It’s so much more than gathering for a weekend and looking at each other’s rigs.  It really is the people and connections that you make. You meet so many amazing people with a diverse set of skills, stories and personalities.  The help you can get is amazing.

It also helps if you’re a dog person as many folks bring their canine children

Luke has a “bar car”-  a sort of bombed out Airstream that has been converted to a bar - lots of fun.  

Let’s not forget the sites that we get to take in….

I purchased this Automat version the Rolleiflex over 15 years ago.  It is probably 60 years old itself.  I decided to have it refurbished with Harry Fleenor who is legend in this field. I had just finished reading more about Vivian Maier who had done much of her work with a TLR ( twin lens reflex) camera such as the Rolleiflex.  She took amazing shots on the street so I was emboldened to get mine cleaned and updated.  It is not the easiest camera to use compared to today’s cameras.  Even compared to other film cameras this is one that requires preparation and patience.  You have no light meter so you have to use a supplemental one or guess.  It takes 120 film in the 6cm x 6cm format giving you just 12 exposures per roll.  This right there makes you think about every exposure.  That being said you are likely to have a higher ‘hit’ rate than with a modern digital camera.  With digital, so many shots are made simply because we can not because we should.  Getting 120 film processed is also not easy , especially color varieties.  Black and White is not so much a problem is you are used to developing it yourself as I am.  Scanning them is also a process not for the faint of heart.  I have a multiformat scanner that does both 35 mm and 120 so for me at least it is nothing special to get them digitized.  Here are some examples from my first roll.  I shot Tri X at ISO 400 and developed in HC110B

New from Kodak - when was the last time you heard that phrase?  Well this is the new Tax 3200.  I shot it at ISO 1600 and developed for 9:15 in HC110B.

I want to give a two thumbs up for Saal-Digital and their lay flat books.  Just had one published by them and was blown away by the sharpness and professional look.  

The idea behind connections came from the understanding that at certain points in time and in certain locations there was a critical mass of creative talent. Sometimes it is a location that thru the decades has played host to this talent. At other times the location spawns the nuturing of many talents all rubbing elbows with each other. It is a variation of the “6 degress of separation” game. It is also a novel way to teach history in an organic way. No longer should history be taught simply as a timeline to be memorized. Attaching signficance to each entry in the history book and linking it to others is a better way. Think:

Santa Fe – seeing luminaries in Science ( Manhattan project) , Architeture ( Mary Ann Colter and John Meems) and the Arts ( O’Keeffe)

Los Angeles – in the 1960’s

Paris in the 1950’s and the 1920’s

From a time when I lived in Upstate NY

My newest book - Born on 24 is text and photos about Simla, Colorado where I was born and for which Highway 24 runs thru it.

A few more of the Copyright Series - Can’t touch this.  Photos that I’ve had registered to the copyright office in Washington, DC

Once again I got the exposure wrong on slide film - not hard to do but I really ended up missing it by a lot.  I wasn’t paying attention to the over-exposure ( using too fast of a shutter speed) warnings.  But taking the image into BW helped as I didn’t have to worry about hard to correct color shifts.

Other images from the roll that didn’t need much adjusting

This is just a series of photos that I liked enough to actually register them with the copyright office in Washington, DC

Spent tonite at School House Kitchen in Arvada sponsored by Copper Dog Whisky.  The history and technique of Scotch distilling was explained.  We sampled CD straight, as a mixer and it was quite a great experience.