Diane,
I am sorry for your loss, and I wish I could offer more than - you are not alone. Many people understand widowhood - both on this board, and off. Knowing that was the first small comfort I found when it happened to me over 27 years ago. A group where you can talk about it can be helpful. I found a listserv (a private email list) called "Widownet" started by Michael Goshorn. There are more public ways to interact - like on line bulletin boards, or web sites dedicated to bereavement. I see Michael's old web site still exists, and I pulled this quote so you can gauge your process in this new journey.
"You know you're getting better when.... Your memories make you smile instead of break into tears. When someone else's pain hurts you more than your own. When you can tell someone else life really DOES go on. one day you wake up and you don't have to remind yourself to breathe. you want to find a way to leave your grief in the past. you find you are actually enjoying living. you can come home and be content in an empty house."
It is a journey, and everyone does it differently - there is no right way or wrong way. There are no universal steps that everyone takes. Be easy on yourself and do whatever you need to do to move forward to find peace, and life again.
Jim
Reagan wrote:
Thank you for the posts in remembrance of Reagan. He loved this thread for many years; always excitedly posting pictures, looking at others' photos, and probably always commenting. I can't count the number of times he would call me into the room to look at your pictures. I remember the trips around the state he made to meet some of you in person. I was still working and he had retired, and off he would happily go with camera and gear. He excitedly told me about each trip when he got home and for years after. We were fortunate enough to go to Maine on two vacations and spend time with Scott and Joanne. Scott - thank you for the beautiful original post.
Sadly, Reagan's tremor and other health issues kept him from taking pictures these past few years. He had basically given up taking pictures but still enjoyed looking at yours. While I am heartbroken and in shock at his sudden passing, I just had to let you all know how much he enjoyed his time on this thread.
Curtis, Istanbul is a delightful place for architecture and history!
Your pictures made me nostalgic about my very short trip through the city (I think a day and a half or so), I managed to squeeze in some of the sights:
I have a ground level scene of the Hagia Sophia also but just looked and its with the 14-24. That one's in driving rain, I had such little time in the city that I was determined to take pictures rain or not.
At one point I was with this tour guide (little Jewish lady) who also had a Spanish couple in the mini tour group. She was talking to them and explaining something at the Hippodrome. I had my back to her and was taking some or the other photos of course. She suddenly yelled at me for not paying attention, basically that I should wait to take photos after she's done talking. I was suitably intimidated by her and was on better behaviour for the rest of that tour
Thanks Scott. The green rectangle lighting up as the bird gets into focus for a short moment is cue to quickly getting off a shot or two. The green dot and the highlights go well together; the latter by themselves don't provide enough precision.
spoupard wrote:
Good job tracking the birds. I have a hard time doing it with AF lenses. I don't know that I'd ever be able to do it with a MF lens.
You're right Samy, Istanbul is magical. I wish I'd found it during my earlier travels to Europe... the first being a trip that began on November 1, 1969, on a Greek ferry that left Brooklyn, New York, stopped in Tripoli, Libya shortly after the revolution and docked in Pireaus, Greece. I was carrying a Nikkormat camera on that trip but alas, all but two or three of the slides I shot on that trip are lost to me.
Rinie and I spent twelve days in Turkey and documented that trip on this website upon my return. Of course, that was the year Nikki was making its trip around the world so this thread was flying and the conversation scintillating. My photos from Turkey were dropped into a fast moving flow of images.
No doubt, it is traveling that gets the juices flowing for most photographers. I look back with fondness as the FOUR trips i took with Rinie... two in California and two in Europe. I have an open invitation to visit the Netherlands again but I'm not certain I'm up for a transcontinental flight again... though KLM does an amazing job of caring for passengers.
Here's another memory of bygone days... Rinie toasting me the first night in Istanbul. We found an amazing restaurant we visited often during of six days in the city.
The EL-Nikkor 105mm/5.6 APO is an amazing lens, but you should be able to get an excellent copy for a lot less than that price: $2k or a little more. Still out of MY budget. I recently bought a Schneider Kreuznach Componon-S 135/5.6 enlarging lens, which is more like $100-200 in perfect condition, and it is SO much better than the old Wollensak Graphic RAPTAR 138/4.5 that I had been using as my bellows lens on the PB-4 for many years.
Here's a great website which helped me choose my Componon-S, as I was looking for a 135mm enlarging lens to allow me to use the tilt/shift capabilities of my PB-4 with infinity focus. I have a Nikkor-centric bias, but their test-results convinced me to go with the Schneider lens, and I've been very happy with the results (and the PB-4 doesn't know what's mounted on its end!)
