mbreally: Happy Doom Year!

We're already 26 days into 2012 and it has been busier than I can imagine. My
job has me stressed out more than ever, and personally, there is so much on
deck for this year its crazy.

Everyone needs a New Years resolution. I think it is a good thing. At least to try.
Mine, is to be more creative. Even if I have to force it. And one of my ideas to
achieve this is to do something I haven't done in over a decade. Something that
for whatever reason I feel like I need to do. Shoot film. Not digital film, real film.
And my goal was not to do this with a sophisticated modern film camera, but with
an old manual type.

Over the years, we've acquired a fairly decent bag of Nikon gear, so I figured, why
dig out my old Canon when I have a bag full of great Nikkor lenses to shoot with.
So I got online and watched eBay for a couple days. In the process, boredom,
curiosity, and my seemingly insatiable desire to piss small amounts of money
away got the best of me. I ended up buying a bunch of old 35mm cameras, all
of which costed less than $20, some very, very cheap, just for the hell of it.

So I will be shooting with them over the next few months and posting the results.
But to start, I will post some pics I took with the only camera that I spent over
$100 on, an old Nikon FE2. Here she is.

Putting an old manual camera in your hands today, is pretty damn cool as far as I am concerned.
Especially considering that this camera probably cost a helluva lot more originally than what I paid
for it today with two nice lenes on feeBay. It was pretty dusty and needed a little TLC, but it was
easy to get into the nice shape you see above.

Then I went to Chicago/Wisconsin for work, and I brought it with to try out.

Tom, at the PPV compound.

Working on the race truck.

My sis and niece.

Abandoned building off 94 in Wisconsin.

Tom again, within the confines of the defunct JAAP.

Tommy and Alana.

So there you have it, a few scans of the best shots of a single roll of 24 exposures. There is still something about B&W film that appeals to me, that you simply cannot achieve with digital in the same pure way. I will do more.

Now, onto the digital pics I took. This is how much of a pig I am, and how much I miss Chicago food. On the left is what is left of a huge Chicago style Polish, and on the right was the utterly unnecessary pizza I ordered in addition to that.

The same abandoned building from above. Not as flattering in color.

A church.

PPV.

A very long walk indeed, into the bowels of the former JAAP (Joliet Army Ammunition Plant). We used to
hike here quite regularly, so going back for me was a treat. I think we figured out we walked 10 miles that
day.

Das bunker. These ammunition bunkers are made of solid, re-enforced concrete, and they are
covered with grass to disguise them from aerial view. These are WWII era.

Mobile Oil.

A view of just a few of the bunkers.

To this day we really don't know what these structures are. They are made of railroad ties, and are
very tall and skinny. They have something to do with TnT production most likely, but we could only
imagine.