Although much seems to be going to shit, to use the vernacular, I'm putting much in place (inch by inch) that will move me forward when the dust clears, which will probably be sooner than later. I'm referring to Gerry moving into a care facility. This is definitely one of those good and bad things. I will get some of my life back but not without much sadness when she leaves. But on to more positive developments.

I posted the OM2 over at Rangefinder Forum and sold it to a photographer in the United Kingdom. There it is with the zoom lens ready to pack.

I was hoping to trade it for a 28mm lens for the Leica IIIc but ended up with cash (through the miracle of PayPal.) I decided to get my Salut-S with the jammed shutter repaired and have it given a CLA. It's going off to Arax.

And the Zorki 3M is off to Oleg to get put back together with some new shutter curtains.

All buttoned up and ready to ship. They got off in the mail today.

The Pentax Spotmatic SPII that came at the same time as the OM2 has had a roll of film run through it and all is well. It could use some seals but has no light leaks. I should have an adapter in my hands soon, from Russia, that will let me us my medium format lenses on the Spotmatic and just ordered some extension tubes for the Salut-S which I can use on the Spotmatic with the adapter and my close focus 90mm lens for the Salut-S.

The camera strap sales are steadily increasing. Right now I'm limited by the leather I can get. I've been using scrap from one of my customers who is a leather maker. I'm negotiating with him to trade some web design for some hides. If I don't get the hides from him I will get the money from somewhere and buy them. I will be expanding my neck straps with all four colors available as well as some leather neck pads I'm working on. I have a little banner over at Rangefinder Forum and it has made a difference with sales. I will be advertising at APUG soon and that should make another difference in sales. And I'm working having a little template machined for trimming leaders for Leica and Leica clone bottom loaders. Lots happening on the camera strap front. It looks to have a lot of potential.

I've also started talking to Sean who runs APUG about starting a forum for hybrid photography similar to APUG. I've got to think about this one carefully but I'm pretty excited about it. There are a lot of photographers who use both analog and digital processes in creating their photographs and they are generally scorned by both the analog and digital purists. Could be interesting.

And I'm looking foward to the time when I will have time to take pictures, build a black and white film processing darkroom, and print digitally. That all might be helped if I sell my Brett Weston. It's been at a gallery in Seattle since this summer. The gallery owner is taking it to a show in LA for a show at the end of this month. She used it in her advertising and we hope that it will finally sell. That will get me some printers and a new scanner.

So there is much to be hopeful for. Good things are continuing to happen even if they get overshadowed by the not so good things.