This is all George's fault. I sold a pristine chrome and black 135mm f5.6 about 20 years ago for almost nothing. Then George goes and shoots digital medium format with it - two reasons to kick myself. But I recently began restocking my EL-Nikkor collection on a shoe-string budget. Got two 50mm (f2.8 and f4) for free - both scalloped, large lettering with loud click stops - while purchasing CP-2 bubbles to store my existing lenses. I replaced my EL-Nikkor 50mm f2.8 with a Schneider-Kreuznach Componon-S 50mm f2.8 about 25 years ago. Planning on stopping at the 135mm
Grant, That is quite the website. I'm pretty deep into this rabbit hole already - ah, what the heck.
grantgoodes wrote:
The EL-Nikkor 105mm/5.6 APO is an amazing lens, but you should be able to get an excellent copy for a lot less than that price: $2k or a little more. Still out of MY budget. I recently bought a Schneider Kreuznach Componon-S 135/5.6 enlarging lens, which is more like $100-200 in perfect condition, and it is SO much better than the old Wollensak Graphic RAPTAR 138/4.5 that I had been using as my bellows lens on the PB-4 for many years.
Here's a great website which helped me choose my Componon-S, as I was looking for a 135mm enlarging lens to allow me to use the tilt/shift capabilities of my PB-4 with infinity focus. I have a Nikkor-centric bias, but their test-results convinced me to go with the Schneider lens, and I've been very happy with the results (and the PB-4 doesn't know what's mounted on its end!)...Show more →
James Markus wrote:
This is all George's fault. I sold a pristine chrome and black 135mm f5.6 about 20 years ago for almost nothing. Then George goes and shoots digital medium format with it - two reasons to kick myself. But I recently began restocking my EL-Nikkor collection on a shoe-string budget. Got two 50mm (f2.8 and f4) for free - both scalloped, large lettering with loud click stops - while purchasing CP-2 bubbles to store my existing lenses. I replaced my EL-Nikkor 50mm f2.8 with a Schneider-Kreuznach Componon-S 50mm f2.8 about 25 years ago. Planning on stopping at the 135mm
Reagan wrote:
Thank you for the posts in remembrance of Reagan. He loved this thread for many years; always excitedly posting pictures, looking at others' photos, and probably always commenting. I can't count the number of times he would call me into the room to look at your pictures. I remember the trips around the state he made to meet some of you in person. I was still working and he had retired, and off he would happily go with camera and gear. He excitedly told me about each trip when he got home and for years after. We were fortunate enough to go to Maine on two vacations and spend time with Scott and Joanne. Scott - thank you for the beautiful original post.
Sadly, Reagan's tremor and other health issues kept him from taking pictures these past few years. He had basically given up taking pictures but still enjoyed looking at yours. While I am heartbroken and in shock at his sudden passing, I just had to let you all know how much he enjoyed his time on this thread.
Speaking about relatively inexpensive collectibles and quite excellent lenses.
The new to me 1950 13.5cm 3.5 Made in Occupied Japan LTM and slightly newer 13.5cm 3.5 S 'Contax' EP arrived.
The LTM MIOJ is beautiful, the Contax is like new, all original cases, original caps and shades came with the lenses; the Contax came with the box but no papers.
Here are the three Nikkor 13.5cm: S mount MIOJ, Contax mount EP , and on the Z7 the MIOJ LTM. The little EP 13.5cm viewfinder came with the Contax mount, in the cutest little leather case.
Another view, box is felt with golden letters, the LTM MIOJ shade on the table is slip on, the others screw in. The MIOJ have no aperture Click stops and close to 1:16, the latter lens has click stops and closes to 1:32.
James Markus wrote:
Grant, That is quite the website. I'm pretty deep into this rabbit hole already - ah, what the heck.
Apologies for the potential charter violation of this thread (manual focus, but not Nikon lenses), but my intentions were good!
I bought my PB-4 tilt/shift bellows intending to combine it with a bellows-Nikkor lens (e.g. 135mm or 105mm short-mount lenses), but quickly discovered that (a) they were quite collectable and expensive; (b) they were designed to cover 24x36 format, and thus not adequate for shifting/tilting scenarios. Really what I needed was a lens that could cover medium and beyond format, plus a minimum focal length of 135mm to give infinity focus with the capacity for movements on the PB4.
In that regard, I lusted after the EL-Nikkor 105/5.6 APO and AM-ED 120/5.6 as the best Nikon lenses allowing tilt/shift for my PB-4, but they are even MORE highly collectable and expensive than the bellows-Nikkor lenses. I would have bought either lens had I found a copy sub $1k, but never lucked out.
I think any high quality enlarging lens of 105-150mm focal length will give excellent high-magnification results (either directly on bellows, or as part of a compound setup with another lens), and Nikkor enlarging lenses are definitely in that category. I will only say that enlarger lenses are generally pretty good value these days as digital takes over, and these lenses get dumped on the used market for fire-sale prices.
I sold a pristine chrome and black 135mm f5.6 about 20 years ago for almost nothing. Then George goes and shoots digital medium format with it - two reasons to kick myself.
But I recently began restocking my EL-Nikkor collection on a shoe-string budget. Got two 50mm (f2.8 and f4) for free - both scalloped, large lettering with loud click stops - while purchasing CP-2 bubbles to store my existing lenses. I replaced my EL-Nikkor 50mm f2.8 with a Schneider-Kreuznach Componon-S 50mm f2.8 about 25 years ago. Planning on stopping at the 135mm
