Good-bye Pentax ... Hellllo Holga

I've been too gripey this week to acknowledge a wonderful gift that came in the mail on Monday; I had the package in my hot little hands as I was walking to the door and noticed the gaping hole where my window belonged. Now that I'm recovering from my unchecked hostility, I am looking on the bright side. A burglar takes away my Pentax and Powershot, the fates send me a wonderful little book about Holga cameras.

A friend and former colleague sent me a belated birthday gift on Monday. Considering his birthday is in November, as I recall, everything is flipped around here and I should have been sending him something instead. In addition to a book about birds, he sent a copy of Plastic Cameras: Toying With Creativity by Michelle Bates (New York: Focal Press, 2006. ISBN 9780240808406) My friend is a photographer and some of his work is featured in the book.



I feel like all this stuff with cameras is a kick in the pants to get back to projects I put on hold years ago. I'm proud of how much writing I've done lately, after many years of writers' block. I'd like to feel that way next year about my photography projects. Unfortunately, I lost a bunch of the digital images I had from a couple summers ago that were part of my "Econoline .........van" series. They were not really all Econoline vans but there were wonderful full sized vans from the 70s and 80s. Many of them with flat-paint jobs. I'm not crazy for an air-brush scene, but I do like racer stripes.