March 21, 2012

one third






The last images ever taken with my Yashica Mat?  Right now it seems so...but boooy do I hope that's not the case.  These are the first (and only) four photos on my most recent roll of 120 film...a gorgeous roll of Ektar...from this past Sunday.  The fifth image was going to be of vegetables on the grill Sunday night, but grabbing my camera for that shot, the strap got wrapped around one of the pieces of wood on the deck table and my grip wasn't great so when I pulled the camera, it slipped out of my hands and hit the ground (deck) hard.  I picked it up, sure it was fine, but then the shutter wouldn't fire...wouldn't fire...wouldn't fire...so I resigned myself to the fact that the rest of that beautiful roll of film was going to have to be sacrificed.
The camera is still out of commission.  My brother took it apart the other night, and there were so many pieces, and we figured out sort of how it works and what's wrong, but at the moment don't know how to fix it.  It seems like the issue is that the film advance/crank/wind mechanism is messed up and a piece inside the camera doesn't extend as far as it needs to, and that extension is what allows the shutter to be in a position to be reset for the next shot.  I see a lot of research in my future for ways to fix this without breaking the bank (if possible) because after seeing these photos, it breaks my heart to think the camera responsible for them will never shoot again...plus, I was planning on taking it to beautiful, wonderful, green Ireland (though its broken-ness certainly lightens the load I'll have to carry...but let's not think of it that way).

2 comments:

  1. Ack, i'm so sorry for your loss :( That yashica-mat made some fantastic images with your eye.
    And the 4 shots there are lovely, such shame.
    Hopefully you mayyyy be able to find a donor camera or something to find the part responsible for it's failure, and bring it back to life? I know this sounds dumb but sometimes I think if a camera has that right look you're going after, it's worth trying to fix it, as another one may not give you that quality....

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  2. These are so beautiful... I can't wait till your camera gets fixed.

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