Operation

After finding the one place in town who would repair 4x5 bellows (yeh for North West Camera Repair in White Bear Lake) and discovering that the cost is a bit high I went at my leaks with some black tape. As I was taping away I discovered all sorts of leaks EVERYWHERE! It's like my bellows decided to spontaneously crack open! I tried to think if I left her in the car or put some other kind of stress on her that would cause such trouble all at once, but I can't think of anything that I did that would have done that!

So at every crease in the peaks and valleys on the bellows is a leak. For now it's fine... but rather precarious in my opinion. I'm still afraid to shoot with her... I might just bite the bullet. I do love NW Camera, and they have been very good to me so I wouldn't feel so bad giving them my money as long as poor Victoria Jean is okay and the bellows last another 30 years, hopefully film will last that long...

Oh Tragic Day!

What is a photographer’s worst nightmare when out photographing with you 4x5 camera? It’s taking the lens off and looking into the bellows to see sunlight streaming in through several small holes! EEEK! I just had some film processed and had some strange flares on a couple of the photos, I discounted it for a flare from the lens, but alas, not the case. Victoria Jean (my 4x5) is older than I am; I rescued her from eBay a year and a half ago and has worked flawlessly until now. Well, off to find a new bellows… hopefully they still make them!

I photograph with her constantly, but the saving grace to this situation was that when I discovered this problem I was within one block of my work, CVA, and we have lots of cameras there, so I was able to borrow one and make the photograph anyway. I do love CVA!


The poor Victoria Jean with the leaky bellows in my studio. You'd never know she was broken by just looking at her. Sigh...

Excessive?

I recently acquired 2 new e-mail addresses in the last few weeks bringing up my total of e-mails to six. Why do I need so may? Well I have one for work, choudk@cva.edu; one for the U, houd0015@umn.edu; 2 hotmail addresses, one personal, one for business; then I recently set up, caroline@carolinehoudek.com; then someone suggested I get a gmail address because then I can have all my carolinehoudek.com mail forwarded to it and I can reply to it as if from carolinehoudek.com.

So much, so complicated!

And, if you’re wondering I do have a placeholder up at www.carolinehoudek.com. If you’d like to comment you can see the under construction site that the U is hosting. I’d love feedback before it’s published for real. And beware, all the links do not work yet, yet being the key word!