Thursday, August 16, 2018

Baffled, Bewildered, and Bemused



This is the back of a woman's head in S.F. way back in the old days when I shot film instead of digital.  I began shooting about 50/50 film/digital when I got my first digital cameras, first the Olympus E10 and then the Leica Digilux.  With the purchase of the Leica M10, I hope to get back to the 50/50 mix.  I mean, there is a chance that I will never shoot digital again now that I have made my most expensive camera purchase in my photographic life.  I am more intrigued by the look of film now than ever before.  That is just the way I am--pay money for something and never use it.  Hell, this picture was taken with a Voigtlander R camera, the first new rangefinder that had come onto the market for many years back in the 'oughts.  There was the Leica and the Voigtlander which cost virtually nothing.  I bought it because I couldn't afford a Leica, and I loved that little cheap assed camera.  It had screw mount lenses like the really old Leica's and could use those lenses, but the new Voigtlander lenses were so cheap, I bought those instead.  I swear it was the perfect street camera.  It weighed nothing.  The lenses were tiny.  And at the time, people wondered at it.  Then one day after my divorce, I screwed up my courage and lost my mind and bought an M7.  I should never have done that.  I should have shot with that little Voigtlander until the day I died.  Now way has led to way. . . .

There is never any ending to the laments of lost souls.

I have to rush this morning.  An early day at the factory, big events, a public coming out for the new CEO.  I have to be on from morning until late tonight.  Such things make me nervous beyond reason. I must choose my wardrobe for the day.  It is stupid, but the night before a day like this, I am anxious and sleep poorly.

Tomorrow is the same.  Two days of work misery.

Last night, though, I got beautified.  I will look a mess as I always do the day after the beautician gets hold of me.  My hair just doesn't know how to be, doesn't know where it should go.  She chopped a lot off, so I may have a hair helmet today.  Whatever.  Sitting and looking in the mirror for hours last night was torture enough.  Disfigured by time and my own doing.  The mirror is a hideous place.

The new camera arrives today by UPS, but nobody will be there to sign for it.  This is a problem that I don't know how to solve.  How do I get my package?  I am flummoxed.

That is the state of my existence now.  Baffled, bewildered, and bemused.

1 comment:

  1. It has been horrifically hot and humid here. People are beginning to behave as if they are Southerners.



    august

    the company still comes
    the tomatoes still ripen
    get eaten
    off the vine
    off the cutting board -
    pebbles of sea salt and juice
    evidence

    or pressed
    between bread and Hellman's mayo
    for lunch
    when back alone
    from beach drop offs

    down at Dowses
    the girls are too golden - radiant
    their hair pulled back
    soaked
    in the brine
    of a sun fucked sea


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