Lesson Learned Again – A One Shot Story

Those of us who travel with film kits live on the knife edge of disaster every time we head out for a day of shooting. Most of our gear is likely 20 to 40 years old, very possibly older. And being mechanical devices, which in many cases were designed for servicing every five years or so when they were originally offered for sale, they fail. Shutters seize up, film advance mechanisms jam, the list goes on and on.

This is a brief reminder on why the photo gods have long warned us to always have a backup when you take gear out for an important shoot. A few weeks ago, on a two-and-a-half-week trip to Japan, I decided to give precedence to weight instead of good planning. Sure enough, my digital camera’s electronics went wacky and started to shut down about 20 seconds after being turned on. I had enough time on the trip to visit my favorite used camera shop in Tokyo to pick up a replacement body, but lesson learned.

Or should I say, lesson learned again. This happened to me before when traveling in Tokyo – my film SLR’s shutter seized up while shooting a political protest march through Tokyo’s Ginza shopping district. Fortunately, on that trip, I’d brought a backup. Instead of a SLR body with three lenses, I’d had the presence of mind to put a Rollei B35 into my camera bag. It’s a very small fixed lens, zone focus camera. A very different shooting experience, to be sure, but it worked (and continues to work).

So, for the rest of that trip, I carried the little Rollei in my coat pocket. The photograph accompanying this tale of second chances was made with the Rollei. I was walking through Ueno Park, a subject rich area for photographers. I came across a cultural group that was performing dances in the large park. I whipped out the Rollei, which was loaded with Kodak Tri-X, guessed an exposure based on the 50-year-old selenium meter reading, and pressed the shutter.

Lesson learned. Now if only it had been lesson remembered.

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