I left with 3 and came home with 5

So I recently did a wedding in Hawaii. Turns out, the wedding was great, the weather held up and everything went as planned. After it was over, we decided to spend a few days snooping around the island and visiting friends.

Hawaii is a very unique place in my experience, so any time I get a chance to explore or spend time I do. Staying with a friend we hadn’t seen in some time, it was great to wake up and feel the damp air, see the fruit trees growing outside the window and hear the falling of dense rain. The friend we were staying with is a photographer, big surprise, a really good photographer, and someone who has transitioned away from film, into digital, and now into motion. He is a wicked smart guy and has been at it for a long while. Stay tuned, an interview with him is on the way to this blog.
Anyway, my wife mentioned that I was going to drive to the lab the morning we returned to LA and our friend said, “No way, you are still shooting film, that is great.”

About an hour later, in the middle of a conversation, our friend says, “Oh hey, I’ve got something for you,” and out comes what you see in this photograph. Two Voigtlander cameras, two lenses, two finders and a custom underwater housing. Now it takes a lot to get me really excited. This got me really excited.

I don’t know the first thing about shooting underwater, but I love being underwater, so I’ll learn what I can. But what I’m excited about is the idea that these new cameras will allow me photographs I can’t make with my existing gear. I don’t have a 12mm. Let alone a rectilinear 12mm. I can mount this thing all over the place, including my bicycle. I’ve been dreaming of having something like this.

So as I packed up to fly home, my trusty Tenba bag, the Ultralight, was no longer as light as it was when I left. Inside were five cameras instead of three, and for this I am truly grateful to my friend.

I’ll try to use these things and make something worthy.