August 23

I've been meaning to take my Yashica 635 twin-lens reflex camera out and run a test roll through it all summer. Unfortunately, life and other circumstances have prevented me from doing it.

Ever since I've returned home from my vacation, I've had a serious lack of photographic motivation. With any normal person, this wouldn't be a big deal. However, as anybody who knows me will admit, I'm anything but normal. Besides, I have this project, taking a photo every day, and I take it kind of seriously.

I thought I'd take the Yashica out yesterday and run a test roll through it, and hoped that in scouting around for test subjects, I might be inspired to get some other photos as well. No such luck. The same thing happened today, with the exception that I didn't have anything else to photograph.

So there it sits, on my desk, staring at me with its matching lenses -- a steel-and-chrome vintage symbol of my current lack of motivation.

Hopefully, this too shall pass.

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June 17

I received a new vintage camera today!

The camera is a Yashica 635, a twin-lens reflex camera probably produced some time in the 1960s. I'm incredibly pleased to find it in such wonderful shape and completely functional; once I get my photo workshop out of the way later this month, I'll probably put a roll of film through it to see how the images come out.

The camera is unique in that it's designed to take both 120 film (medium format) and, with an adapter, 35mm film. It's an interesting, if somewhat useless, feature, but the camera did come with the adapter, so I could do it if I wanted to.

What it's missing is a light meter, so I'm going to have to really work on the estimating exposure and Sunny 16 rules to get my shots. Fortunately, modern films are pretty forgiving in that respect. I have two other manual cameras with meters, but without batteries (the mercury cells aren't made anymore, for environmental reasons), so I'm getting better at guesstimating exposures.

I'm pretty excited by my new toy, and only hope I can give it the care and attention it deserves.

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