One of the results of my Sony F717's CCD dying was I that I started shooting film again.  This led me to look for gear on Ebay that I could use to augment my camera.  Not suprisingly, there is a brisk business online of folks selling compatible equipment.  There are many lenses, flashes, and power winders available.

I bought a little power winder a couple of weeks ago.  I haven't had much of a chance to dicker with it, but today I'm heading to Mount Rushmore National Park.  I'll bring both my digital and my film camera and set down to take shots in the park.  Hopefully the winder ends up being a valuable/useful tool.

When I graduated from high school, my parents bought me this camera as graduation gift.

Since getting my first digital camera a number of years ago, this little guy has been gathering dust. Over the last few weeks I've pulled it out (mostly due to my digital camera's sensor dying on me) and started shooting film again.

I developed one roll of film and was kind of flabbergasted. I had forgotten the difference between the image feel between film and digital--one isn't better than the other, but they are definitely different.

I find pinhole cameras pretty fascinating and for some reason friday night, I got it in my head to Google it and found myself with a ton of information. Some guy has even built a pinhole camera from Lego.

This got me thinking that I didn't want to build a pinhole camera from a Quaker Oat package or a cardboard box. I wanted to make something that I could load 35 mm film into and have it advance like in a normal camera.

We went to the local thrift store and I bought a point and shoot for $2.82. When I got home, out came the Dremel. First I drilled four small holes in the corner of where the lens and shutter release were from the inside to the outside. This let me know on the outside of the camera where to cut. Next I took a cutoff wheel and cut out the lens and the shutter release from the outside.

I've started taking our old negatives to Costco--film taken pre-digital camera. Costco will digitize and put your pictures on CD for $2.99 a set of negatives. That comes to roughly $0.12 per picture. I have a few motives here.

1) Archiving pictures from our past--Ultimately even the pictures Paula and I took as kids.

2) Revisiting experiences from our past. I use iPhoto almost daily. If I want to take a gander at our vacation to Cancun or Anchorage it takes mere seconds. If I want to look at anything pre-2003, I really have to pull out physical albums. That really never happens.