We are exhausted this morning!
We didn’t get into the city until about 1:00. After the deluges of rain that hit this area, the humidity increased, both in the city and here at home. Let me just say, it wasn’t pleasant. We headed south to B & H (which is on 34th and Ninth Avenue) and entered the highly controlled craziness of that mammoth enterprise on a Sunday afternoon. Don had been thinking about getting a used 35mm camera for creative photography – he’s very much into film right now – something lightweight, in contrast to the mammoth vintage camera he was going to get later in the day. So he went off to the used department and I trotted off to the new Canon camera department. When we finally met up, I had the order for my camera, and he had the order for a vintage Canon a1 (which, I believe, was the exact same camera my dad used many years ago.)
I dropped off my Holga film to be developed, we moved through the ultra efficient checkout and then moved on to the pick-up section, where our cameras magically appeared, bagged and ready to go.
All that high tech and the vast amount of people shopping on a Sunday afternoon made us tired from sensory overload, so we stopped at a diner for a piece of pie and some water. Then we looked at the clock and made the decision not to visit the community garden. (Sorry!) There just wasn’t time to travel up to 48th Street and then back down to 43rd for our visit with Louis Mendes, all the while lugging bags and sweating.
So we sat on a bench and rested. This was our view.
On to Louis. He was waiting for us on 43rd and Sixth Avenue, holding Don’s camera.
There it is! I’ll get a better picture of it when Don reassembles the whole thing. The bulb flash is part of the package, it sells the camera, but the electronic flash on the right is the only flash that is actually used. It has a Polaroid back. Don will be using this camera for street photography.
We moved on to Louis’ apartment, which had no air conditioning and was sweltering. Apparently, he is impervious to the heat, because he had this jacket and hat on the entire time we were there. Meanwhile, yours truly had sweat pouring down her back and beads of sweat were rolling down Don’s face!
I love Louis, he is truly an original, like no one else I have ever met. He taught Don how to assemble and disassemble the camera, gave him the original vintage case and after about an hour or so, we departed.
As we headed to the car with not one but three cameras, we were tired and hot and overstimulated by all that happened in the six hours we were in the city.
Heading across the George Washington bridge.
And later:
I have yet to open the box my new camera is in! Another cup of coffee first!
Happy Monday.
Lots for the two of you to play with! I thought I’d read they’d stopped making polaroid film. Glad some things survive.
Enjoy!
Polaroid has stopped making the film but other companies haven’t. Thanks, Cara!
except for the high heat, sounds like yesterday was a great day for you two; i am glad for that! i love the start of new adventures and interests … exploring and learning, trying one thing and then another and enjoying it all … and i am glad you two are having that fun as well.
hope to see some of yours and don’s photos soon (please and thanks)!
and that today is a cooler, more restful day for you.
kathy in iowa
It was a great, but very tiring, day.
It’s very humid today, with a heat advisory. Tomorrow will bring more thundershowers which should break this humidity!
Oh my gosh, new cameras! I love Don’s camera and the blue flashbulb brings up so many happy memories of my first camera!
I cannot imagine the sensory overload I would have in New York! My head swims sometimes with just your photos! I would cope, though. New York is on my bucket list!
Hope you guys have a wonderful time playing with your new cameras today!
I’m currently waiting for my battery to charge, then I’ll start playing with it. Thanks, Debbie!
New cameras! You and Don are brave using older – I feel safer with digital. Don’s camera reminds me of the ones used at the newspaper where my dad was advertising manager. I was in awe of the guy who knew how to effortlessly use that baby. And then he’s pop out the still smoking bulb! Great childhood memories.
Don has the vintage! My cameras are all digital. I love the bulb too, but they’re impossible to find nowadays and it’s really just for the look of the thing!
Really cool, Claudia, from the cameras to Louis. Excepting the weather, of course… We are not missing the heat of the Continent or the rare long hot spell in England but my mind isn’t coming off vacation mode. I have lots to do but apparently I’m taking my time! Missing my Cornish friends. It was good to see them after not being there for decades (though they’ve come over to visit and stay with me in that time).
Stay in vacation mode while you can, Wendy!
What a great day…except for the heat of course!…the real feel here today is 104 degrees so you can guess that I haven’t been outside…I am very happy that Don is going to be learning from this wonderful man/artist…I have read more about him online…what a history he has!…I am anxious to see your new camera too…Yesterday would not have been a very good day to visit the garden anyway…you can’t really enjoy it when you are sitting there sweating…
Same here. It’s dreadful out there today. Take it easy, Nancy!
love these pictures of your picture taking equipment! and the adventure!
but I’m hot just reading about Louis’s apartment. OH MY.
it’s to be in the triple digits here all week with high humidity. I’m afraid to think
what that will make the heat index. I’ve become my usual summer stay at home hermit.
the heat is at the danger point! or else I’m just OLD! always a possibility. LOL.
I was so hot in there that I thought I was going to have to leave before they were done! It’s bad here, today, too!
Enjoy your cameras.
Marilyn
Thank you, Marilyn!
I had seen the photo of the bridge on your I/G; love it when a photo or landmark can evoke that yearning for home; knowing you’re on your way and yours does just that…
Wondering if anything will break our heat here in SoCalif; I’ve lost track of the days; I think tomorrow is the 13th day of above-averages, ‘way too hot, and it’s just so darn humid; yuck; takes it out of me; I feel so fatigued. I wish it would rain. We go SO long without ever seeing a drop of rain here.
Then, add on the world events of today, watching Trump walk off that plane and back here in the States, shaking my head, looking at him on the TV and saying for the umpteenth time but now with more fear than ever, “What have you done to us; what have you done, you awful man.” My husband was off work today and spent a lot of time analyzing the news. Came into the room about a half hour ago and said, “He’s gonna be impeached. This is it.”
I hope your husband is right. As corrupt as I know he is, as guilty of collusion and conspiracy – I was shocked by his blatant admission of treason. Because that’s what it is.
Ohhhh.. cameras! I’m obsessed with them. My last Lumix has been such a disappointment, I’m ready to try a new one. All I want is a smallish P&S with an excellent zoom. I guess I need to go back to a Canon or Nikon. I paid a fortune for my last Lumix and it’s got a big lens and all but doesn’t zoom as good as my first little Lumix.. so annoying. Then I got a bridge Lumix and even it doesn’t zoom as well at the old little one. And I did get a big SLR and am embarrassed to admit that I never could figure out how to use it. LOL! I hope yours brings you perfect photos. ((hugs)), Teresa :-)
I am obsessed, too. You take great photos, Teresa. Thank you!