In mid-July, in anticipation of upcoming events, I loaded the venerable PrePopulist with a "24 exposure" roll of film. I chose the camera with its 24x50mm format and the short roll of film so I wouldn't have to take so many pictures before I got to see them.
The first event in question was Photo Opp's Rummage Sale of donated gear. They kept what was needed for their educational mission, but the sale included a lot of usable stuff, roughly categorized on tables and in bins.
A group showing me their discoveries.
The display of lighting equipment. I got an umbrella and stand.
A badly composed image of a table of folders. Non-working cameras were $5 and working ones $15. I also got a pretty neat rangefinder and a professional tripod.
As a higher education audio-visual professional, 16mm film projectors have played a central role in my life. The most common fear of public speaking is obviously not a problem with college faculty, but operating one of these probably took its place for them in the 20th century. I learned to thread one in science class in 7th grade on a Bell & Howell 535 and got punished in art class in 8th grade for running the film in reverse. This one is an auto-loading 556. The lamps are still available for only $11. (Always buy a spare lamp.) Photo Opp has surely kept a projector for 16mm, but I bet it's a manual-loading Kodak Pageant.
Then I set the camera down on the shelf in the basement and knocked it over the back with at least two layers of bags and boxes on the floor in the way. In October, Andy came and helped recover a working space in the basement so I could get at the bottom of the shelves. Preparing for a workshop in Wausau, I organized my collection of raw materials, much of which had also fallen behind the shelf, and recovered the camera to record making Populists on the 1st of November.
After making cameras, we all went to lunch at The Mint, Wausau's oldest restaurant, here since the 19th century.
Sarah and I went to lunch at Fratello's one sunny day. Looking into the bar while we waited to be seated.
The Appleton Dam just out the window. I found myself thinking how nice it was that we got seated in this warm dining room instead of the one the ducks were feasting in just below us.
The Truffle Pig restaurant that I predicted on this blog has opened, and we have visited several times. It's very nice. Finally, more emphasis on the experience and not just a giant plate of food.
In the midst of all the character-building events of the year, the reviled Jenn-Air refrigerator decided to add refrigeration to the list of things it's no longer capable of. Many thanks to the FedEx delivery driver who carried the dorm refrigerator over the rubble to get us through for a month until someone could manage with the full-size model when the street was done, with no through-the-door anything and no handles to come loose.
I checked out the massive Irving Penn Centennial from the library. His signature style was working against a studio background wherever he went, but just using available north light. When he was among the top commercial photographers in the world, he used to go into the darkroom and hand-coat big sheets of platinum paper for his personal prints. My list of influences is long and constantly changing, but Penn is always on it. This is an uncomfortable segue. Ruth Thorne-Thomsen, who sent me down this pinholic rabbit hole and about the only photographer who influenced me that I have actually met, has just died.
Because of a few shutter opening and clicker errors, and maybe because I was eager to get it done when it seemed a little hard to wind, there was a particularly low yield from this already short roll of film. About time, though.
The PrePopulist has a .15mm Gilder electron microscope aperture 24mm from a 24x50mm frame. The film is Kodak 400 UltraMax developed in Cinestill's C41 Powder Kit.
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