy another one unless it is near mint condition.
Maybe I can use the camera James suggested, here is his kind email.
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Gerry- I've just spent the last 30 min watching all your videos, and I'm about 10 pages into your blog and I wanted (or rather just HAD to) send you a quick note of thanks. I realize that there aren’t many of us darkroom printers left out there, and your video series on the process is one of the rare ADVANCED series out there and I would like to encourage you to do more. Just watching the process of building masks etc got me in the darkroom tonight. ..so again thank you.
Also, in regards to your Ricoh purchase and your reasoning for it, have you ever shot with a Olympus Pen 1/2 frame? I have several (the Penn EE which can be had for a song these days and 2 copies of the Pen FT) and the fact that you get 72 shots per roll really has freed me up to burn film… its also great for accenting grain because of the enlargement. With the Pen EE and Tri X, Ive found the images have a certain 1950s look that I find interesting. Its worth looking into if for nothing else than they’re so cheap. I learned about them from dissevering a Swedish photographer named Martin Bongren( http://www.martinbogren.net) who has this dark, grainy, blurry style that I find interesting (and inspiring). Anyways, just a thought.
Thanks again for your blog and your videos…Ive booked marked them all and will keep reading.
Cheers,
James -----
San Diego, CA USA
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UPDATE* I placed a EBay bid on a Olympus Pen EE camera, a max bid of $11 USD, let's see if I get it.
James made a camera suggestion in his email that I need to check out. I am looking for something new that might work for me. I spent $86.41 CAD to ship my GR-21 back to Japan today. Unfortunately the LCD on the camera was malfunctioning, I am told I will get a full refund ($950 USD). Hopefully I can get my money back (minus my return shipping charges) and reinvest it some way. After doing some research I found out the GR-21 cannot be repaired so its probably not a good idea to buy another one unless it is near mint condition.
Maybe I can use the camera James suggested, here is his kind email.
--------------------
Gerry- I've just spent the last 30 min watching all your videos, and I'm about 10 pages into your blog and I wanted (or rather just HAD to) send you a quick note of thanks. I realize that there aren’t many of us darkroom printers left out there, and your video series on the process is one of the rare ADVANCED series out there and I would like to encourage you to do more. Just watching the process of building masks etc got me in the darkroom tonight. ..so again thank you.
Also, in regards to your Ricoh purchase and your reasoning for it, have you ever shot with a Olympus Pen 1/2 frame? I have several (the Penn EE which can be had for a song these days and 2 copies of the Pen FT) and the fact that you get 72 shots per roll really has freed me up to burn film… its also great for accenting grain because of the enlargement. With the Pen EE and Tri X, Ive found the images have a certain 1950s look that I find interesting. Its worth looking into if for nothing else than they’re so cheap. I learned about them from dissevering a Swedish photographer named Martin Bongren( http://www.martinbogren.net) who has this dark, grainy, blurry style that I find interesting (and inspiring). Anyways, just a thought.
Thanks again for your blog and your videos…Ive booked marked them all and will keep reading.
Cheers,
James -----
San Diego, CA USA
------------------------
UPDATE* I placed a EBay bid on a Olympus Pen EE camera, a max bid of $11 USD, let's see if I get it.
