Of Cameras and other things

[superspud]

Ok so I am a bit of a wierdo, I have many interests, and in fact I am Motor mechanic by trade having C&G as such, I also put together computers from scratch, I used to be a chippy when I left school many years ago ( I am now so old I forget when that was ! ) and I loved making cabinets, sadly I suffer severe asthma and the sawdust used to kill my chest off, then I found out I suffer with something called Nickel dermatitis and so I rarely fix cars as I end up with large sore rashes all over me.

So I took up repairing cameras, old cameras, not new ones, I love the TLR, and as such I have a few, I was repairing a Rolleicord last week, the shutter was not firing properly and so I flood cleaned it with lighter fluid, after half an hour it worked fine, I then had to collimate the viewing and taking lenses, I was rather pleased to have it all working correctly when disaster struck, I went to the loo and when I came back one of the kids had picked it up to be nosey and had lost all the small screws holding the lense cover to the front. In a moment of cruella de ville I told the little blighter I was going to staple his hands to his forehead and he went screaming to mum!.

I have a yashica E that is sitting here staring at me shouting "help me" its not much more than a door stop but I can't stands to see precision equipment wasting, and so I will sort that out, I have already sorted out the focusing mechanism, the lenses would not go in or out and it turned out that the ebonite stops on both sides had fallen out of their holders and jammed the mechanisms, so that got done, now it needs a film spool holder on one side and the lens board sorting out.

It is weird how life seems to bring you luck, you can want something for a long time and then suddenly out of nowhere it turns up, I have a mamiya C3 that needed a set of lenses, for ages it sat here doing nothing and then one day a friend turned up and handed me a box saying it may be of use to me, it was indeed, inside the box was a set of sekor f=80 lenses !.

I keep saying one day I will try to get my hands on a small metal lathe in order to make or replace broken items, who knows may be one day I will be so lucky.

Spud.





the above mentioned

[superspud]

[star]

Those old cameras....well you cant beat them. They're an engineering whizz, it's great that you have found something you enjoy and doesn't affect your chest or skin.

Fab hobby  ;D

[superspud]

I think I am losing the plot !, I used to do more camera repairs and such, I have a dark room etc for my developing and such, I used to spend a lot of time in it, now however I am spending more time in the garden ( it may not seem like it the amount of posts I make ! ), I find that rather strange, without insulting the more senior or avid gardeners I would often see someone digging the garden and think to myself how sad they were, all that effort to grow something you can probably buy cheaper and easier at the shop, why would anyone want to work in the cold and give themselves arthritis etc and get ill from hypothermia ( I know how long you can work in the cold while losing track of time now), I disliked gardening even though I had only ever dug spuds as a kid for my parents on one of those dig your own fields.

Maybe its old age or mellowing as you get older, I don't know, but for some reason I hate to admit to I now get up in the morning and after choking and coughing my lungs to activity or kneeling on the floor not being able too I can not wait to get into the garden and out of the house, I can not wait to get into the g/h and / or dig up a bit more of the garden to put just one more row of something in it. How sad am I now!, I am a recluse to all intents and purposes, I find I have not been able to take the constant pace and rush of the world, things seem to go too fast for me, and its like a constant noise in my head, one I often scream for peace in, I rarely go out as such, I began ot find it hard to trust anyone as I always seemed to be dumped on, I found this forum and for some reason I find myself eager to post, I want to know more, I want to know all there is about veg etc from everybody, I want to be able to share what I do and little I know with those who have the same likes in this area, even if my posts seem like irrelevant and drivel, like they are pointless, to me it is not, it is my way of sharing, maybe it is because I see them as moving at the same slow pace as me and enjoying the life in their gardens and not running around like rats in a trap or rushing to go nowhere, even though in reality many of them work and have fast paced jobs, the screen seperates that part of life for me. I don't know if it is possible to have an allergy to the 21st Century, but I have one. I hate it, I want yesteryear back when it was slower and more evenly paced, regardless of the loss of advancement in things, it was quieter and less of a problem.

Call me sad, I dont care, but I love this gardening thing now, how hypocritical is that from back as a lad or even a few years ago. Those old boys in their garden have my respect now, and maybe one day i will learn or know half as much as they did, I am now 50 and I need to learn fast, I have many years to catch up on. The cameras may have to wait in dust and silence a while longer, or untill the quiet period in the garden comes along. My long suffering wife god bless her is immensly supportive even if she has nothing of her own to plant !!!! . She got the hump last week and asked if she could plant the front garden, I looked at her and said I may want to putr marrow in it, I was joking of course, and so told her she did not need to ask me, its her home as well as mine and to go ahead, now she hsa to get some seed etc. I think my point is that life seems to be passing me by and I don't like it much, I need it to slow down, my wife is someone who has put up with my fears without question and argument and without her I would be truly lost even if I do joke about her here.

Anyway, enough

Spud aka Garry

[lewic]

Sounds like you have some very useful skills there! I'm into photograpy and it would be great to be able to fix cameras. I suspect medium format will end up outliving 35mm as it is so much better than digital, and eventually the prices of these old film cameras will go up.

Sorry to hear about your allergies, it must be gutting to have it affect your career like that. I'm allergic to various air fresheners and cleaning products, but fortunately doesnt affect my work. If I knew about cars but didnt want to get my hands too dirty, I'd be tempted to set myself up as a used-car advisor, checking cars over for people before they buy.

[tim]

Great spiel, Garry!  I share much of what you say, but then I'm getting on a bit?

You're not alone!

[betula]

Gardening is a drug  ;D

Growing and watching the wind play with the grass and the robin as your best mate is not something I would want to change even if I am growing on scraps of land and in pots. ;D

[Duke Ellington]

ha ha!! Garry !! Its a lovely feeling isn't. Life is a little less complicated when you are growing things...even when seeds fail you its all okay! I sometimes go over to my allotment early morning or late evening ~ sometimes I have nothing to do but I go anyway and think and plan and check the progress of the veggies I am growing. The best bit is that I seem to switch off from *normal life* when I am there.
Yours was a lovely post by the way.:)

Duke

[superspud]

Hi Duke, yes it is nice, its very quiet and relaxing, unless ...why is there always one of those unlesses somewhere, like me you are always moving plants to get that last row of somethings in... I seem to be planning, moving and then re-planning ten minutes later  ::), right now I am about to try and build a cold frame. Mind you even with all this chaos, its rather un-chaotic and silent.

[carosanto]

Dear Spud

What a great post, thanks for sharing your life with us.  Like you I lived life till it stressed me out thin.  Then I took up gardening.  Know what???  There is no stress in a garden.  Welcome to the realms of the compusive gardener, you have many more pleasures to come!

Regards

Caro

[1066]

Come the winter and a cold rainy day you'll enjoy sitting looking out on your veggie plot while fixing a camera  ;)  :)

Happy growing Superspud

[PurpleHeather]

The skill of taking decent black and white photos has gone altogether. Yet there is something about a black and white photo often with just a tiny bit coloured in for effect.

They did it on that on Schindler's list.

I have inherited some old cameras which have a small sentimental value to me, simply because I knew the people who took pictures with them but I dare say they will be binned when I go together with several hundred other items I have hoarded.

[Duke Ellington]

I agree with you re the black and white photos, I love them. ;D