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Shots in the dark

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Well, the wait is over. Actually, it was partially over a week ago when a woman from Walgreens called to tell me the roll of film I sent in for processing contained no exposures. Nothing to pick up, no charge. She called again Tuesday, Aug. 24, to inform me the second roll was back and there were "lots of exposures" on this one. As it turns out, the 36-exposure roll netted 37 images. Not bad. Looking out from Reckless Records on MadisonStreet in Chicago. Roll No. 1 was shot with the vintage Rollei 35s, metered with an app on my iPhone. To be honest, I'm not sure the shutter was operating properly; there was no audible difference between an exposure at 1/15 and 1/500 of a second.  Roll No. 2 went through the much newer and auto-everything Canon Sure Shot Z135. I carried it in my car for a few days and photographed a couple of roadside scenes of no consequence. I took pictures in the yard and around the house. I toted the Z135 on our trip to Central Camera in Chicago to del

Time Lapse

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 I am reminded of a 1970s cartoon of two gnarly buzzards overlooking a barren waste. One of the birds isn't liking their modus operandi ... waiting for an animal or traveler to die in the desert below. "Patience my ass! I'm gonna kill something!" he declares.  Patience is a skill many lack in the modern world. Don't believe me? Work retail for a couple days. Partaking in archaic technologies like film photography, typewriter correspondence and analog stereo systems forces you to slow down and be patient.  Read on for an example of what I'm talking about. The essay was typed on an erasable bond onion skin paper with my 1953 Royal Quiet DeLuxe. The texture of the paper was lost in the scanning process, so I took a photo of it with my iPhone. My test film is leftover 800 speed Fujicolor from 2002 salvaged from The Register-Mail photo department. The Canon Sure Shot z135, right, was my second test camera. More on that another day. I really loved the Rollei 35 S, b
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 Typing 101 This is the inaugural entry in a new blog, The Analog Archive. In these entries I'll be sharing my experiences and experiments with old technologies and nostalgia-fueled reveries, reminiscences and ruminations. My idea was (and still is) to write on a typewriter and scan the printed page for upload. The essays will be augmented by photos (digital and, possibly, hopefully, film) and text keyed in via my 15-inch early 2013 MacBook Pro. That's what you're reading here, obviously.  The Analog Archive was conceived in March 2021 and I started writing on varied topics back then, intending to publish pronto. Alas, writer's block and other maladies (technophobia of a sort and procrastination) derailed my train of thought. But now, here I am. Today's essay was written March 8 and 10, 2021. So the reference to "This past summer" in the fourth paragraph means the summer of 2020. I acquired the Smith-Corona Silent in spring 2019.  Here it begins...