Hi Paul,
Sorry to hear about the ferry employee. I go across Whites Ferry often...
I am surprised that the camera store helper did not use a changing bag to
help you with your camera or go into the dark room. You might want to
consider the largest changing bag you can afford as they are pretty handy in
times like that. And forgive me for saying so but it does not sound like
your helper was very smart about film sensitively...
Paul M. Provencher
(ppro)
-----Original Message-----
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
[mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]
Sent: Tuesday, May 08, 2001 12:51 PM
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: Rubber Eyecup: My stupid, costly mistake
I had recently installed a large Ricoh rubber eyecup onto my Super Program.
Each time I opened or closed the camera's hinged back, the eyecup got in
the way. But by struggling I always managed to force the camera's back past
the rubber.
When I attempted to rewind the most recent roll of film, the rewind lever
wouldn't turn; something was binding. Hmmm; this would frequently occur if
the ME II winder was in place, or a Bgoen quick release. But this camera
had neither. I pressed the release button again, and again. Still the film
wouldn't rewind.
Then I saw why: In wrestling the back past the rubber eyecup, I had closed
it properly. It was skewed 5 or 10 degrees off-axis. I feared that I had
ruined the camera's hinges--and worse, that I had ruined the entire roll of
film.
My camera dealer lifted up the rewind lever and the back popped open. He
immediately closed it. He assured me that the one-second open-and-shut
action may have cost two or three exposures, but predicted that the foam
had protected the film over the entire time that the door had been
misaligned.
Well, it hadn't. Not a single frame bore even the faintest image.
Here's the shame of it: Each workday, I ride with my car across the Potomac
River on a ferrry. A few days earlier, a 19-year-old who had recently begun
to work on the ferrry died, together with his fiancee, in a fiery car
accident. The ferry captain asked everyone to place flowers on the ferry
throughout the week. Other flowers would be placed by coworkers at the base
of the dock's flagpole, which flew at half-mast. I assured the captionI
would take memorable photos.
The flowers on the boat presented a supreme irony, because all were placed
on six-foot-long boxes--coffins?--that held life preservers. Using my 24mm
lens, I took several shots of one box where flowers had been placed above
the words "Adult Life Jackets" and "Children's Life Jackets"...just beside
a fire extinguisher.
So please, people: if your eyecup is removable, remove it each time you
open or close your camera.
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